Saturday 1:00 p.m. - Chad Fortune earned the biggest racing victory of his Monster Jam career when he drove Superman to victory in the Championship Race, then Tom Meents and his crew repaired a broken drive line that knocked Maximum Destruction out of the race bracket in time for the seven-time World Champion to win a wild freestyle event Saturday afternoon in front of a roaring capcity crowd at the Gelredome in Arnhem, Holland.
Meents opened Monster Jam's return to the Netherlands for the fourth consecutive year by setting the fastest qualifying time and won his first two rounds of racing but was unable to make it to the starting line for the semifinals due to the truck damage. Fortune continued to roll through his half of the bracket, powereing Superman to wins over Jetix, El Toro Loco, and Monster Mutt on the big head-to-hear race course. Damon Bradshaw would use the fast loser rule to get back into the semifinals and eliminated Swedish truck Thor to make it into the Championship Race. In the finals it was Fortune outrunning the former Supercross star to give Fortune the high profile domed stadium racing triumph.
Freestyle had the fans going crazy all afternoon with Bobby Parr in War Wizard and Dan Evans in Jetix bringing the crowd to it's feet with wild landings, Parr breaking a wheel off War Wizard and Evans rolling Jetiv over, but it was Fortune who took the early lead with a powerful run that also ended with the truck on its roof. Fortune was bumped from the top spot by Frank Kreml who nailed the days biggest air in Donkey Kong. Charlie Pauken then attacked the massive obstacles on the Gelredome floor in typcial all-out Grave Digger style to take the lead, but then Meents had just a little more as the truck was able to get back on the floor, Tom filling the regulation and bonus time with true Maximum Destruction to take the freestyle victory in the first of three stadium events this weekend in Arnhem.
RACING RESULTS
Fast qualifier - Maximum Destruction
1st round - Maximum Destruction def Swamp Thing; Thor def Donkey King; Grave Digger def Taz; Monster Mutt def War Wizard; Superman def Jetix; El Toro Loco def Jurassic Attack
2nd round - Maximum Destruction def Thor; Monster Mutt def Grave Digger; Superman def El Toro Loco (El Toro Loco advanced to semifinals as fast loser - Thor advanced to semifinals due to Maximum Destruction's broken drive line)
Semifinals - El Toro Loco def Thor; Superman def Monster Mutt
CHAMPIONSHIP RACE - SUPERMAN DEFEATED EL TORO LOCO
FREESTYLE RESULTS
MAXIMUM DESTRUCTION 40
Grave Digger 39
Donkey Kong 37
Superman 36
El Toro Loco 36
Jurassic Attack 35
Jetix 31
Monster Mutt 30
Thor 28
War Wizard 26
Swamp Thing 21
Taz 13
