Weekend Race Recap
Friday 7:00PM
The 2009 Thunder Nationals season began Friday night in Rochester N.Y. at the Blue Cross Arena. Gravedigger and Black Stallion shared the spotlight with four monster competitions up for grabs.
Fans flocked to see the monsters for the first event of the year and were thrilled with the nonstop action. Black Stallion won the wheelie contest early on scoring a 27 out of a possible 30. Bad News driven by Bruce Haney and Grave Digger with Randy Brown aboard were next with scores of 18 each.
Digger raced hard to win the race part of the night and continued his winning ways with wins in the donut and freestyle competitions. New driver/owner Ricky Brantley brought his Pure Adrenalin truck to the party. If the name sounds familiar it should. Randy Brown owned and drove a truck with that name for several seasons. Ricky did a great job and proved he is serious about being a competitor.
Bruce and Jamie Haney, the husband wife owners/driver of Bad News Travels Fast celebrated an anniversary of sorts Friday. It was 22 years ago that they had their first date together. They attended Monster Jam at Tampa Stadium.
Trey Meyers debuted the new body and power plant for Iron Warrior. The Black Stallion stable mate continues to improve and upgrade every time it goes back to the shop.
The event also included Quad Wars with Team N.Y. beating Team New England and the battle of good over evil with Glactron and Reptar.
Results:
Truck Wheelie Donut Freestyle
Iron Warrior 13 9 18
Pure Adrenalin 9 6 14
Bad News 18 22 22
Black Stallion 27* 20 21
El Toro Loco 15 10 9
Grave Digger 18 24* 27*
Race Results:
Round One:
Grave Digger beat Pure Adrenalin
El Toro Loco over Iron Warrior
Black Stallion downed Bad News Travels Fast
Semi-Finals
Grave Digger over round one fast loser Bad News Travels Fast
Black Stallion edged out El Toro Loco
Final:
Grave Digger defeated Black Stallion
Thunder Nationals Rochester Saturday Night
By: Joe Lowe
A sold out crowd attended Thunder Nationals Saturday night at the Blue Cross Center. It you are a Grave Digger fan it may not have been your night as the black and green wrecking machine fell short to both Bad News driven by Bruce Haney and Mike Vaters Black Stallion.
Vaters dominated the Wheelie contest and Freestyle. Bad News won the donut contest and Grave Digger managed to edge out Black Stallion for the win in racing. With so many great trucks and drives in the mix the fans were treated to an incredible amount of non stop action.
The highlight of the night was Black Stallions freestyle which began with his patented reverse car/van jump ending sixty seconds later with a power donut bringing the already excited crowd to its feet..
Results:
Truck Wheelie Donut Freestyle
Iron Warrior 19 16 16
Pure Adrenalin 16 8 17
Bad News 18 27 23
Black Stallion 24 24 27
El Toro Loco 22 23 20
Grave Digger 23 20 25
Racing Results:
Round One:
Black Stallion beat Iron Warrior
Grave Digger defeated El Toro Loco
Bad News over Pure Adrenalin
Semi Finals
Black Stallion over round one fast loser El Toro Loco
Grave Digger beat Bad News
Race Final:
Grave Digger beat Black Stallion in a close matchup.
In Quad Wars Team New England got the win over New York in the main.
Sunday 2:00PM -
The third and final event in Rochester began promptly at 2pm in the Blue Cross arena. Fans began to arrive before noon for the 1pm doors and most were in their seats wit flags waving for the opening ceremonies.
The action of the last two nights continued as Mike Vaters drove Black Stallion to a win in the wheelie contest but things began to go downhill for the five time Thunder Nationals champion after that. “We lost reverse and I am afraid the tranny is going out but we are working on the problem and most definitely will return for freestyle but the donut contest will be out for us”, said Vaters in an interview between rounds of racing.
Stallion did make it to the race finals against Grave Digger but came up short. Black Stallion lost his first round bid to El Toro Loco but came back as the fastest loser to defeat team mate Iron Warrior driven by Trey Meyers.
Grave Digger had a great afternoon winning racing, donut and freestyle competitions. It was another great day for Bruce Haney in Bad News Travels Fast with great scores in the donut and freestyle events.
Highlights for the day included Grave Diggers donuts, and his ultimate win in freestyle. They certainly will talk about Sundays event for many months to come in Rochester.
Results:
Truck Wheelie Donut Freestyle
Iron Warrior 25 21 17
Pure Adrenalin 20 15 15
Bad News 22 25 17
Black Stallion 28 broke 26
El Toro Loco 26 26 19
Grave Digger 27 30 28
Race Results:
Round One:
Iron Warrior over Bad News
Grave Digger beat Pure Adrenalin
El Toro downed Black Stallion
Semi Finals:
Black Stallion over Iron Warrior
Grave Digger beat El Toro Loco
Final:
Grave Digger beat Black Stallion
