Weekend Race Recap
Friday 7:00 p.m. - Monster Jam’s annual late summer return to the BankAtlantic
Center in Sunrise, FL, was dominated by Randy Brown in Grave Digger, with only
George Balhan’s win diving An Escalade in the donut competition keeping Brown
from a sweep of all four contests in the Thunder Nationals style event Friday
night.
Brown opened the evening in front of the boisterous south
Florida crowd by scoring a narrow one point victory for Grave Digger over
Balhan’s Escalade in the Sky Wheelie Contest that had the fans really buzzing
when Madusa flipped her Ford onto the crushed car lane during her run. Then on
to racing on the straight line course, where Brown had Grave Digger in a
groove, combining great reaction times with Grace Digger XIX’s huge horsepower
to eliminate both Madusa and Lionel Easler in Instigator on his way into the
Championship Race. His opponent in the
finale was his teammate and former Crew Chief Chris Baker, who had powered El
Toro Loco through his half of the bracket by knocking out Scott Hartsock in
Gunslinger and then Escalade. The final was a tight one with Grave Digger
edging El Toro by less than the length of its wheel.
Next up was the Donut Contest, a Balhan specialty, and
Escalade grabbed the win with Balhan’s high speed revolutions including his
trademark, pulling off the steering wheel and shoving it through his roof hatch
during the donuts.
Having lost for the first time on the night Brown was back
in form during the Freestyle Competition, a popular high energy Digger performance
that was scored by the judges two points better than Escalade to give Grave
Digger three victories on this first of a three event weekend in Sunrise.
RACING RESULTS
1st Round – El Toro Loco def Gunslinger;
Instigator def Escalade; Grave Digger def Madusa (Escalade advanced to
semifinals as fastest loser of the 1st round)
Semifinals – El Toro Loco def Escalade; Grave Digger def
Instigator
CHAMPIONSHIP RACE – GRAVE DIGGER DEFEATED EL TORO LOCO
FREESTYLE RESULTS
GRAVE DIGGER 28
Escalade 26
Gunslinger 23
Instigator 21
El Toro Loco 19
Madusa 15
DONUT CONTEST RESULTS
ESCALADE 28
Instigator 26
Grave Digger 24
Madusa 21
El Toro Loco 20
Gunslinger 13
WHEELIE CONTEST RESULTS
GRAVE DIGGER 28
Escalade 27
Madusa 24
Gunslinger 19
El Toro Loco 18
Instigator 16
Saturday 2:00 p.m. -
In an afternoon marked by extremely close finishes and results three different drivers took home a victory during the Monster Jam action in the BankAtlantic Center
Floridian Scott Hartsock opened the matinee with his first victory of the weekend as Gunslinger won the Sky Wheelie contest, Next up in racing, the Championship Race between George Balhan in Escalade and Madusa provided the closest finish of the weekend. In a virtual photo finish Escalade eeked out the win by a matter of inches to claim the race triumph.
Having been denied in the first two battles, Randy Brown came back and dominated hte second half of the event. In the Donut Contest Balhan turned in another phenomenal set of donuts with the steering wheel thrust through his roof hatch, but this time Brown was up to the challenge, spinning Grave Digger through a high speed, 17 revolution donut set to grab the win. On to freestyle where Digger was now rolling and Brown needed every big move to score a one point win over Escalade.
RACING RESULTS
1st Round – Gunslinger def El Toro Loco;
Escalade def Instigator; Grave Digger def Madusa (Madusa advanced to
semifinals as fastest loser of the 1st round)
Semifinals – Madusa def Gunslinger; Escalade def Grave Digger
CHAMPIONSHIP RACE – ESCALADE DEFEATED MADUSA
FREESTYLE RESULTS
GRAVE DIGGER 21
Escalade 20
El Toro Loco 16
Madusa 15
Gunslinger 14
Instigator 9
DONUT CONTEST RESULTS
GRAVE DIGGER 28
Escalade 25
Instigator 22
Gunslinger 17
Madusa 16
El Toro Loco 15
WHEELIE CONTEST RESULTS
GUNSLINGER 23
Grave Digger 21
Escalade 18
Madusa 17
El Toro Loco 17
Instigator 13
