Friday Night

  The first of two events, but with the way the drivers were competing and tearing their equipment up you’d think it was the World Finals.  Mike Wine set the tone for the evening when he and Monster Mutt ripped off a fantastic wheelie and rolled off onto his side, but still secured a score of 25 and the win.  The last one to come out for his chance at the win was Pablo Huffacker and GraveDigger.  He tried his best but the win went to Mike and Mutt.
In the racing portion of the evening, the track lay-out and dirt conditions proved to be the biggest obstacle for the drivers.  A Chicago style format was laid out and it proved to pretty tricky for the teams to read.  Gritty and dry 1 minute and wet and mushy the next, the trick was for the drivers to try and find where the grip was.  The driver able to best read the racing service wasn’t a big surprise as he has been doing this for over 2 decades.  Again, Pablo Huffacker and GraveDigger were the unbeatable duo.
We weren’t too sure what to expect from the judges as we were preparing for the final element of the night.  Freestyle!  The fans were absolutely ready for it, but then again so were the drivers.  With the scores that the judges had shown during the wheelie contest, we knew that it was going to be a hard sell for big scores.  It proved to be true early on when no one was able to score out of the teens.  That was until Pablo Huffacker and GraveDigger had the whole sell-out crowd raising the roof off the place.  I should also mention the fact that Pablo came into the weekend suffering from a major case of the flu and had spent the entire day on his back resting.  WOW, did it pay off!  Another major win for Pablo and Digger, I guess you can say the legend continues.
At the end of the night, another sell-out crowd, another Digger win, more excited Monster Jam fans talking about going to the Saturday night show and even the fairgrounds event coming up in April.

Saturday Night

  It was obvious during this afternoon’s Built Ford Tough Party In The Pits, that Pablo Huffacker was definitely feeling better!  All smiles, he seemed to have a little extra “gitty-up” in his step while signing tons of autographs.  You sure could see it in competition as well.  During the wheelie contest in particular Digger took the win.  It didn’t come easy though as it was only a 3 point advantage over Rick Swanson and Obsession and a 2 point margin over Lindsey Weenk and Blue Thunder.
In the racing portion of the evening, it was close finishes race after race.  No closer than the semi-finals when again, it was Lindsey and Huffacker paired up.  We had to go to the replay screen 3 different times, but in the end, Digger inched out the win.  Going into the finals, a new face was suited up to take his shot at the perennial favorite.  Aaron Basl and his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle lined up and were chomping at the bit.  It came down to one small bobble on Aaron’s part and a perfect run for Pablo and Digger won again.
4 trucks into the freestyle competition and once again you could see the signs of 3 very tough judges.  The first 4 drivers had only scored in the teens.  That was until Lindsey hit a 21.  The fans weren’t exactly overjoyed with the score and had no problem letting the judges know it.  It didn’t matter.  Saturday night belonged to Pablo Huffacker and GraveDigger.  The 2 of them earned every point, every win tonight and the fans appreciated one of the most dominating performances that have been put in by any driver in quite sometime.  Pablo let everyone know during the winning freestyle interview that he was coming back to Fresno in April and hoped to see everybody there.