MONSTERJAMONLINE

Weekend Race Recap

Saturday - 7:30PM

By Scott Douglass
Adam Anderson jumped into his father’s Grave Digger XX and opened the 25th anniversary season of Monster Jam’s most popular truck by winning the freestyle after Tom Meents drove Maximum Destruction to the racing victory on new style race course Saturday night at a sold out Reliant Stadium in Houston. With a stellar 16 truck field and the Speed cameras on hand Monster Jam officials created a new type of race course that treated the fans to great races throughout the bracket. The new “Houston Style” course started a pair of trucks at the Advance Auto Parts starting line on separate table tops, then took the monsters into side by side lanes before the trucks turned away from each other, flat tracked the length of Reliant Stadium before turning back toward each other and then flying over the cars to the Ford Finish Line. The exciting course saw the young Anderson, subbing in the famous machine while his father recovers from a shoulder injury, blister the new course with a fastest qualifying time of 16.40 seconds, one tenth of a second quicker than Meents. Dennis Anderson is expected back behind the wheel of his Grave Digger soon, but Adam will continue to fill in until Dennis returns. Adam’s first round match-up was a story in itself as veteran Gary Wiggins, who had flipped his Stonecrusher in qualifications, was able to get the truck fixed in time to make the race, but Grave Digger eliminated Stonecrusher before breaking a blower belt during a second round loss to George Balhan and Escalade. That win was as far as Escalade would make it in the race bracket as Linsey Weenk and Iron Outlaw beat Escalade in the semifinals. That put Weenk into a match-up with the one driver the impressive newcomer has struggled against so far in his brief career, Meents, in the racing final. Meents was able to master the new course and brought Max-D home the first stadium racing winner of 2007. In freestyle Daron Basl came out first with a strong performance and put up a number that would keep the Texas based El Matador driver in the Hot Wheels Hot Seat, where the leader stays until the score is bested, for more than half of the competition with 15 trucks able to make it to freestyle. The crowd let the judges know they disagreed when Carl Van Horn in T-Maxx, Jim Koehler in Avenger, and defending Houston freestyle winner David Smith in King Krunch all turned in impressive performances but were still scored short of El Matador’s 24. Basl finally had to give up the hot seat when Belhan’s incredible, tail-gate dragging wheelies helped earn Escalade a 26. That was the top score when Anderson brought his Dad’s Grave Digger onto the track and filled the clock with a wild run that made his father, who was on hand in Houston, proud. The judges scored Grave Digger with a 29 which turned out to be two points better than Max-D’s huge air assault that got a 27 from the judges. RACING RESULTS Fast Qualifier – Grave Digger 1st Round – Grave Digger def Stonecrusher; T-Maxx def Bounty Hunter; Iron Outlaw def Brutus; Blue Thunder def Monster Mutt Dalmatian; King Krunch def El Matador; Batman def Escalade (by inches in a race that was nearly a dead heat); Maximum Destruction def Anger Management (Escalade advanced as fast loser) 2nd Round – Escalade def Grave Digger; Iron Outlaw def T-Maxx; King Krunch def Blur Thunder; Maximum Destruction def Batman Semifinals – Iron Outlaw def Escalade; Maximum Destruction def King Krunch FINALS – MAXIMUM DESTRUCTION DEFEATED IRON OUTLAW FREESTYLE RESULTS GRAVE DIGGER 29 Maximum Destruction 27 Escalade 26 El Matador 24 Bounty Hunter 23 Blue Thunder 23 Iron Outlaw 22 Batman 22 T-Maxx 22 King Krunch 21 Avenger 20 Anger Management 18 Monster Mutt Dalmatian 16 Stonecrusher 13 American Guardian 11