Weekend Race Recap:
A sell out crowd in attendance witnessed an Awesome Monster Jam tonight. The Monster Jam World Tour blasted in the Mile High city. Three different events with two different winners here in Denver.
The first event of the night would be Monster Jam Wheelie Competition. Arachnophobia would start off with a 14. Up next BJ Johnson would stand Shattered up pretty good but a little side ways. The result would have Shattered lying on its side in the middle of the Pepsi Center. The score would be a 17. That score held up until the 5th truck went. Carl Van Horn in T-Maxx would stand his Ford truck almost totally vertical. The new leader would score an 18. The final truck would be the 2007 World Freestyle Champion driver, Pablo Huffaker in Grave Digger. Huffaker launched pretty good but did not get the air that Van Horn would. Digger's score would be a 16. T-Maxx would be the winner.
The second event would be the K & C RV Racing. The brackets were set and the racing would be fast and furious. Round One: T-Maxx defeated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Sudden Impact defeated Arachnophobia, and Grave Digger would get a bye run because Shattered did not make the 2 minute call because of his crash in the Wheelie Competition. The semi-finals both had photo finishes. T-Maxx would take the close win over Arachnophobia (fast looser), and Grave Digger would defeated Sudden Impact driven by John Zimmer. The finals would be two veterans head to head. Another photo finish. The officials would give the victory to Grave Digger by inches.
The final event of the night would be Monster Jam Freestyle. The judges did an excellent job tonight. Arachnophobia would score a 16 followed by Shattered with an 18. Sudden Impact had some problems from the get go and would stall out and score a 6. Then came a solid run by Aaron Basl in Turtle. The crowd and judges loved it. Turtle would score a 23. T-Maxx would come out and tear the place apart and would get the biggest air of the night. The score would be a 26. Pablo Huffaker knew what he had to do. He had to do something totally different and about 20 seconds into the run that is what we got. Huffaker hit the van stack at a crazy angle. When he landed on the stack of cars that were in the racing lane it turned into trouble. Huffaker had his hands full but could not save it. Grave Digger would end up on his lid. Huffaker was ok but that was it for freestyle tonight. The judges gave Digger a 23. T-Maxx would be the Freestyle Winner.
Sunday:
Another packed out Pepsi Center got to see a Spectacular Monster Jam this afternoon. Once again the fans of Denver would get to see three different events for the Monsters. Monster Jam Wheelie Competition, Monster Jam Racing and crowd favorite Monster Jam Freestyle.
Right of the bat, the folks in the stands knew the show would be awesome! The first truck of the afternoon in the wheelie competition would stand the truck straight up and down on the tailgate. Scott Anderson in Arachnophobia would do the best wheelie of the weekend and score a 21. That score would be enough for the win.
Up next was Monster Jam Racing. The first round went like this: T-Maxx didn't make it out so Shattered driven by BJ Johnson would get a bye run, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle defeated Sudden Impact, and Grave Digger defeated Arachnophobia. Semi-Finals: Sudden Impact driven by Jon Zimmer would come back as fast looser from round one and defeat Shattered, and Grave Digger took the win over Turtle. The finals would be two really strong running trucks. Grave Digger seemed to get a better launch off of the Advance Auto Parts starting line and would narrowly win across the Ford Finish Line.
The final event of the weekend would be Freestyle. One truck at a time for sixty seconds of carnage. Arachnophobia would be first to hit the floor. Anderson would get a score of 19. Shattered would come out next and go a little bigger and get a 21. Then Sudden Impact was next. The truck sounded awesome with the new motor in it, but would only score a 17 from the judges. Turtle was the next truck on the scene. Aaron Basl would do the best donuts of the weekend but the judges only gave Turtle a score of 23. Then Carl Van Horn would come out very fast in T-Maxx. It looked as though he had something to prove. Van Horn ran really hard. The final jump would pitch the truck sideways over the van stack and stand it up on its nose and the all the way over. A wild ride! Van Horn was OK and when I got to him for an interview his eyes were still wide open and all he could say was WOW!!!! The score for T-Maxx would be a 24. The final truck of the weekend would be Pablo Huffaker in Grave Digger. It took a while for the track crew to clean up the T-Maxx mess. It seemed like Huffaker must have been just chomping at the bit. When the truck fired up it was like Huffaker never lifted off of the gas pedal. After the lights went red, Huffaker had some more for the fans. Huffaker ended up flipping the Black and Green Wrecking Machine and tear up the opposite side he tore up last night. Grave Digger would score a 29 and take the Freestyle Win.
Story by: Scottie Deubler
