Weekend Race Recap
Friday - 7:30PM - It was all Grave Digger for the first of three big days in Santa Rosa California. Pablo Huffaker drove the truck like he was trying to win the World Finals and struck gold in wine country. The beautiful hillsides of the Napa Valley echoed with the sound of monster trucks, quad racers and Pro Arena trucks as McLeas Tire Centers and Metro PCS presented The Hansel Ford/4 wheel Centers Monster Jam.
The weather in this part of the country can be a bit fickle. Rain one day, hot the next and cold and foggy on the next. Friday the weather was picture perfect for Monster Jam. The warm day gave drivers and crews the opportunity to work on their trucks for the weekend event. The cool evening was perfect for fans to sit in the stands and watch and for the competitors to be comfortable in the protective driving suits during the races.
High scores for Grave Digger in the wheelie competition and in Freestyle gave the black and green trucks easy wins. It was in racing the Digger has to work overtime. After being eliminated in the second round by Rick Swanson in Obsession, fate gave Grave Digger another chance.
The second round win for Obsession was hard on the truck. A hydraulic hose split at the end of the race forcing officials to tow the wounded Ford Obsession to the pit area. Still Pablo Huffaker had to run hard to defeat the Patriot driven by Dan Rodini in the race final.
The night also featured Quad Wars and the battle between Team Nevada and Team Las Vegas. After each team won a heat race the stage was set for the relay race style final. In the end it was Team Nevada that held out to win the main.
Pro Truck competition saw Tom Jones of Watsonville Ca. and Randy Avery of Modesto Ca. battle for the win. In the end Avery Held out to beat Jones by less than 3/4 of a second to win the title.
Results:
Truck wheelie Freestyle
Natural High 15 16
Tropical Thunder 11 13
Patriot 13 25
Obsession 15 8
Turtle 10 8
Grave Digger 24 29
It was a tough day for Aaron Basl and his Teenage Turtle truck. The vehicle count not be started for the opening,sputtered thru the wheelie contest and only scored high in Freestyle. Aaron vowed to be back Saturday night and get in the game to win.
Race Results:
Round One:
Patriot bye run
Obsession over Tropical Thunder
Grave Digger beat Natural High
Round Two: Semi Finals:
Patriot beat round one fast loser Natural High
Obsession beat Grave Digger (Obsession broke nlin.
Finals:
Grave Digger beat the Patriot.
Another big event is planned for Saturday afternoon. The public is invited to purchase tickets on the internet from Ticketmaster.com for both the Saturday Night and Sunday Afternoon events.
Saturday - 7:30PM -
The second of three Monster Jam events in Santa Rosa was not what Pablo Huffaker and Team Grave Digger wanted. After a clean sweep in the Friday event, Pablo could not get lady luck on his side in racing or freestyle.
It was not a Grave Digger night but what the fans experienced is something that is very obvious in today's environment. Simply put, the competition is so stiff today that even the legends can come up short any time and any place. It also proved that the competition in Santa Rosa was among the best in the world.
Grave Digger did win the wheelie competition leading everyone to believe it was going to be another Grave Digger event. Then the guys who lost the night before demonstrated what they had learned and how much better their trucks could run given the opportunity.
New drivers Kelvin Raymer, whos truck was featured on the front page of the Santa Rosa newspaper Saturday morning, drove his Natural High truck hard in the wheelie competition rolling the truck and doing extensive body damage. His crew was able to pull off the front clip and keep on rolling but it did make a ton of new fans for the rather different design truck.
Dan Rodini drove his Patriot truck to a quite respectable score of 26 in wheelies but Grave Digger driven by Pablo earned a 27 from the stingy judges.
Racing saw Grave Digger with two chances to win conme up short. Rodini took advantage of a good shot off the line and fast reaction time to earn the win.
Team California defeated Nevada in Quad Wars. As of this writing several riders on both teams are injured due to the tough competition. Nothing serious but with many tend to ride over their head during these battles many times leading to a quick need for tylenol or some other minor pain reliever.
Randy Avery won the Pro Arena truck competition.
Results:
Truck Wheelie Freestyle
Natural High 21 (rolled) 22
Tropical Thunder 13 19
Obsession 17 17
The Patriot 26 33
Turtle 22 25
Grave Digger 27 30
The score of 30 is normally a perfect score but due to Monster Jam officials rules changes earlier this year, giving these rare cases where regulation judges cant decide another faceless judge who is considered the silent judge. His score only counts when standard judging cant give a definite winner. This occurred Saturday when Rodini in the Patriot and Grave Digger tied. The third judge was beneficial in determining the winner. The "silent judge" pointed out that more than half of Grave Diggers freestyle action occurred after the 60 second regulation run. That fact alone gave the win to Dan Rodini and his Patriot truck. Even Pablo came over to congratulate Dan on his calm cool and collected driving style.
Racing was interesting with Natural High a bit banged up in the wheelie competition, Obsession took the win in round one.
Results went this way:
Round One:
Obsession over Natural High
Turtle beat Tropical Thunder
The Patriot defeated Grave Digger
Semi Finals:
Obsession over Grave Digger
Turtle beat The Patriot
Finals:
Turtle red lighted and the win went to Obsession.
The third and final Monster Jam in Santa Rosa is set for 2pm on Sunday Sunday Sunday.
Sunday - 2:00PM -
A hot Sunday afternoon in Santa Rosa began with a win in the wheelie competition for Pablo Huffaker and Grave Digger. The thousands of fans on hand cheered the Black and Green wrecking machine to another victory in the Freestyle competition but Grave Digger could not win in racing. That honor went to Dan Redoni and his Patriot truck.
The Day was special to Santa Rosa, this beautiful community located in the middle of wine country about 90 minutes from San Francisco was celebrating their agricultural heritage with the 46th annual 4-H Chickenque. You and I would call it a bar-b-que chicken sale but to the thousands of folks who began their afternoon at the fairgrounds it was Chickenque. Next was Monster Jam and nobody was disappointed. Six trucks ran hard and brought the sell out crowd to their feet repeatedly with great action.
In the Pro Arena truck division Larry Avery made it three in a row for a clean sweep of the weekend. Larry's daughter celebrated her first birthday Sunday afternoon. It was one year ago that Larry had to leave the track for the birth of his daughter. The beautiful little red head was there Sunday to cheer daddy on to victory.
Quad Wars saw Team California earn another win with a hard fought battle that came down to the main race when California's riders came from behind to earn the win.
When all was said and done Grave Digger driven by Pablo Huffaker won the Wheelie and Freestyle competitions and Dan Redoni drove his Patriot to the race win but the real winners were the fans who witnessed the wildest action of the weekend.
