Weekend Race Recap
Friday - For the second year the Monster Jam trucks and drivers made the Virginia Motor Speedway their home for the weekend. The lineup was outstanding and if the Friday night event was any indication of what was to come it is “all good”.
The event began with a well attended party in the pits featuring some of the best trucks in the world. It also featured some very interesting driver additions. Charlie Pauken was on hand to drive Escalade and Team Suzuki driver Bobby Parr is handling the weekend chores in the World Champion Batman. Another surprise was Carl Van Horn driving the legendary Mopar Magic.
Steve Sims in Stone Crusher, Bruce Haney aboard his Bad News truck. Aaron Basl in Turtle, Scott Hartsock aboard Gunslinger, and Pablo Huffaker driving Grave Digger rounded out the eight truck field.
The evening also featured Quad Wars between Team Virginia and Team Florida. In the end it was Florida who took the win much to the dismay of the Virginia fans. Jason Porterfield, captain of Team Virginia, promised vengeance in the Saturday night event.
Monster Jam racing has a few interesting turns with several trucks earning a second chance due to breakage. The nights big event was Monster Freestyle with Batman Rolling and Charlie Pauken flipping the Escalade truck backwards during a wheelie then rolled two additional times. Charlie was ok but the truck was in pieces on the track. While the action of Batman and Escalade was indeed dramatic neither truck earned a winning score from the judges. In fact, much of the action on the track in freestyle occurred after the:90 time limit. Another point killer from the judges perspective was the fact than more than once a truck did not finish the :90 of time. At the end of the night many left the track wondering if the crews were going to have enough time to put Escalade back together again and also repair the damage the tough freestyle course dished out to the monsters.
Racing Results:
Round One:
Grave Digger defeated Gunslinger
Batman over Escalade
Turtle beat Stone Crusher (Stone did not hit the lane ramp with both tires a :5 penalty.)
Mopar Magic downed Bad News
Round Two:
Grave Digger beat Batman
Mopar over Turtle
Race Final:
Grave Digger beat Turtle (Mopar Magic had brake problems forcing him out of the race)
Freestyle Results:
Bad News 11
Turtle 16
Mopar Magic 25*
Gunslinger 11
Batman 14
Stone Crusher 22
Escalade 21
Grave Digger 22
Carl Van Horn drove Mopar Magic to victory. He thanked the fans, his crew, truck owner Steve Sims, and the Original owner of Mopar Magic, Gary Wiggins, who for health reasons is not competing this year.
The night ended with fans lining up to get autographs from the drivers who brought them to their feet so many times during the pervious two hours.
Saturday -
One year earlier fans braved the thunder storms to see the gods of thunder race at Virginia Motor Speedway. The event had ended with rain and one of the wildest lightning storms I had even seen.
I felt good driving to the track Saturday. We had dodged the thunder storms that had been predicted for the night before leaving only 100 degree heat to contend with. Then at around 4pm we saw some clouds building in the Virginia sky. It didn’t take long for the storm to appear on radar and for 30 minutes it rained like crazy turning the track from great to greasy. Nobody knew where the rain came from but it certainly did a number on the track.
Fans in Virginia are very understanding, many went either under the grandstands or to their cars to wait out the storms. The downpour forced the cancellation of the party in the pits. The drivers, not wanting to disappoint the fans, did an autograph session under the safety of the grandstands. This gave those who came for the pit party a chance to meet drivers in a safer environment and to stay dry. What a deal!
At race time the track was in fair condition. The skies were clean and the grandstands were filling with fans wanting action. In short order they got what they wanted.
A seven truck field came out for the second and final event of the weekend. Escalade went back to the North Carolina shop for much needed repairs and driver Charlie Pauken who not only flipped the truck Friday night but also rolled it was content to sit back and watch the nights action.
Fastest qualifier for the day was Carl Van Horn aboard Mopar Magic. His time of 6.46 seconds was one tenth of a second faster than Bobby Parr in Batman. Mopar’s fast time gave him a bye run in round one of racing.
Race Results:
Round One:
Mopar Magic with a bye run moved to Semi-finals
Grave Digger defeated Gunslinger
Batman over Turtle
Bad News edged out Stone Crusher
Semi-Finals:
Mopar Magic defeated Grave Digger by inches
Batman over Bad News
Race Final:
Batman beat Mopar Magic
Bobby Parr was as excited as you could be. This was his first time driving the World Champion Batman. He got out of the truck and went immediately into the crowd of fans to give one luck fans his own Batman Pennants.
Quad Wars was won by Team Virginia bringing fans to their feet. The team from Florida for some reason just packed up and left for home before the night of monsters ended. “Our gig is over. There is no need to stay just to hear fans boo said team captain, Randy Dinkins. With those comments they loaded their equipment and left the speedway.
Monster Freestyle again was the highlight of the night. The judges scored hard yet fair with several going back to review the tape of the competitors :90 run. When all was said and done it was Grave Digger who earned a hard championship in Freestyle.
Freestyle Results
Bad News 11
Turtle 13
Mopar Magic 20
Gunslinger 17
Batman 22
Stone Crusher 23
Grave Digger 24
With the rain earlier in the evening one would have thought it was going to be cool. No chance. After the event at 10:30pm it was still 91 degrees outside. The win for Batman in racing and Grave Digger in freestyle gave all fans something to cheer about.
