Weekend Race Recap

Friday 7:30

      For the second straight year Monster Jam returned to the beautiful John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville VA. Dennis Anderson returned as promised from last year when he was unable to drive because of an injury that had his son Adam behind the wheel.

      The night started off with the Hardee's wheelie contest as Black Stallion took the first win of the night with a score of 27. It was fitting that Vatters took the first win to show the fans why he was just selected as the 19th truck to Qualify for the World Finals. Grave Digger was second with a huge leap over the cars and a score of 26. Stone Crusher was next with a 23 followed by T-Maxx with a 21 and Bad News with a 15. The Excitement for the night was Mopar Magic as he skied his truck high in the air setting it on the tailgate and giving it to much throttle flipping the truck over on to it top destroying the entire truck putting him out of commission for the night.

      Racing was the closest I have seen in awhile as each truck battled for the win. With three World Finals qualifying trucks on hand and another World Finals veteran (Carl Van Horn) in the House you now understand what I mean. Stone Crusher started where he left off last year here as he took home the gold by knocking out T-Maxx in the finals. Steve Sims got there by coming from round one as the fast looser and by defeating Black Stallion in the semi finals. T-Maxx made his way there by taking out Stone Crusher in round one and Grave Digger in the semi's. In other action Grave Digger had a buy in round one and Black Stallion defeated Bad news in another close race.

      Stone Crusher again was the truck to beat in the highly anticipated Doughnut competition. Simms spun his truck to another victory with a high score of 26 followed by T-Maxx with a 23 and Bad News with a 21. Grave Digger tried his hardest to take out the competition but couldn't get the Black and Green Wrecking machine to sit in one spot resulting in a low 17. Black Stallion had a great doughnut but fell short with a 20.

      Freestyle was last and the field of trucks dwindled down to three that were still running. Bad News was out do to a bad RII radio, T-Maxx had a possible blown engine and Mopar was still trying to get bandaged up from the earlier roll over. Stone Crusher tried to keep his streak going as he scored a 19 to start the freestyle contest. Vatters was next in his Black Stallion and wowed the crowd with some sick air off the van stack and some great doughnuts for a score of 23. Dennis was last to go and knew the crowd wanted a win from the Digger. The green light came on and the sixty second run turned in to two minutes as Anderson destroyed the arena floor and took home the victory with a 25 for his first win ever in the John Paul Jones Arena.

Saturday 7:30

      Another wild and crazy night was had by all in attendance at the John Paul Jones arena. The road to Vegas didn't stop here as each of the six Monster Trucks put it on the line to gain the status of the best in Virginia. The night started off with the wheelie competition and Mopar Magic redeemed himself after last night and took the win away from Grave Digger with a score of 29. He and Digger tied with scores of 27 but the extra judge scored Mopar 2 extra points for the win.  T-Maxx was next with a 25 followed by Stone Crusher and Black Stallion with 24. Bad news who was first to go in the contest finished with a 14. 

      Racing was next and Black Stallion stepped it up to take the finals win over Grave Digger. Vatters was on his game and showed the crowd and the Black and Green Wrecking machine why he was selected to go to the World Finals. Black Stallion made it there by defeating Digger in round one and T-Maxx in the semi finals. Digger made it to the finals by coming back as fast looser in the semi finals to take out Bad news. Stone Crusher lost to T-Maxx in the first round as well as Mopar Magic loosing to Bad News.

      At the break the fans were treated to a Jam session with the BMX and FMX riders jumping at the same time on the Arena floor. Mike Vatters II battled it out against Joe Marks to see who was king of tricks as the crowd was going crazy over the huge tricks. All six riders thanked the crowd for there support and hoped to come back next year.

      Doughnuts were next and the smoke was rolling off the tires. Black Stallion continued his winning streak by scoring the only perfect 30 of the weekend to take the win. T-Maxx was second with an awesome doughnut that scored him a 29. Digger and Stone Crusher tied with scores of 25 as Bad News was cut short on his run with a 20 followed up by Mopar with a 19.

      Freestyle again was a high light and Dennis stepped it up. I and the crowd knew he wouldn't leave here defeated and at the end of his freestyle run the crowd was on there feet for a score of 28 and the win. Dennis told the crowd before we parted that if it was for the he wouldn't be were he is at today and told every one to stick around for an autograph. Black Stallion was second with another great freestyle and a score of 25 followed by Stone Crusher with a 24. T=Maxx was stopped short of his run and only scored a 20 as Mopar Magic took a 15 and Bad news a 12.

      With only one more week of Monster Jam's before the World Finals each truck is still battling it out for the final four positions. It is going to be exciting to see who it will be next week as I travel to Laffeyete Louisiana for my last show of the first quarter.

      Monster Jam Announcer Greg Whitacre