Many factors contributed to 2007 being the most successful year ever for Monster Jam in Europe, many of them behind the scenes decisions regarding cities and schedules as well as the phenomenal execution of marketing plans to bring the sport to as many European fans as possible. The tremendous, fast growing fan base of these big machines on that continent turned out in record numbers in city after city to witness the greatest Monster Jam events ever held across the Atlantic Ocean in 2007, and those performances from the sport’s superstars will do nothing but continue to build the popularity of Monster Jam worldwide heading into the future, a future that looks extremely bright.

One of the major adjustments from a scheduling standpoint in 2007 was the refining of the schedule by Live Nation Motorsports and their team in Europe to switch some venues to create more large stadium events. While several popular arena based Monster Jams stayed on the circuit, playing again to full houses in Antwerp, Belgium; Stockholm, Sweden; and Helsinki, Finland, this year’s tour saw some of the other smaller venues that had been on the tour in previous years dropped, while larger stadiums were added to the schedule. The additions of Ullevi Stadium in Gothenburg, Sweden, and Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, turned out to be grand slam winners, both venues establishing new Euro attendance records, and the behind the scenes team that creates the Monster Jam World Tour schedule is very busy right now looking to add more of those types of huge facilities to the plan for 2008 and beyond, one fact that is sure to see this unbelievable growth overseas continue for the sport.

The amazing on-track performances by all of the Monster Jam superstars who have competed in Europe in the past has certainly been another key to increasing the sport’s Euro popularity each year and 2007 brought some of the greatest races and most spectacular freestyles ever to the European continent.

Let’s take a look at the stat sheet to congratulate the competitors who proved to be the cream of the crop in European action this season:

Starting with racing, even though it is an unofficial title, it’s clear that Dan Evans has to be considered the 2007 European racing champ. Dan walked on stage after putting the Jetix sponsored truck into the winner’s circle 6 times, and he won racing events both on huge stadium courses as well as on the smaller arena floors:

2007 EUROPEAN RACING EVENT WINS
Dan Evans 6
John Seasock 3
Chad Tingler 3
Neil Elliott 2
Adam Anderson 1
George Balhan 1
Frank Krmel 1

Expanding our look at the results to consider not just championship round racing wins, but total won-loss records from every round of racing, it’s Tingler and Evans who set the pace:

2007 EUROPEAN ROUND RACING WINS
Chad Tingler 26
Dan Evans 23
John Seasock 17
Adam Anderson 14
George Balhan 10
Neil Elliott 10
Anders Flogard 8
Frank Krmel 8
Tom Meents 6
Alex Blackwell 5
Candice Jolly 5

The above list includes all the drivers who won at least one round of racing in Europe this year. Some drivers raced the entire ’07 tour, others just selected events, so one more racing stat worth looking at is the round-by-round winning percentage, and here it is a tip of the hat that goes to Adam Anderson who drove Taz to the highest winning percentage in Europe this year, winning almost three-quarters of the one-on-one match-ups he battled in, 2007 being a great follow-up to his success on the 2006 European tour that he at times dominated:

2007 EUROPEAN ROUND RACING WIN PERCENTAGE LEADERS
Adam Anderson .736
Frank Krmel .667
Dan Evans .638
Neil Elliott .625
Chad Tingler .605
George Balhan .555
Alex Blackwell .555

It’s a testimony to the level of competitor that battled in Europe this season and proof of just how tough the competition was week to week that the drivers listed above are the only ones with a winning record in Europe this year, the only drivers to win more than 50% of the round races that they competed in.

Turn the stat sheet to freestyle and one word comes to mind: Domination. Grave Digger owned the European freestyle circuit in ’07, with Chad Tingler winning 9 of the 17 freestyle competitions outright, and tying for two other victories. So since we’re calling Dan Evans the unofficial European Racing Champion, Chad Tingler is the 2007 unofficial European Freestyle Champion:

2007 EUROPEAN FREESTYLE WINS
Chad Tingler 11
Neil Elliott 3
Tom Meents 3
Dan Evans 1
Don Frankish 1

With three cities hosting arena events, the fans in those buildings delighted in even more fantastic competitions, with sky wheelie contests and donuts contests on tap in the smaller venues. The wheelie contests were extremely competitive with Grave Digger and Maximum Destruction leading the way, and to no ones surprise Team Maximum Destruction owned the donut contests. Max-D cyclones won every donut battle, although Tingler was able to spin Grave Digger into a tie with Maximum Destruction for two of the donut victories:

2007 EUROPEAN SKY WHEELIE CONTEST WINS
Chad Tingler 6
Neil Elliott 5
John Seasock 1
Tom Meents 1

2007 EUROPEAN DONUT CONTEST WINS
Neil Elliott 4
Tom Meents 3
Chad Tingler 2

While I add my congratulations to the drivers who topped the 2007 Euro stat sheet let me add one more note about what these results indicate. In its short history there have been two obvious impacts of Monster Jam Europe results on the following busy winter season in North America and the march to the Monster Jam World Finals. First, we’ve seen drivers who’ve won in Europe carry the momentum over into big first quarters of the next year on this side of the ocean, which would seem to forecast big things in 2008 when Dan Evans gets into his brand new Destroyer, as well as for Tingler in his Grave Digger, Adam Anderson in Taz, Balhan’s Escalade, and the veteran Krmel, not to mention the Max-D team which carries a ton of momentum into the New Year. And don’t forget Seasock, who kept Batman busy with some success as well this fall and should hit 2008 at full momentum as he tries to defend his World Racing Championship.