Weekend Race Recap
Friday - 7:30PM - As he has for several other teams in the past, Carl Van Horn had immediate success in his new ride when he drove Mopar Magic to the win in the night's Championship Race and Randy Brown powered Grave Digger to an impressive freestyle win Friday night at the Florida Sports Park in Naples.
The night began with the wheelie contest where Brown drove Grave Digger to the win in the first competition of the weekend on a beautiful night in southwest Florida, then Brown took the number one seed in the racing bracket by turning in the fastest qualifying time in Grave Digger on the huge Chicago style oval track. In the 1st round, however, Grave Digger lost to War Wizard when Brown was penalized for missing the final ramp. The biggest story of the first round though was the debut of 18 year old Jeremy Slifko, who in his first race driving Backdraft defeated his father Andy in the Eradicator. The Championship Race would match Florida favorite Scott Hartsock in Gunslinger with Van Horn, who drove Mopar to the narrow victory.
Brown had to go huge in freestyle after the other competitors in the field kept racing the car, most notably Van Horn and teammate Steve Sime in Stone Crusher, that pair tying for second with scores of 25 each from the three judges. But Brown was up to the challenge and pushed Grave Digger through a high flying performance that included the night's most brilliant donuts and ragged edge excitement, Grave Digger earning a score of 29 and the win.
RACING RESULTS
Fast qualifier - Grave Digger
1st Round - War Wizard def Grave Digger; Gunslinger def Stone Crusher; Backdraft def Eradicator; Mopar Magic def Cowboy (Grave Digger advanced to second round due to War Wizard's mechanical problems)
Semifinals - Gunslinger def Grave Digger; Mopar Magic def Backdraft
CHAMPIONSHIP RACE - MOPAR MAGIC DEFEATED GUNSLINGER
FREESTYLE RESULTS
GRAVE DIGGER 29
Mopar Magic 25
Stone Crusher 25
Gunslinger 23
Backdraft 22
War Wizard 22
Eradicator 22
Cowboy 13
WHEELIE CONTEST
GRAVE DIGGER 24
War Wizard 21
Stone Crusher 20
Cowboy 17
Backdraft 17
Mopar Magic 16
Gunslinger 15
Eradicator 14
Saturday - 7:30PM - What a night it turned out to be for Randy Brown in front of a standing room only crowd in Naples' Florida Sports Park. Not only did he dig down deep to find just enough extra to hand Carl Van Horn in Mopar Magic his first loss of the weekend in the Championship Race, and not only did he win his second consecutive freestyle of the weekend, but he and his entire crew thrashed all night on the War Wizard truck to thrill the huge crowd by getting Randy Moore's exotic ride back onto the track for a surprising and popular freestyle performance that had every fan on their feet in approval of the thrilling event.
It was Moore who won the night's first competition. Moore nailed a picture perfect slap wheelie, riding War Wizard the length of the huge front straightway, then got incredible air in a sky wheelie to win the competition but the truck suffered a broken tie-rod and the rear wheel was broken in half. With the crews on hand pitching in Andy Slifko loaned War Wizard a week off Eradicator and the Digger crew pitched in to get War Wizard back out to freestyle, shocking the crowd that thought the competition had ended when Brown electrified the fans with Grave Digger's winning freestyle.
Earlier Grave Digger won the racing bracket, finding something extra in the finale to beat Mopar Magic, who had looked almost unbeatable all night on the lengthy oval course. The Championship Race was a classic photo finish with Brown bringing Grave Digger across the finish line less than a tenth of a second quicker than Van Horn completed Mopar's run in.
RACING RESULTS
Fast qualifier - Mopar Magic
1st Round - Mopar Magic bye run (War Wizard broke in wheelie contest); Gunslinger def Backdraft; Grave Digger def Eradicator; Stone Crusher def Cowboy
Semifinals - Mopar Magic def Gunslinger; Grave Digger def Stone Crusher
CHAMPIONSHIP RACE - GRAVE DIGGER DEFEATED MOPAR MAGIC
FREESTYLE RESULTS
GRAVE DIGGER 29
War Wizard 25
Stone Crusher 23
Gunslinger 23
Mopar Magic 18
Backdraft 13
WHEELIE CONTEST
WAR WIZARD 20
Grave Digger 15
Stone Crusher 13
Mopar Magic 12
Gunslinger 12
Cowboy 9
Backdraft 7
Eradicator 4
Sunday - 2:00PM - Steve Sims mastered one of the longest race courses ever created for the Monster Jam Summer Heat Series and defeated Carl Van Horn and Mopar Magic in the Championship Race and Randy Brown rocked the house again in both freestyle and the wheelie contest, winning both of those competitions Sunday afternoon at the Florida Sports Park.
Fresh from his impressive debut last month at the Monster Jam NGK Spark Plugs World Finals, Sims got fired up watching the highlights of his machine and the entire Monster Jam field on CBS, then came out roaring to make it into the final race on the long oval course for the first time this weekend. His opponent, Van Horn, made it into the championship round all three events in Mopar Magic, but in the finale Sunday one slip in the final turn cost Van Horn, and Sims nailed his run spot on to drive Stone Crusher to the one truck length win.
Freestyle again had the crowd standing and roaring, especially the winning performance from Brown who attacked the huge course with reckless abandon. Brown sailed Grave Digger all over the Naples swamp buggy track, continuously hitting the biggest air of the weekend, and was a no doubt freestyle winner to wrap up another great weekend in southwest Florida.
RACING RESULTS
1st Round - Stone Crusher def Backdraft; Mopar Magic def Grave Digger; Cowboy def Gunslinger (Gunslinger advanced to semifinals as fastest loser)
Semifinals - Stone Crusher def Gunslinger; Mopar Magic def Cowboy
CHAMPIONSHIP RACE - STONE CRUSHER DEFEATED MOPAR MAGIC
FREESTYLE RESULTS
GRAVE DIGGER 27
Stone Crusher 24
Mopar Magic 22
Cowboy 13
WHEELIE CONTEST
GRAVE DIGGER 23
Mopar Magic 18
Backdraft 16
Gunslinger 13
Stone Crusher 13
Cowboy 10
War Wizard 10
