Weekend Race Recap
Proving he's back on track in racing, Tom Meents drove Maximum Destruction to his second straight racing event win, but saw his freestyle winning streak snapped by Pablo Huffaker and Grave Digger in front of another capacity crowd in Houston's Reliant Stadium.
Meents opened the night as the fastest qualifier on a head-to-head course that featured a huge table top in the center of the floor just past the starting line to earn the number one seed in the racing bracket. After dispatching Arachnophobia in the opening round, Meents powered Max-D to a win over Tony Farrell and Blue Thunder in the second round, followed by a semifinal win over David Smith to earn his berth in the Championship Race where he would take part in the next chapter of the greatest rivalry in motorsports, Maximum Destruction versus Grave Digger. Huffaker was the second fastest qualifier, coming off the bottom half of the bracket and knocked his son Ryan and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle out in the opening round, followed by a second round win over hometown favorite King Krunch. In the semis Pablo was victorious in one of the night's most exciting races, defeating a hard charging Daron Basl in the Fiesta El Matador. Basl kept the race with Grave Digger close to the final turn, then, trying to find a little extra in hopes of pulling the upset, Basl's machine went on a wild ride, ending up on its roof and ripping off a wheel which ended the Fiesta sponsored ride's night and sent Grave Digger into the highly anticipated showdown with Max-D.
To no one's surprise the two titans battled in an even race to the final turn but Huffaker had problems at the end of the run and Meents sailed on to the victory, following up his racing win a week previous in Indianapolis. Meents now has a two race event win streak after starting the 2008 season off without a Speed televised win through the first month.
While Meents had not been racing with the success we've seen in the past he had been dominating freestyle and had won every freestyle event that he had competed in this season, but that streak was snapped when fuel pump problems ended Maximum Destruction's freestyle with :33 seconds left on the :90 second regulation time clock. Huffaker took home the freestyle trophy with a strong Grave Digger freestyle that featured some of the night's biggest air, the Digger flipping over to end the run with only three seconds left on the :90 second clock and scoring a 25 for the triumph. Grave Digger won by just one point over T-Maxx, as Carl Van Horn took advantage of a new bonus points system added to freestyle. The bonus system implemented still had the judges turning in their scores after the :90 second run, but the driver then had the option to continue the performance into bonus time. Any truck that continued to freestyle for an additional :30 seconds after the regulation clock had been filled had one extra point added to his score and then could go into "Super" bonus time, for another :30 seconds, with an additional point added to the score for filling the super bonus clock as well. Van Horn was scored with 22 points by the judges for his :90 second run and then continued with his strong freestyle for the full extra minutes to earn two bonus points to finish with a score of 24 which left him in the runner-up spot at the end of the night. Both Ryan Huffaker in the Turtle and John Seasock and Batman garnered the additional two points as the crowd was thrilled with several long bonus freestyles. The other driver to earn the additional two points was Tony Farrell, who scored only an 18 from the judges for his regulation time run, but in the extra periods Farrell went off with some of the night's most spectacular action coming during Blue Thunder's bonus time runs. The crowd came to its feet when Farrell flipped Blue Thunder, pivoting on the big Ford's nose, and landing back on his wheels. Farrell continued on, blistering the massive obstacles on the Reliant Stadium floor throughout the bonus time and even though his scored run was short of the winning total, his bonus effort earned Blue Thunder a standing ovation from the appreciative Texas crowd.
Also in Houston Saturday night was Truck Cross racing, where Houston's Earl Ashby drove Old Blue to the win in his heat race, and then in that division's main event.
RACING RESULTS
Fast Qualifier - Maximum Destruction
1st Round - Maximum Destruction def Arachnophobia; Blue Thunder def Sudden Impact; Fiesta El Matador def Shattered; Batman def Instigator; King Krunch bye run (T-Maxx broke after qualifying); Grave Digger def Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle
2nd Round - Maximum Destruction def Blue Thunder; Fiesta El Matador def Batman; Grave Digger def King Krunch (King Krunch advanced to semifinals as fastest loser of 2nd round)
Semifinals - Maximum Destruction def King Krunch; Grave Digger def Fiesta El Matador
CHAMPIONSHIP RACE - MAXIMUM DESTRUCTION DEFEATED GRAVE DIGGER
FREESTYLE RESULTS
GRAVE DIGGER 25
T-Maxx 24
Batman 22
Blue Thunder 20
Maximum Destruction 20
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle 18
Arachnophobia 16
Sudden Impact 14
Instigator 12
King Krunch 12
Shattered 8
