Weekend Race Recap

by Scott Douglass

 Linsey Weenk continued to pay immediate dividends for the Blue Thunder racing team by recording another racing win, and Jim Koehler finally found great success in his home state when he powered Avenger to the freestyle victory in front of a standing room only crowd at Detroit's Ford Field.

Battling on the new "Cyclone" style racing course it was Koehler who set the fastest time in race qualifying, earning Avenger the number one seed in the bracket. Avenger eliminated Grave Digger in the opening round but was knocked out of the bracket in a round two loss to Mike Wine in Monster Mutt. Wine fell in the next round to Mike Vaters in Black Stallion, who took advantage of the fast loser rule to overcome a second round loss to Courtney Jolly, driving for Detroit radio station 106.6 The Fox.

In the bottom half of the bracket it was Weenk, whose Blue Thunder struggled in qualifying with a battrery problem, who blasted though to the Championship Race with victories over Prowler, Scarlet Bandit, and 106.7 The Fox to make it to yet another title tilt. Vaters gave a strong account of himself but Weenk's powerful Ford had enough to put Linsey onto the winners stage for the second time this season on a night when the Blue Thunder team was the latest to be named to the 2008 NGK Spark Plugs Monster Jam World Finals. Duplicating his success in the Minneapolis season opener Weenk has won both Speed televised events that he has driven Blue Thunder in so far in the young season.

In freestyle Dawn Creten set the early pace in Scarlet Bandit, and her score of 20 would eventually land her in the runner-up spot as truck after truck ended wild runs with too much time left on the clock and and the judges scored them accordingly. Included in that group was Weenk, who flipped Blue Thunder with :36 seconds still on the clock, and Chad Tingler, who rolled Grave Digger just :30 seconds into his scheduled time. Both Weenk and Tingler thrilled the capacity crowd with ragged edge encores after their trucks were put back onto their wheels. In th end it was the 2003 World Freestyle Champion Koehler, who had a history of struggles in his home state, who turned in huge air performance to grab the win with a score of 24, leaving Creten with a still impressive second place finish.

In other action Todd White won a zany Autocross main event and Mark Noto of Collins, NY, drove his Supertruck Ford Ranger to the Pro Stadium truck feature win. 31 year old Ryan Stanbaugh of Davision, MI, became the latest to qualify for the Monster Jam Video Game national championship tournament in Las Vegas when he beat three other Detroit area contestants in the regional Video Game battle.

RACING RESULTS

Fast qualifier - Avenger

1st round - Avenger def Grave Digger; Monster Mutt def Brutus; Scarlet Bandit def Iron Warrior; Blue Thunder def Prowler; Black Stallion def Aftershock; 106.7 The Fox bye run (Predator broke)

2nd round - Monster Mutt def Avenger; Blue Thunder def Scarlet Bandit; 106.7 The Fox def Black Stallion (Black Stallion advanced to semifinals as fastest loser of round two)

Semifinals - Black Stallion def Monster Mutt; Blue Thunder def 106.7 The Fox

CHAMPIONSHIP RACE - BLUE THUNDER DEFEATED BLACK STALLION

FREESTYLE RESULTS

AVENGER  24

Scarlet Bandit  20

Prowler  16

Black Stallion  16

Blue Thunder  14

Monster Mutt  13

106.7 The Fox  13

Predator  12

Aftershock  11

Brutus  9

Grave Digger  9

Iron Warrior  6