Next week in this space I’ll be disclosing my annual pre-event odds for the upcoming Monster Jam NGK Spark Plugs World Finals. This week, in preparation for finalizing the odds for this year’s championships, let’s look closely at statistics from the current Monster Jam season, one of the major criteria that I use when setting my lines for the biggest night in the sport.

In this analysis I’m going to examine the records from only the events that are a part of the Speed TV series this season. I of course am well aware that there are many other great events throughout the season and tremendous performances in other venues all over North America throughout the first quarter of the year that aren’t a part of the Speed series, and they definitely must be taken into account when developing the lines on each driver for the finals. But I look more closely at the Speed TV events because it is those competitions that most resemble what the teams will encounter in Las Vegas. The televised events are all in sold out domes and stadiums, with big, fast race courses and huge freestyle obstacles. Also you have to consider the caliber of competition, and the events that make the television series have large fields of the top superstars in Monster Jam battling each week.

Looking at the results so far in 2008 Tom Meents takes the racing momentum into Sam Boyd Stadium on March 29th, and Meents far and away was the winningest driver during the televised events this year. Tom drove Maximum Destruction to 17 wins when you look at the results round by round, and after a slow start in race competition this season Meents finished the winter on fire, winning three of the final four event championship round races to take those racing trophies back home to Paxton, IL. While Meents competed in more televised events than any other driver the seven-time World Champion took full advantage of those opportunities to top this winter’s total wins chart:

MOST ROUND RACING WINS IN 2008 SPEED TELEVISED EVENTS
Tom Meents, Maximum Destruction – 17
Jimmy Creten, Bounty Hunter – 11
Linsey Weenk, Blue Thunder – 9
Nathan Weenk, El Toro Loco – 8
Randy Brown, Grave Digger – 7
Kreg Christensen, Iron Outlaw - 6
John Seasock, Batman – 6
Mike Wine, Monster Mutt – 5
Meents has pretty much beaten all comers, taking wins against 14 different drivers this season. The notable name not on the list of Meents’ victims in TV events this year is Jimmy Creten, who drove Bounty Hunter to the win over Maximum Destruction on the two occasions that those mega stars went head to head in racing at Speed Monster Jam events this season.
Obviously the biggest name missing from the list of winningest 2008 drivers is Dennis Anderson, which will have to be taken in to consideration when considering this year’s stats in setting the odds. Anderson’s 26th anniversary season has seen the icon still racing mostly stadium and domed events, but many were non-televised Monster Jams to let Dennis appear in front of many huge crowds of Grave Digger fans who had not had the opportunity to see him live in recent years. Thus Anderson’s lack of televised results won’t be counting against him when I determine my odds, I can guarantee that.
Now getting back to the stat sheet let’s move from total round racing wins to the winning percentage for the drivers in those race brackets. Here again you can see that, despite more parity in the sport than ever before, the cream is still finding a way of rising to the top:

HIGHEST ROUND RACING WINNING PERCENTAGE IN 2008 SPEED TELEVISED EVENTS
Charlie Pauken, Grave Digger – 1.000
Kreg Christensen, Iron Outlaw - .857
Linsey Weenk, Blue Thunder - .818
Jimmy Creten, Bounty Hunter - .786
Tom Meents, Maximum Destruction - .772
Lee O’Donnell, Blue Thunder - .750
Nathan Weenk, El Toro Loco - .727
Courtney Jolly, Pastrana 199 - .667
Dan Rodoni, Patriot - .667
Pablo Huffaker, Grave Digger - .600
Marc McDonald, Safe Auto Minimizer - .600
John Seasock, Batman - .600
Randy Brown, Grave Digger - .583
Dennis Anderson, Grave Digger - . 571
Steve Sims, Stone Crusher - .571
Mike Wine, Monster Mutt - .555
George Balhan, Escalade - .500
Frank Krmel, Donkey Kong - .500
Mike Vaters, Black Stallion - .500

While several of those percentages come from only one or two events it’s still worth looking at them in total, no matter how many or how few events each driver raced in, to get a feel for which drivers were able to rise to the challenge on the sport’s highest profile stages throughout the winter season. The parity I mentioned earlier was even more strongly reflected when you look at the overall event racing wins, where Meents was again on top with three event victories, and for momentum purposes it is worth noting that all three of those wins have come in February and March. The only other drivers to win more than one televised event championship race this season are the Weenk brothers who each won twice. Christensen, Creten, O’Donnell, and Pauken also stepped onto the winner’s stage to grab event racing trophies at televised events this season. Those drivers success already this season will definitely figure into how their odds are set for the Monster Jam NGK Spark Plugs World Finals 9.

Examining freestyle results shows that while we have had some of the closest scoring ever, the victory stage has been dominated by Team Grave Digger, with Meents and Maximum Destruction right up there to challenge his biggest rivals. In the 11 televised freestyle events contested so far this season Team Grave Digger has won 7 (Anderson has 3 of those wins) and Meents has won four (one of those results was a tie in Houston between Tom and Dennis). The only driver who has been able to break through the Grave Digger-Maximum Destruction stranglehold on those freestyle winner’s trophies was Jim Koehler. The2003 World Freestyle Champion powered his Avenger to the win in this year’s freestyle competition close to his Michigan home at Detroit’s Ford Field. What makes this a little tricky when figuring the odds is that, as in previous years, some Team Grave Digger drivers will compete in other machines for the finals and they all figure to be top contenders.
The numbers from the season show that while Max-D and Digger continue to be at or near the top of the competition most weeks, they are getting more challenges from a wider variety of drivers than ever before, which will make setting the odds for the 2008 Monster Jam NGK Spark Plus World Finals tougher and trickier than ever. But I’m looking forward to putting them together and then seeing if the chalk talks, and the favorites come through, or if the parity reigns and it becomes a year for the long shots. Those answers will come March 29th at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas.
Next week, though, we’ll set the table for the greatest night in Monster Jam with the “Morning Line Odds” for all 24 trucks and drivers who will be competing in the 9th edition of the Monster Jam NGK Spark Plugs World Finals in both racing and freestyle.