Weekend Race Recap
by Scott Douglass
The strong start to 2008 continues for the Weenk brothers, with Nathan now the hot hand after driving El Toro Loco to the racing win on the fastest race course ever created in Orlando's Citrus Bowl, and a wild cross-thread move as the clock expired earned Randy Brown and Grave Digger a one-point victory over David Smith and King Krunch in freestyle in front of another sold out house in the central Florida city.
With Nathan and Linsey Weenk both in the same field for the first time at a 2008 Speed televised event somthing had to give in racing as both rolled into Orlando with momentum from racing triumphs the previous week, Linsey taking the race win in his Blue Thunder at Ford Field in Detroit and Nathan having taken his first ever TV win aboard El Toro at a muddy Raymond James Stadium in Tampa. Not only was the weather again a Florida factor this week in Orlando, but all 12 Monster Jam stars went racing on a course that resembled the race circuit at the Monster Jam NGK Spark Plugs World Finals. The Orlando version of the Vegas style track saw the Advance Auto Parts starting line located on the edge of Church Street behind the Citrus Bowl, with the trucks then negotiating a chicane into the stadium, onto a fast straightaway, down to a tight turn with the machines turning toward each other, then the final full throttle blast across the crush cars and the Ford Finish Line. Linsey Weenk, with his experience at the similar Sam Boyd Stadium track over his last two appearances in Las Vegas, set the fastest time qualifying in Orlando to give Blue Thunder the number one seed in the racing bracket.
With showers coming down off and on, the new track design provided several of the most exciting and closest races in the history of the Citrus Bowl event, one of the biggest highlights annually on the Monster Jam schedule. It looked Linsey might be able to win his third straight racing event of the new season when he extended his season opening round winning streak to nine in a row with a pair of wins to advance into the semifinals. His semifinals opponent, Grave Digger, entered the final four by virtue of being the fastest round two loser after being defeated by Florida native Scott Hartsock and Gunslinger in one of the night's most exciting races. That round two battle ended with a collision after the finish line between Digger and Gunslinger that knocked the tire off the left rear of Hartsock's truck. With Brown's crew helping fix Gunslinger's tire Hartsock was able to make the call for his semi against El Toro as Grave Digger rolled out for his semifinal battle with Blue Thunder. The Digger-Thunder match-up turned out to be the night's closest race with Brown nailing his best run of the night, edging Linsey Weenk by .02 of a second, less than half of the length of a wheel, advancing Grave Digger to the Championship Race. The other semifinal was won by El Toro, with Gunslinger still wowing the crowd when he flipped his truck after the finish line, sending the team back to work to try and get the Slinger ready for freestyle.
In the Championship Race with the rain coming down Nathan Weenk won a major stadium racing event for the second straight week with a convincing win over Brown and Grave Digger.
Randy Moore set the bar high early in the Freestyle Compeition, several huge bumper dragging slap wheelies sending War Wizard to the hot seat as the event leader until late in the draw when David Smith thrilled the huge, rabid crowd with some of the night's biggest air, grabbing the lead with a score of 23. Gunslinger was again repaired to the delight of the Orlando fans and Hartsock put in a wild run but was unable to fill the clock, leaving his score short of King Krunch's lead. Linsey Weenk took a run at the leader with a strong frerestyle, and he raised the bar with 30 seconds left on the clock as he powered Blue Thunder up a huge dirt mountain that had a camper placed on top of it. Linsey hit the camper wide open and the move sent Blue Thunder sailing up into the Florida night, nose skyward, then plunging more than 30 feet to the ground where the impact caused the truck to rollover. Leaving time on the clock cost Linsey a chance at the win but gave the Florida fans the biggest "Wow moment" of the night. With Smith still in the hot seat Brown came out last in Grave Digger and was strong, but looking back at the scoring, clearly was even with King Krunch until the cross thread move that no one else had even attempted allowed Grave Digger to pull out the extra point for the popular Grave Digger freestyle win.
RACING RESULTS
Fast Qualifier - Blue Thunder
1st Round - Blue Thunder bye run (El Matador broke in qualifying); War Wizard def Cowboy; King Krunch def Monster Mutt; El Toro Loco def Predator; Gunslinger def Destroyer; Grave Digger def Pouncer
2nd Round - Blue Thunder def War Wizard; El Toro Loco def King Krunch; Gunslinger def Grave Digger (Grave Digger advanced to semifinals as fastest loser of round two)
Semifinals - Grave Digger def Blue Thunder; El Toro Loco def Gunslinger
FINALS - EL TORO LOCO DEFEATED GRAVE DIGGER
FREESTYLE RESULTS
GRAVE DIGGER 24
King Krunch 23
El Toro Loco 20
War Wizard 19
Destroyer 18
Blue Thunder 17
Monster Mutt 15
Gunslinger 14
Cowboy 10
Pouncer 8
Predator 4
