Weekend Race Recap
Friday 7:30 p.m. - In a field chock full of Monster Jam World Champions it was Mike Vaters showing how he has won seven Thunder Nationals titles himself, blasting his Black Stallion Ford through the American Bank Center in a high flying big air display to win the freestyle competition after Pablo Huffaker had driven Grave Digger to the racing win, beating Black Stallion in the finale to highlight a Friday night full of action in front of a loud, near capacity crowd in Corpus Christi, TX.
The excitement started right off the bat in the sky wheelie contest, where hometown hero Lupe Soza brought the crowd to its feet with a winning, but costly performance. Soza launched El Toro Loco into an unbelievable wheelie onto the crush cars, landing so hard that it seemed to fold the truck in half! The 2004 World Freestyle Champion was a no-doubt winner, scoring a perfect 30 in the wheelie contest, but despite a night of hard thrashing by the the El Toro crew they coud not get the Corpus Christi native back for the remaining competitions, with several hours of work still on tap to get the crazy bull ready for Saturday night's weekend Monster Jam wrap-up.
With the crowd still buzzing about Soza's massive wheelie the racing bracket got underway with Huffaker knocking off two-time reigning World Racing Champion John Seasock and Batman in one semifinal race, while Vaters powered Black Stallion to the win in the other half of the semifinal bracket over Aaron Basl, driving Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. Then Huffaker would keep the upper hand in the Championship Race driving Grave Digger to the win over Black Stallion.
Huffaker followed up the racing win with another victory in the night's next competition. The 2007 World Freestyle Champion then grabbed the win in the donut contest convincingly.
The final Monster Jam battle of the night, of course, was freestyle and Vaters wowed the huge crowd with leaps that seemed impossible inside an arena, Black Stallion's big air assault bringing some of the night's loudest cheers from the fired up fans. Grave Digger came out to try and knock off Black Stallion and Huffaker was impressive but clearly had some mechanical problems that kept him from matching Vaters incredible leaps, Black Stallion taking the freestyle win by one point over Digger.
Canadian Paul Smith took the win in freestyle motocross and Bobby Parr returned to his roots, the Team Suzuki Monster Jam driver jumping back on a quad to win the quad racing main on a busy night in South Texas.
RACING RESULTS
1st round - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle bye run; Grave Digger def Iron Warrior; Batman def Black Stallion (Black Stallion advanced to semifinals as fastest round one loser)
Semifinals - Black Stallion def Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle; Grave Digger def Batman
CHAMPIONSHIP RACE - GRAVE DIGGER DEFEATED BLACK STALLION
FREESTYLE RESULTS
BLACK STALLION 24
Grave Digger 23
Batman 22
Iron Warrior 18
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle 15
WHEELIE CONTEST RESULTS
EL TORO LOCO 30
Grave Digger 26
Black Stallion 23
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle 21
Iron Warrior 19
Batman 14
DONUT CONTEST RESULTS
GRAVE DIGGER 27
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle 19
Batman 18
Black Stallion 18
Iron Warrior 11
Saturday 7:30 p.m. - An all-star line-up of Monster Jam superstars showed just how competative the sport really is these days as four different drivers each claimed a victory in front of a sold out crowd loving every minute of the intense action in Corpus Christi's American Bank Center.
For the second straight night hometown hero Lupe Soza opened the event with another amazing sky wheelie as El Toro Loco won the wheelie contest to the delight of the Corpus fans. Soza is a resident of the area, living in Orange Grove some 25 minutes away and was clearly a fan favorite all weekend long.
Next up was the racing competition, with the first round highlighted by a match-up between the teams that have won the last three World Racing Championships, Team Grave Digger, represented by Pablo Huffaker, versus John Seasock and Batman. Digger won the 2006 title while Seasock and Batman have claimed the last two crowns but on this Texas night it was Huffaker who powered his Grave Digger to the narrow round one victory. Batman still advanced to the semifinals as the fast loser from round one but was eliminated there by Mike Vaters in Black Stallion while Grave Digger knocked off El Toro Loco in the other half of the bracket. The rematch from the Friday night finale again went Huffaker's way with Grave Digger winning the Championship Race for the second straight night.
The third battle for the monsters of the night came in the donut contest, where Aaron Basl nailed a brilliant round of cyclone style donuts in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle to take the victory, setting the stage for an amazing freestyle competition where each truck turned in a strong performance, but it was Vaters who found a way to work in several unique cross-threat moves in the tight quarters that impressed the judges the most and Black Stallion won freestyle for the second consecutive time.
Other competition on tap in front of the appreciative crowd saw J.C. Lucas win the quad racing and Oklahoma City's Cody Elkins winning in freestyle motocross.
RACING RESULTS
1st round - Black Stallion def Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle; El Toro Loco def Iron Warrior; Grave Digger def Batman (Batman advanced to semifinals as fastest round one loser)
Semifinals - Black Stallion def Batman; Grave Digger def El Toro Loco
CHAMPIONSHIP RACE - GRAVE DIGGER DEFEATED BLACK STALLION
FREESTYLE RESULTS
BLACK STALLION 24
El Toro Loco 22
Batman 22
Grave Digger 21
Iron Warrior 20
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle 18
WHEELIE CONTEST RESULTS
EL TORO LOCO 28
Black Stallion 26
Grave Digger 24
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle 17
Iron Warrior 16
Batman 16
DONUT CONTEST RESULTS
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLE 23
Batman 22
El Toro Loco 18
Iron Warrior 9
Grave Digger 9
Black Stallion 6
