Weekend Race Recap
Friday 7:30 p.m. - A huge crowd at Ocala Speedway Friday night saw first hand just how competative today's Monster Jam action is when the four competitions at the central Florida venue were won by four different Monster Jam superstars to kick off a four-event weekend.
Opening the action with the Wheelie Competition Randy Brown hit a pair of huge sky wheelies to take the weekend's first victory. Then on to racing on a J-hook style track on the infield of the race track that was converted from asphalt to dirt in the year since Monster Jam last saw action there. Grave Digger won the opening race over Mopar Magic, but a broken brake rotor would eliminate Randy Brown's Digger from the race bracket anyway as several crews pitched in to get Grave Digger fixed for the night's other competitions. Gunslinger replace Digger in round two, but Steve Sims in Stone Crusher knocked off Scott Hartsock's big Ford in the semifinals. The other semifinal saw local favorite Bruce Haney drive Bad News to victory over Carl Van Horn in Mopar Magic to set up a Stone Crusher vs. Bad News Championship Race. The finale was close from start to finish with Stone Crusher pulling out a one truck length victory for the racing win.
Next up was the donut contest, which was very close with every Monster Jam competitor thrilling the crowd with their own versions of cyclone style donuts. In the end the judges scored the win for Bad News, no surprise since Haney has dominated donut contest at Thunder National events for year.
With three competitions in the books and no wins yet for Grave Digger Brown let it all hang out in freestyle, where the last track surface gave the black and green wrecking machine plenty of room to manuever, and Brown sailed Grave Digger over every thing in sight, getting the biggest air of the event and keeping Grave Digger on the ragged edge throughout the run to win the first freestyle competition of the weekend in Ocala.
RACING RESULTS
1st round - Grave Digger def Mopar Magic; Stone Crusher def War Wizard; Bad News def Gunslinger (Mopar Magic advanced to semifinals as fast loser - Gunslinger advanced to semifinals due to Grave Digger's broken brake rotor)
Semifinals - Stone Crusher def Gunslinger; Bad News def Mopar Magic
CHAMPIONSHIP RACE - STONE CRUSHER DEFEATED BAD NEWS
FREESTYLE RESULTS
GRAVE DIGGER 22
Mopar Magic 21
Stone Crusher 19
Bad News 18
Gunslinger 14
War Wizard 3
WHEELIE RESULTS
WAR WIZARD 23
Mopar Magic 21
Stone Crusher 19
Grave Digger 18
Bad News 16
Gunslinger 15
DONUT RESULTS
BAD NEWS 20
Stone Crusher 18
Grave Digger 18
Mopar Magic 16
Gunslinger 15
War Wizard 9
Saturday 2:00 p.m. - Rising Monster Jam star Steve Sims drove Stone Crusher to the racing championship for the second straight day and Randy Brown again rocked north central Florida with a winning Grave Digger freestyle perfromance Saturday afternoon at Ocala Speedway.
The action packed event opened with a wild wheelie contest, where Randy Moore got the win in War Wizard but crashed the futuristic Willys at the end of the wheelie, the truck suffering substantial rear end damage and would not be able to come back for the other competitions during the matinee on a beautiful Florida afternoon.
The racing bracket Saturday afternoon played out much like it did Friday night, with Sims and Florida native Bruce Haney in Bad News earning the slots in the Championship Race. In the final race again it was Stone Crusher with just a little more than Bad News coming to the finish, and Sims had recorded his second straight event racing triumph.
In a mild surprise Grave Digger upset vaunted donut specialist Bad News in the donut contest, then it was on to freestyle where the Monster Jam superstars took advantage of the huge space on the dirt track surface and several added obstacles to put on a high flying exhibition that included several huge slap wheelie and even more crowd pleasing cyclone donuts. In the end it was Brown who had more of the sic air and wild cyclones, plus a length of the front stretch slap wheelie that took home the freestyle win once again for Team Grave Digger.
RACING RESULTS
1st round - Stone Crusher bye run; Bad News def Mopar Magic; Grave Digger def Gunslinger (Gunslinger advanced to semifinals as fast loser)
Semifinals - Stone Crusher def Gunslinger; Bad News def Grave Digger
CHAMPIONSHIP RACE - STONE CRUSHER DEFEATED BAD NEWS
FREESTYLE RESULTS
GRAVE DIGGER 28
Stone Crusher 21
Gunslinger 20
Bad News 18
Mopar Magic 14
WHEELIE RESULTS
WAR WIZARD 21
Mopar Magic 20
Stone Crusher 18
Gunslinger 15
Bad News 13
Grave Digger 11
DONUT RESULTS
GRAVE DIGGER 25
Stone Crusher 24
Bad News 20
Gunslinger 15
Saturday 7:30 p.m. - With a huge standing room only crowd of enthusiastic fans packing into Ocala Speedway Randy Brown turned the wick on Grave Digger up even higher, dominating the competition to sweep all four events Saturday night on the newly redesigned dirt track in north central Florida.
Brown served notice that Grave Digger brought the "A" game Saturday night from the start, where he ended War Wizard's two event win streak in the wheelie competition. Brown followed a huge sky wheelie by powering Grave Digger immediately into one of the weekend's best slap wheelies to grab the win according to the three fans serving as judges, and frankly, according to the rest of the capacity crowd as well.
Having ended Randy Moore and War Wizard's run in wheelies, next Brown would seek to stop Steve Sims' racing momentum. Sims had driven his Stone Crusher Ford to the racing win in the weekend's first two brackets, but that ended Saturday night when Brown found some Grave Digger magic on the fast, tricky race course. Grave Digger got Stone Crusher out of the way in the semifinals when Brown edged Sims at the finish line, the Grave Digger beat Florida hero Scott Hartsock and Gunslinger in the Championship Race.
Two wins down, two more to go as the event hit the half way mark, and Brown proved to be up to the challenge. Grave Digger's lengthy cyclone style donuts netted Brown his third win of the night, and Grave Digger was on a roll heading into the Freestyle Competition. The bar was set high for the Digger, especially with crowd pleasing performances from War Wizard and Stone Crusher, but Brown was up to the challenge and put on the best freestyle of the exciting weekend so far, Grave Digger completing the Saturday night sweep of all four competitions.
RACING RESULTS
1st round - War Wizard def Stone Crusher; Gunslinger def Mopar Magic; Grave Digger def Bad News (Stone Crusher advanced to semifinals as fast loser)
Semifinals - Gunslinger def War Wizard; Grave Digger def Stone Crusher
CHAMPIONSHIP RACE - GRAVE DIGGER DEFEATED GUNSLINGER
FREESTYLE RESULTS
GRAVE DIGGER 24
War Wizard 20
Stone Crusher 20
Gunslinger 15
Mopar Magic 14
WHEELIE RESULTS
GRAVE DIGGER 26
War Wizard 23
Gunslinger 19
Stone Crusher 17
Bad News 14
Mopar Magic 12
DONUT RESULTS
GRAVE DIGGER 27
Stone Crusher 25
War Wizard 21
Mopar Magic 20
Bad News 20
Gunslinger 19
Sunday 2:00 p.m. - Steve Sims drove his Stone Crusher Ford to the racing win for the third time this weekend while Randy Brown completed a weekend sweep of all four freestyle competitions in Grave Digger Sunday afternoon at Ocala Speedway.
Showing the large Florida crowd why his team earned the 2008 Monster Jam Team of the Year honors, Sims won the day's first two battles, winning the wheelie contest for the first time this weekend, and then rolling to another racing event championship. In the Championship Race Sims beat his other team truck, Mopar Magic, being driven by Floridian Lionel Easler. Easler was subbing for Carl Van Horn, who aggrivated a shoulder injury in Saturday afternoon's event and was able to continue working on the trucks, but stepped out of the driver's seat for the final two events on the hot Florida weekend. Landing across the finish line with the racing win against Mopar Magic Stone Crusher broke a front sway bar, so Sims' crew began thrashing to get Stone Crusher back in time for freestyle.
That meant Stone Crusher would not compete in the donut contest, but Sims' teammate picked up the slack as Easler won that contest in Mopar Magic. Brown then made sure that the Sims' team would not get a clean sweep of Sunday's action when he powered Grave Digger through another high energy freestyle that was a winner according to the scoring of the three fans serving as judges to give the black and green wrecking machine a clean sweep of all four freestyles held at Ocala Speedway this weekend.
RACING RESULTS
1st round - Stone Crusher bye run; Gunslinger def Grave Digger; Mopar Magic def War Wizard (War Wizard advanced to semifinals as fast loser)
Semifinals - Stone Crusher def War Wizard; Mopar Magic def Gunslinger
CHAMPIONSHIP RACE - STONE CRUSHER DEFEATED MOPAR MAGIC
FREESTYLE RESULTS
GRAVE DIGGER 25
Gunslinger 23
War Wizard 20
Mopar Magic 16
WHEELIE RESULTS
STONE CRUSHER 21
War Wizard 19
Grave Digger 19
Gunslinger 15
Mopar Magic 13
DONUT RESULTS
MOPAR MAGIC 23
Grave Digger 22
War Wizard 20
Gunslinger 18
