Weekend Race Recap
Friday, Feb 15, 2008
By: Fernando Rubio-Event Announcer
Hello There from Albuquerque, New Mexico!!! Right in middle of a cold front that is hitting the city as I write this article, no doubt that the people from Albuquerque forgot completely about the low temperatures, as they got all warmed up in The Tingley Coliseum, as the Monster Jam trucks got their engines going and ready for another spectacular night of Monster Jam Competition.
Albuquerquians just couldn't wait for the competition to begin as we warmed them up with some Rhino Car racing first. A few accidents here and there, a couple of rhinos crashing against the wall, and one rolled over, was not an obstacle for the drivers to seek their victory. After 3 rounds of racing, we got into the finals where the winner was Arturo Fierro from El Paso, Texas. The scenario is all set with the audience roaring to see their favorite monster trucks.
During pre-show 8 kids helped to determine the Monster Jam racing bracket. 8 puff trucks had number 1 thru 8, and every kid stood with a monster truck driver. The number underneath the puff trucks was the space in the bracket that the driver got. After this qualifying phase we got into racing having in the first round:
T-Maxx vs. Ramminator....Ramminator came out as a winner and ready to go to the semi-finals.
Pitbull vs. McGruff............ Winner was the crime prevention dog truck, McGruff.
Sudden Impact vs. Iron Outlaw, winner Iron Outlaw. Tuff Enough vs. Rammunition...winner Rammunition.
It was an incredible round into semi-finals, having a couple of surprises for the night. Ramminator, and Rammunition, two of the youngest trucks in competition.
Semi-finals
Ramminator vs. McGruff....winner....Ramminator
Iron Outlaw vs. Rammunition....winner....Iron Outlaw
FINALS
Ramminator vs. Iron Outlaw. Winner Ramminator! Mark Hall really marked his first win in Albuquerque. Very excited with the crowd roaring at his performance, Mark dedicated his racing victory to his uncle who had just passed away. It was a moving moment for the crowd as well, as they responded with a greater round of applause, appreciating the effort that Mark was putting into the competition, a true professional!
Monster Jam Free Wheelie Competition:
Tonight, without a doubt, Albuquerque really enjoyed some serious competition. In the wheelie competition, we saw some very high scores given by the audience's judges. Among the highest scores was Rammunition with 28 pts, Sudden Impact with 27, Ramminator with 29, T Maxx with 28 pts . Ramminator was almost sure he was winning the wheelie competition, but there was an uneasy competitor coming up: Iron Outlaw. Kreg Christensen got in front of the firs stack of obstacles, and put all of his horse power to the perfect straight jump which really pleased the judges, the second jump was even greater. This left no space for doubt to the judges to given Iron Outlaw a perfect score of 30 pts!!!!
Monster Jam Free Style:
You never know what history will be mad for the Monster Jam victory archives, especially for those drivers that get to win in two competitions in one night! That is the perfect example for tonight. In Monster Jam Freestyle, once again, Iron Outlaw broke all the records for the night, as he got another perfect score of 30 given by the judges, followed by the nearest score of 27 for T-Maxx and 26 for Rammunition. It was an incredible night for Kreg Christensen who has committed himself for another night of consecutive victories on the Saturday show!
Tonight the competition went very smoothly for the truck crews since no major damage was done to the trucks during competition, nor any mechanical breakage was reported from the pits! It sure was a great night for the Albuquerque fans, as they also won some fantastic prizes from Monster Jam! It might be cold down here, but the warmth of the people is more that any heater can give us! Thank you Albuquerque for a great first night of competition as we continue to drive our way the world finals of Monster Jam in Las Vegas!!!
Saturday, Feb 16, 2008
Here we are again Monster Jam fans, reporting from beautiful Albuquerque, NM. One more night of Monster Jam Competition has finished, and once again with our hearts still pounding fast with so much excitement lived tonight.
We woke up to one cold morning in Albuquerque, but that was no reason for all the people to go to the Tingley Coliseum where we had a sold out event. The excitement started with our Ford Built Tough party at the pits, where all the MJ fans had a chance to meet the Monster Trucks' drivers, and had a chance to have a picture taken and an autograph signed. He had hundreds of fans during pit party, making of these one of the happy moments for our drivers, since it is a chance to be real close to their fans.
Monster Jam Racing.
Once again we had our qualifying brackets decided by the lucky hands of 8 Albuquerque kids, who randomly chose a puff truck with a number on it that gave the truck the position on the racing bracket.
First Round: Ramminator vs. McGruff...winner....Ramminator
Tuff Enough vs. Iron Out Law....winner....Iron Outlaw
Rammunition vs. Sudden Impact...winner...Rammunition
T-Maxx vs. Pitbull....winner.....T-Maxx
Semi-finals
Ramminator vs. Iron Outlaw...winner..... Ramminator
Rammunition vs. T-Maxx.....winner ....T-Maxx
Finals
Everything was all set for finals. The Fans were going off their seats to cheer the two finalists: Ramminator, who was trying to repeat a racing win for two days in a row, and T-Maxx. Unfortunately we had a problems reported from the pits, T-Maxx wasn't able to make it for the final due to mechanical problems. T-Maxx fans were sad, but we had a great fast loser filling in for finals: Rammunition. Trucks are lined up, green lights go on, and two of the fastest trucks so far this weekend are on their way to victory. After a lap and a half, we have an absolute winner: Ramminator!! He has done it! For two days in a row he conquers the victory in Monster Jam Racing. Mark Hall, Ramminator's driver, who just had his uncle passing away, and whom by the way was a great influence in Hall's racing career, said that without a doubt his uncle and dad were helping him drive from "up there". Congratulations Ramminator for a great win!!!!
Monster Jam Free Style
Once again, for two consecutive days, Iron Outlaw conquers the title of a great Monster Jam Free stylist! Once again a perfect score goes out for Kregg Christensen, whom by the way also won the Monster Jam Wheelie also with a perfect score. A double down, that yet need to rounded up by a racing win, according to Christensen, who was static with the win, but yet thirsty for a triple down, we will see tomorrow what happens in a third day of competition as we have all the trucks battling for a spot in the World's Monster Jam Championship in Las Vegas.
Second highest scores for Monster Jam Freestyle were: Rammunition and Ramminator.
Monster Jam Wheelie: T-Maxx and Tuff Enough came in as the second highest scores of the night.
Rhino Racing.
Albuquerque also enjoyed one more night of Rhino racing with Junior Quiscas as our winner.
FMX winner was Cody Elkins. The crowd was really on the edge of theirs seats as they saw the incredible performance of Cody, which included some fantastic back flips!
Sunday, Feb 17,2008
Hello there Fans, once again from Albuquerque, NM on our last day of Monster Jam competition. A great crowd came in since early at noon as we had children from the Jamez School District as part of our Monster Jam Incentive program, in which get in touch with a local teacher to recognize perfect attendance, as well as the efforts of one kid that has raised the grades. Gloria Sandoval a little 7 year old was awarded with a Monster Jam winning package, as well as a T-Maxx remote control truck. Congrats!!!!
Monster Jam Wheelie.
The whole weekend here at Albuquerque has been for Kreg Christensen in Iron Outlaw. For the third consecutive day, Iron Outlaw has won the Monster Wheelie competition, showing once again that those more of 15 years behind the wheel really count. Judges gave a high score of 26 points to Iron Outlaw, followed by 22 of Tuff Enough, another veteran that came very close to winning this competition.
Monster Jam Racing.
Racing was way too exciting today. All the Monster trucks knew it was their last day of competition. None of the drivers wanted to let Ramminator take the winnings for 3 consecutive days. Ramminator vs. TMaxx in the semifinals, as well as Tuff Enough vs. Rammunition. Ramminator came out victorious out of the first pair of semi-finalists, and Rammunition beat Tuff Enough. Everything was set for the Finals. The Crowd roaring for more speed on the track. Rammunition makes his entrance to the track; a few seconds pass and we don't see Ramminator coming down the tunnel. We hear from our crew staff that Raminator was not able to fire the truck back at that moment. A 60 second grace period was given to Mark Hall, but never made it. Then we have our fast loser from semifinals, T-Maxx, whom by the way had been struggling all weekend long with some mechanical problems. The track is set, and it's racing time!!! T-Maxx is just pushing that gas pedal so deep, that we can hear all that horsepower going on the track! Rammuntion is no easy competitor, but after a lap and a half, we have a winner!!!..............T-Maxx!!! Carl Vanhorn T-Maxx driver just couldn't be happier after having a chance thanks to the momentous breakage of Ramminator. After all he had won at least one competition during this weekend in Albuquerque!!
Monster Jam Free Style.
This was the last day of competition for the Monster Jam trucks, and their drivers knew it. There was a thing going among the drivers, and there was actually one thing they all agreed: They couldn't have Iron Outlaw winning for 3 days in a row. All trucks started to make their plans to leave everything on the track. Jon Zimmer on Sudden Impact was the first truck to compete. He hadn't been doing so well during the past 2 days, so he went all the way, including donuts at great speed, great jumps over obstacles, and the highest jump over the more of 15 feet sand hill! He won 23 points from the judges. Ramminator and T-Maxx came out with a tie with 26 points after a great free style. We had one last truck to compete, and that was again Iron Outlaw. Jumps over the 15 feet sand hill, great donuts, wheelies, and long jumps over the obstacles made Iron Outlaw win 27 points, and again for 3 days in a row, our Monster Jam Free Style winner!
Albuquerque, it has been a great weekend, and in spite of the cold weather, we certainly felt the warmth of a generous audience, that made the Tingley Coliseum shake with all of your applause. Thanks for having us here one more year.
Thanks to our Rhino Racing Cars. Today we had Danny Contreras as our Rhino Car Racing winner.
In FMX we had for 3 days in a row winner Cody Elkins, who really electrified the track with his outlandish jumps over the ramp, including the Cody signature Back Flips. The crowd gave Elkins more than applause, they gave him their hearts!
Thanks again Albuquerque for your hospitality!! See you Next Year!!!!!!
Signing off for another great Monster Jam day..... Fernando Rubio, your event Announcer.
