Blue Thunder is one of the ten trucks already named to the field for the upcoming Monster Jam NGK Spark Plugs World Finals 9, March 29th at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas. So not surprisingly the Built Ford Tough machine is in the sport’s biggest event, but the question still left unanswered is, who is going to be driving Blue Thunder at WF9?
The addition this past summer of Linsey Weenk to the Blue Thunder team gave the Ford camp two of the best in the business, with Tony Farrell still behind the wheel of his Blue Thunder ride as well. These drivers are two of the top Monster Jam drivers and both certainly deserve a shot at the Monster Jam World Finals.

No one has told me what the plan is, but I was thinking about this and came up with another question: why not have them both drive Blue Thunder at WF9? Why not have Linsey Weenk race Blue Thunder in the 24-truck bracket to determine this year’s World Racing Champion, and then have Tony Farrell perform in Blue Thunder in quest of the World Freestyle Championship? Using both of these top level talents rather than picking one or the other to do it all, I think, would give the Blue Thunder team its best chance ever of winning its first world title.

Here’s part of my reasoning in making that suggestion: Linsey Weenk is arguably the hottest racer in Monster Jam today. He did it again last weekend, winning another stadium race bracket against an all-star line-up in Miami’s Dolphin Stadium to go with his Speed televised wins earlier this season in Minneapolis and Detroit. Now I’m not selling him short regarding his freestyles. He’s one of the most improved freestylers in the game, but in racing, Linsey is among the elite. Now let’s look at Tony Farrell. First, I’d never under estimate Tony in any race bracket. Crew Chief Bill Easterly Jr. always has that truck bad-fast for racing, and we’ve seen Farrell take the big trophy in racing over the years at many of the sport’s highest profile racing events. But Tony has told me flat out that he is all about turning the fans on in freestyle these days, and you need to look no further for evidence than last Saturday in Houston where he used the new bonus periods just added to freestyle competitions to give the Reliant Stadium crowd the longest, and maybe the most popular run of the night in the eyes of the Houston fans. Remember that Farrell had Blue Thunder as close to a championship in freestyle, without winning it, than anyone in the history of the World Finals when he tied Jimmy Creten and Bounty Hunter on the judges’ scorecards at the 2005 championships, only to lose the world title in a tie-breaker.

While acknowledging that Linsey is a threat to win freestyle and Tony always has a shot to take racing, it just seems that on this one night, on the sports grandest stage, that the Blue Thunder team has its best shot at taking home one, or even both of the World Championship trophies with Linsey Weenk solely concentrating on winning racing, and Tony Farrell totally devoted to turning in his greatest freestyle performance ever.

The bottom line, in my opinion, is that both Blue Thunder drivers have earned the opportunity to compete in Monster Jam’s biggest event and to go for championship crowns this year, and maybe more importantly, the Monster Jam fans deserve to see both of these superstars in action at WF9. Now I know that we have seen driver changes for the finals in past seasons, especially with some of the awesome Team Grave Digger drivers, and just last year it was a Team Digger shoe, Pablo Huffaker, who won the World Freestyle Championship in Captain’s Curse. But I’m sorry, it just would not be right to see Tony Farrell in Las Vegas driving anything other than Blue Thunder. And I can’t believe that Linsey Weenk was added to the Blue Thunder roster just to go to Vegas and hop in another ride. I mean, it was only a few weeks ago that Ford exec Todd Eckert and his marketing team pulled Linsey out of the Blue Thunder driver’s seat on a big weekend to have him join the likes of Toby Keith in Detroit for the unveiling of the new 2009 Ford F-150. So I’m thinking that using both of these talents, and using them where they are at their best, makes Blue Thunder the best it can be for the finals.

While the strategy of a team using different drivers in racing and freestyle at any event is rare, it’s not unprecedented. Just last year rookie Bobby Parr drove his Team Suzuki truck in the World Finals racing competition, then veteran Frank Krmel was in the seat for freestyle.

Again, I have no idea what the plan is for the Blue Thunder team at the Monster Jam NGK Spark Plugs World Finals, I just know that Farrell and Weenk both belong there.
Some additional news and notes: since I have noted several times over the last few weeks in this space that Tom Meents has been struggling in racing, I need to make note that those struggles seem to be over with. Meents has driven his Maximum Destruction to back-to-back major racing victories, taking the win first in Indianapolis and then last weekend in Houston, and he looked as dominating as ever in his run to the triumph last Saturday in Reliant Stadium…..let’s give some credit to the Monster Jam officials who have been making changes and tweaks all this season to take these great Monster Jam events and make them even better, even more competitive, and to make them the fairest competitions that they can be. The latest new twist is adding extra points for bonus freestyle time, which not only helps in reducing potential tie scores, but also rewards the Monster Jam fans with even more awesome freestyle action. I would imagine there will be some adjustments to the plan, but the concept of rewarding drivers who can give the fans even more after the ninety seconds of regulation time is fantastic. With the new plan debuting last week a driver could earn one bonus point for going an extra thirty seconds, and a second extra point by extending the bonus run to :60 seconds. It was wonderfully received by the Houston fans and a few drivers were able to add to their scores by giving the fans bonus freestyle action. However Farrell’s performance may have the officials considering some more adjustments to the new system. Farrell’s first ninety seconds in Blue Thunder was solid, but not spectacular, and the scores of the judges, turned in after regulation time, reflected that. Then in the two bonus periods Farrell was phenomenal and earned a standing ovation from the crowd. When the scores were announced for Blue Thunder the fans booed the judges lustily, but they were reacting to Farrell’s extra time action which the judges were not scoring. You get a flat one point for the first :30 of bonus, and another flat one point for the second bonus period. So Tony did not get any more bonus points than the other drivers who filled the extra time even though his performance was far and away the best of any in the extra periods. If there is a way to reward drivers who turn in great bonus runs with an extra point or two over just the one point that anyone gets for filling the bonus time I think you may see the Monster Jam officials try it. Either way, I salute the officials for forward thinking and dedicating themselves to coming up with any way possible, like the exciting new race courses that have been designed this year, to make the sport more exciting and more competitive. The officials of the sport are clearly joining the superstars behind the wheel who continue to raise the competitive bar in both racing and freestyle on a weekly basis…..this week’s salute to drivers who force the competition to “go big or go home” in freestyle goes to a pair of performers who were on their games in Houston, Ryan Huffaker and Carl Van Horn. Pablo’s son dominated the early scoring in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, and Van Horn’s blistering run in T-Maxx came up just one point short of Pablo’s winning Grave Digger total.