Tonight’s show started off with a bang when the crowd let us know they were ready for some USHRA® monsters! With one of the best line-ups put together on the Thunder Nationals® circuit we were set for the Wheelie Contest. The judges let the drivers know right off the bat that weren’t going to give anything away when they awarded Kevin Lewis and Hot Wheels a 12. Two trucks took charge from the start: Prowler driven by Larry Jaruzez scored 23 and the fan favorite Maximum Destruction driven by Phil Foster scored a 24 to win the contest.

Rolling right along we moved right into always a crowd pleaser the Doughnut contest. Prowler would be the early leader with 21 but it wouldn’t come without a price as he would be out for the night with mechanical problems. The lead would only last two trucks when the hometown hero, John Seasock in a brand new truck T-Maxx, spun to a crowd pleasing 24 points. Once again the fan favorite Maximum Destruction would not let the fans down and won his second contest in a row with 27 point cyclone.

With Prowler out it was left up to the other 3 trucks to try and overtake Max D’s points lead. Hot Wheels could only squeeze 17 points out of this almost capacity crowd. Alan Pezo and the Predator would set the bar a little higher when he received 21 points from our judges. T-Maxx would continue to please his hometown crowd and be rewarded with 23 points. But once again Max D could not be stopped as he made it 3 in a row with 25 points. Bad for Phil Foster and Maximum Destruction – must have been pushing a little hard. He broke a loop on his drive line and would have to watch the rest of the night.

With only 3 trucks left to race T-Maxx was awarded the by way of finishing second in the freestyle. So it was left up between Hot Wheels and Predator on who would meet T-Maxx in the 1-800-SAFE-AUTO racing finals. Predator would be the one to advance as he just edged out Hot Wheels 1-800-SAFE-AUTO finals T-Maxx would just nose out Predator in a photo finish. Congratulations to John Seasock and the T-Maxx crew for their win here tonight.

Saturday: 2/05/05

Saturday night is now in the books. Speaking of books tonight was one for the record books. Let me just say WHAT A SHOW!

It all began with a Wheelie contest for the ages. Kevin Lewis nearly doubled his 12 point score from last night when he pleased our judges to a 21-point wheelie. With Prowler out with a blown motor from last night that left the door open for the others. Predator would be next and Alan stood the truck straight up and down for a total of 26 points and the lead. John Seasock and T-Maxx would have a tough time in the wheelie contest and come up just one point short with 25. I look for great things to come from Seasock and the new truck T-Maxx. Phil Foster and Maximum destruction would start his night of domination with his first victory and 27 points.

We were now set for the doughnut contest and Hot Wheels would continue to improve on his scores from last night when he added 4 points to his previous and totaled 23. Alan Pezo would come up just 1 point short with 22. T-Maxx would give it the old home state try but could only pull 18 points from our judges. T-Maxx had to be shut off by the Tech Officials when the truck collided with Maximum Destruction. That only upset Max D as he would take his second victory in a row with 26 points.

Freestyle would look to be Maximum Destructions next hurdle for his clean sweep tonight. But up first would be Hot Wheels, and Kevin would continue to improve his previous scores as he tallied 22 points. Predator would match his 21 points from last night. T Maxx would do the same as he took the lead with another 23. But Maximum Destruction would now make it 3 in a row with another 25.

The matches were set for the side by side racing. Maximum Destruction would meet Predator and T Maxx would meet Hot Wheels. So who would advance to the 1-800-SAFE-AUTO finals? Advancing to the 1-800-SAFE-AUTO Finals would be Maximum Destruction and T Maxx. So we had to have the consolation and Predator would be victorious over Hot Wheels. 1-800-SAFE-AUTO Finals were set and T-Maxx made a match of it but Maximum Destruction would take his 4th title home from Saturday night and make it a clean sweep.

Thanks to the great staff here at the Bryce Jordan Center and all the great fans here in State College, PA!

Until next time,
Greg Simas USHRA/Announcer