To begin with, I want to publicly add my congratulations to our new World Champions, Madusa and Jimmy Creten. The ascension of this pair to the top of the sport has to reinforce to every competitor in the USHRA that the championship stage at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas is an attainable goal as long as you work hard, focus on that prize and take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way.

Madusa won the Racing World Championship because on that night, on that course, she was the best. Period. Round by round her times were consistently among the fastest or actually the best. She handled the wet conditions brilliantly, and did not make a single mistake in racing all night. Maybe the most significant part of her run to the title was that no one gave her anything. She didn't win because of other's mistakes - she won because she beat every competitor she lined up against. The fact that she had to defeat defending champ Dennis Anderson in Grave Digger in the championship race put the final exclamation point on her historic night, and Anderson didn't make any mistakes in his run; no penalties, he didn't miss the turn, etc. It was a great race, a fitting championship tilt, and Madusa got the job done to earn the first ever World Championship in racing for a female. Beating Anderson to take the trophy just reinforces what an amazing accomplishment this is for Madusa.

Similarly, Jimmy Creten showed that perseverance pays off. Coming into Las Vegas it was easy to make the case that Creten was the most talented driver in the sport that had never won a World Championship. He had the reputation that Phil Mickleson used to have in golf. A series of runner-up finishes at the major championships, but until the 2004 Masters, never the top prize. No other monster truck driver had been as close as Jimmy Creten had been to the gold so many times without winning a title. This year the Bounty Hunter team came to Las Vegas as strong as ever, shrugging off a slow start to the season with great runs late this winter. Then he set the fastest qualifying time at Sam Boyd Stadium to enter the racing bracket at the World Finals as the number one seed. Creten appeared to be the favorite to win racing, but again he made one mistake, and in Las Vegas against this field, on this course, you cannot afford even one mistake. He knocked over a turning pole in the semifinals and his Bounty Hunter lost to Grave Digger due to the five-second penalty that was imposed.

As disappointed as Creten had to be that the racing title would again elude him, and with that dubious moniker of being the best never to win a championship still attached, he stayed focused on the fact that there was another title on the line. Creten had been only one point short of winning a piece of the freestyle championship in 2004, and this year he put on a championship performance that found that one extra point from the judges. No one could beat his score, and with the new tie-breaking system in place Bounty Hunter edged Tony Farrell's Blue Thunder for the victory.

While handing out the congrats, a tip of the hat goes to Ford as well. In every form of racing championships are huge to the manufacturers, and this is the first time ever that Ford has swept both the racing and freestyle championships at the Monster Jam World Finals. Add to that the performance of Farrell, who drove the truck sponsored by Ford into a tie for the best freestyle score before losing the tie-breaker and you can see that in the Monster Jam sport, 2005 is the greatest year yet for the big blue oval camp.

Before Las Vegas I again this year handicapped the field, assigning odds in both racing and freestyle to each competitor. Now I love it that people read my column here, but man, did I take some heat from some of the drivers who didn't think I gave them enough "love" in the odds column. At the top of that list was David Smith, whose King Krunch truck I listed as a 40 to 1 long shot in racing. Never mind that I had his odds much better in freestyle, Smith let me know at every opportunity that he took the 40 to 1 designation personally. So here I have to eat a large helping of humble pie, because no one made my odds look worse than Smith. King Krunch was a player all night, and he made it all the way to the semifinals in racing at the World Championships. He followed that up with another outstanding Vegas freestyle. Ken Stout, joining me on the Speed Channel coverage of the World Finals that you will be able to see soon, loved the friction between the Monster Truck superstar (Smith) and the commentator/writer (me), continuously stirring things up by referring to Smith as "old 40 to 1" throughout the broadcast. David made sure to find me after the event to check my odds now. I told him, jokingly of course, that he was all the way down to 35 to 1 for next year. Seriously, I want to salute Smith and King Krunch for a marvelous night in Vegas, and say "thanks" for making a mess out of my odds.

Another driver who let me know what I could do with my odds column was Farrell, which surprised me since the only thing I questioned about Farrell was consistency, and I had him rated in the upper half of the field in both racing and freestyle. Farrell's reaction showed me just how truly competitive he is. He came to Vegas to be the best, to leave as the champ, and he didn't agree with my assessment that he wasn't the favorite. That's Tony's mentality. He's very tough mentally and his Built Ford Tough Blue Thunder is tough physically, which is a great combination. While disappointed in his race night, Farrell put on a freestyle show that, in previous years, would have won a share of the championship. Only the new tiebreaker system kept Farrell from the championship this year.

If you've read this column regularly you know I use tradition and history quite a bit when I write pieces like my annual Las Vegas odds column. So looking ahead to '06 in freestyle, Farrell above all others, has history on his side. Look at the trends. In 2002 Jim Koehler was brilliant but the judges scored his Avenger surprisingly low and he didn't finish near the top. One year later he returned, was even better than the year before and won the championship. That year Lupe Soza burst onto the scene in El Toro Loco with a run that rivaled Koehler's title performance. One year, later Soza walked onto the stage as one of the 2004 co-World Champions. The three 2004 titleholders had scored 31 points from the judges. Who was one point short, with a score of 30? Well, Anderson had a 30 in Grave Digger, but so did Creten. Bounty Hunter was one point short of the 2004 title, and in 2005 he returns to win his first world title. Looking at that pattern of coming oh so close one year, and winning freestyle the next, Farrell is the driver that is poised to take that next step in 2006.

Final kudos go to the crew, and the management team, putting the Speed Channel broadcast of the World Finals together. This will be the most awesome coverage of a Monster Jam event ever broadcast. Viewers are going to be amazed by the coverage, especially the expansion of the in-truck cameras that provide amazing footage, and the helicopter camera that gives us looks and angles that we've never had available before. Don't miss the special World Finals broadcasts in April on Speed Channel.