Weekend Race Recap
Friday, Jan 25,2008 7:30 pm
By; Fernando Rubio- Event Announcer
The time has come around once again for Hidalgo, Texas, and one more Monster Jam at the Dodge Arena. Tonight it has been an incredible night with a sold out attendance of more than 3,000 people cheering their favorite trucks and their drivers. Tonight we had a very complete program of competition includiing Monster Jam Wheelie, Monster Jam Racing,Monster Jam Free style.
Six strong competitors really went out there and left it all on the truck in order to please a demanding audience, and especially the judges that need to be highly impressed in the competitions judged from people selected from the audience.
Our First compettion was Monster Jam Wheelie. Everything started to get really heated up after an aggressive start from Aaron Cromer driving Anger Management, unfortunately his truck finished his first intervention with a transmission problem, and wasn't able to come back again for competition for the remaining of the night. Our highest scores for the Monster Jam Wheelie were American Guardian with 23, Team Suzuki with 25, and El Toro Loco,with a perfect score of 30, the absolute winner Lupe Soza. Anger Management finished with 13, Instigator with 15, andT he Broker with 19.
Monster Jam Racing.
our Brackets of racing competition for the first round were in the following order.
American Guardian running against The Broker, winning American Guardian after a long jump over the obstacle jump, and with a great determination that you could see from the very beginning.
Second Pair was, Team Suzuki against Anger Mangement. At this point Anger Management with mechcanical problems after the wheelie competition, was granted 60 seconds to come back into the competition, but wasn't able to do so. Therefore the winner of this pair was Bobby Parr with Team Suzuki, doing the run anyway for the pleasure of the audience.
Third Pair was Instigator and El Toro Loco, beating in racing Instigator with an incredible start and an effective jump over the obstacle stack. Because of Anger Management inability to continue in the race, El Toro loco was qualified into the semi finals as a fast loser. The pair for the semis were: American Guardian vs El Toro Loco, and Team Suzuki vs Instigator. Into the finals we had American Guardian and Team Suzuki. These two trucks seemed to be determined the racing competition no matter what. And they actually went all over everyone's expectations, having as a winner for the Monster Jam Racing American Guardian driven by Rick Raab, who was very happy with tonight's victory, and yet worried about his team mate's fate (Anger Management ) after the truck break down.
Monster Jam Donut Competition
Hidalgo Fans had a great time watching one competition exclusively for donuts. The big challenge here for all the drivers was facing Lupe Soza with El Toro Loco, the 2004 world Monster Jam champion of 2004. 22 years of experience driving and well known for his incredible donuts. Our highest scores were from Instigator with 29, American Guardian with 27, and a tie between Team Suzuki and El Toro Loco with 30 points. In this case, since the judges gave a tie score, we had the secret judge breaking the tie and after difficult calculations about the competition our secret judge came out with a winner: Team Suzuki! Bobby Parr was really excited and went up to the stands to greet his fans, and gave away some prizes.
Monster Jam Free Style.
Every single truck was really to give the best shot at this competition knowing that it is the last for the night. They wanted their fans to go home happily after tonight's competition, so there we go! It's Monster Jam Free Style Time!!! Highest scorers were Team Suzuki with 25, The Broker with 24 points, and again a tie, now between American Guardian and El Toro Loco. It had beeda tough decisions for the judges who gave a perfect score of 30 points to these lastr two trucks. Again, our secret judge had the responsibility of breaking this tie. It took our secret judege a couple of minutes to come up with a winner, all calculations made him decide on El Toro Loco as a winner of Monster Jam Free Style! Lupe Soza was absolutely excited about his victory, and specially a victory he wanted to dedicate to all " La Raza"- the people of Hidalgo, Texas! Speaking in Spanish, Soza said: Esto es para usted mi raza!!( this is all for you my people!!)
And this is only the first night of tremendous competition. Two more days of awsome competition are yet to be seen in the Dodge Arena, in Hidalgo, Texas!!!!!!!!!!
Saturday, Jan 26,2008
2:00pm
It's one more day of competitions in beautiful Hidalgo, Texas, it's the second day of Monster Jam!!! Today, we had lots of people coming in since early in the morning getting ready to see the Monster Jam trucks and their drivers, as we were getting ready for the Built Ford Tough Trucks Pit Party. It was just fantastic to have all the fanatics coming from all over the Rio Grande Valley. As alwaysour drivers were more than happy to mingle with their fans, have their pictures taken, and have all those programs, t-shirts and more signed with their autographs.
Monster Jam Racing
We had a tremendous day of competition a great day especially for Bobby Parr driving, Team Suzuki. It has been his day so far, coming out as a winner of the Monster Jam Racing competition. The brackets started off with Team Susuki and The Broker. The The Broker wasn't able to enter the racing due to electrical problems that would leaving out for the next couple of competitions. Team Susuki did the by run, and qualified for the round of semi finals. American Guardian vs Instigator, American Guardia, Rick Raab came out victorious out of that one, and won his space in the semis. And finally we had Anger Management going against El Toro Loco. It's semifinals, and the engines are roaring and all set to go. Our fast loser due the absecence of The Broker, it's Anger Management going versus Team Suzuki, winning his pass to the finals Team Suzuki. And El Toro Loco wininning against American Guardian. Our Finals were set: TEam Suzuki and El Toro Loco. Bobby Parr with Team Suzuki was obcesive with the winning since early in the morning. Since I interviewed him earlier in the pits, he told me that his truck was running perfectly and was ready to win! And he did, it was a very close call, against El Toro, but the absolute winner was Team Suzuki.
Monster Jam Wheelie Competition.
Anger Management...... 21 pts
Instigator....................14 pts
The Broker...................Couldn't run due to electrical problems
American Guardian........22 pts
Team Suzuki............... 26 pts
El Toro Loco................29 pts
Winner: Lupe Soza driving El Toro Loco.
Lupe was absolutely ecstatic about his winning today, and once again went up to the crowd to be cheered, as he gave away a diecast Monster Jam Toro Loco truck.
Monster Jam Donuts
Instigator.......19
The Broker......19
Anger Mangement....16
Americann Guardian...25
Team Suzuki........29
El Toro Loco.......28
It 's the win for Bobby Parr driving Team Suzuki and with his second victory of the afternoon! After winning racing, and winning Monster Jam donuts, he was just jumping with joy. He walked half of the arena finding the loudest fan, and he found him in a little 3 year old kid, going out of his seat cheering Team Suzuki!! The kid got a Monster Jam diecast truck of Team Suzuki.
Monster Jam Free Style.
Anger Management...20
Instigator.............19
The Broker............23
American Guardian....27
Team Suzuki.............29
El Toro Loco .............30
Once again Lupe Soza aboard El Toro Loco proved to the audience why he is the 2004 World Champion of Monster Jam Free Style. Team Suzuki came close once again, but showing superior jumps over the stacks at a great speed, El Toro Loco was the favorite for the judges giving him the highest score of the afternoon!
Saturday, Jan 26,2008 7:30pm
Hello again Monster Jam Fans from Hidalgo,Texas on our second competition of the day. It seems like it gets a lot more fun and exciting competition after competition, and actually there seems to be a logical explanation to that: The drivers are thirstier for victory every time they run those monster jam trucks.
Tonight, it was the night when Lupe Soza with El Toro Loco almost broke a record, winning almost all of the 4 competitions. He was the winner of Monster Jam Racing, Monster Jam Wheelie, and Monster Jam donuts, at that point he told me during the interview: "I'm going for the fourth win tonight!!", but one thing he never considered, it was that out there his competitors had the exact same thing in mind, and just because of pride they were not going to let him win the 4 competitions, that would be humilliating!!! And sure enough, after everything seemed so set for Lupe to win all 4 competitions, Rick Raab driving American Guardian came to be the one to not let El Toro Loco win under his specialty, Monster Jam Free Style. Rick Raab came out with the victory with 27 deserving points. He really came out at a max speed, jumping over the obstacles, jumping the higher stack, and throwing some donuts on the track to top it off. Lupe came out really strong, but in spite of being a 3 consecutive winner of the night, the judges went for American Guardian with the most points.
Besides El toro Loco and American guardian one of the highest scores went for Team Suzuki driven by Bobby Parr, we has decides to go for that win, especially after having a fantastic couple of winns earlier today. Unfortunately, Team Suzuki rolled over his truck after the second jump over the stack of crushed cars, landing on the side, and not being able to continue with the competition. But the few couple of jumps he did, were enough for the judges to give him 24 points. Bobby Parr came out really frustrated out of his truck, especially after the great wins he had had earlier on the day.This loss for him didn't stop him from going up with the audience and pass a Team Suzuki Diecaster Monster Jam Truck. He is a great winner, a great competitor, a rising star of Monster Jam, just after two years of competition. Good for Bobby Parr.
Monster Wheelie
Anger Management... 17
The Broker.....unable to compete
American Guardian.... 27
Team Suzuki......22
El Toro Loco......29
Winner.... El Toro Loco
Monster Jam Donuts
Instigator....25
The Broker......23
Anger Management.... 24
American Guardian....26
Team Suzuki.......29
El Toro Loco........30\
Winner: El Toro Loco
Monster Jam Free Style
Anger Management....20
Instigator..........18
The Broker.... Unable to compete due to mechanical problems
American Guardian.......27
Team Suzuki.............24
El Toro Loco...........24
Winner............American Guardian.
Sunday, Jan 27,2008 2:00pm
We have just finished our weekend long competitions of Monster Jam in Hidalgo, Texas. All weekend long has been filled with tremendous excitement for our fans in the Rio Grande Valley, and we just close our weekend today, with tremendous competitions among all of our drivers. Every single one our our Monster Jam truck drivers were just prepared to tear those trucks apart on the track in order to have a win today, and it sure happened!
Monster Jam Racing.
Our starting bracket for first round was in the folliwing order:
Team Suzuki vs The Broker, coming victorious out of this pair, The Broker, which by the way it was the first time during this weekend that made it to the semis, but his luck would change in a matter of minutes, when his truck wasn't able to come back for the semifinal round due to mechanical problems!
American Guardian vs Instigator... American Guardian wins over Instigator coming over really strong over the obstacle stack, and powering that engine to the point of having fire coming out of the exhaust pipe!
Anger Management vs El Toro Loco... El Toro Loco wins over Anger Management. Anger Management after a rough weekend with some mechanical problems tried his best in racing and it came close to have a successful finish.
Monster Jam Racing Semifinals..
Team Suzuki vs Instigator... Team Suzuki wins.
American Guardian vs El Toro Loco... American Guardian WIns.
The Racing Final.
Everything had been settled for the final stage of the racing competition, between Team Suzuki and American Guardian. Rick Raab with American was focusing in repeating anotther win in racing after his success Friday Night. A new rivalry was about to start, when the trucks were being aligned on the starting lines. But both trucks wanted to be on the same side of the track. They wanted to be on the right side of the track no matter what. Superstition? it could be! Finally they settled down, and American in spite of ending up on the left side of the track, wins the competition. Rick Raab had his second win of racing of the weekend.
Monster Jam Wheelie
Winner El Toro Loco with 29 points.
Monster Jam Donuts
This competition came very difficult for the judges to decide for a winner. All the trucks did fantastic, getting to a tie of 29 points between EL Toro Loco and TEam Suzuki. We had to go to our secret judge to break the tie giving up the win to TEam Suzuki.
Monster Jam Free Style
On freestyle things got rough again for the judges as we had some strong competitors and especially those who came close on the scores. El Toro Loco 28 points, American Guardian 28 points. THe secret judge broke the tie giving the win to El Toro Loco. Lupe Soza was ecstactic about the win, especially after the long weekend long of victories he had achieved. Lupe was in the backyard of his home town of Corpus Christi,Texas just one hour and half drive from Hidalgo.
Hidalgo has been great to us, and we see forward to our next competition in 2009! Thanks Hidalgo!!!
