Starting 2009 with a sample of what fans can look forward to in March at World Finals X, fifteen superstar Monster Jam teams rocked Houston’s Reliant Stadium with arguably the greatest event ever held in the sport’s storied history in that Texas city, and despite a strong influx of today’s rising younger stars in the field veterans Jim Creten and Dennis Anderson grabbed the hardware, Creten driving Bounty Hunter to the racing victory and Anderson’s crowd pleasing performance taking the freestyle competition.

Monster Jam officials and the track construction crew built what many drivers called a “mini Vegas”, since the obstacles were the largest ever seen in Houston and on a par with the NGK Spark Plugs World Finals in Las Vegas. Along with the huge freestyle obstacles the large, fast race course made for thrilling action round after round.

It was actually Darren Migues driving Iron Outlaw that initiated the wild action when he flipped the big Ford Expedition at the end of his qualifying run, knocking Iron Outlaw out of the race bracket, but the 2Xtreme team had the truck back in action for freestyle. Tom Meents drove Maximum Destruction to the fastest time to earn the number one seed in the race bracket, with Creten the second fastest.

On this night those qualifying seeds held up as Meents rolled through the top half of the bracket and eliminated long time rival Scott Hartsock in Gunslinger in the semifinals to advance to the Championship Race, and Bounty Hunter edged Grave Digger in the other semi to set up the showdown of two of Monster Jam’s most feared racers in the finale. To no one’s surprise the Championship Race, which added an extra lap to the course for the final run, was virtually even start to finish, Creten’s powerful Ford finding the muscle to take the victory by a half truck length.

The fans then were back on their feet throughout the freestyle battle. Showing just how strong this line-up was, every year of World Freestyle champions except 2003 was in competition Saturday night in Houston and the action was off the charts. One of those former World Champions, Lupe Soza, came out early in the order in El Toro Loco and used a combination of big air and an amazing save of the truck to take the lead, and held the top spot until late in the competition when Damon Bradshaw grabbed the lead in the Air Force Afterburner, he too using a phenomenal save to really get the crowd behind him.

Then it was George Balhan’s turn to step up, which he did, with one of his best ever freestyles on a stage of this magnitude. Balhan at one point barrel rolled his Escalade, landing back on all four wheels and continuing on to fill the regulation time and then the bonus period, his score of 28 putting him in the top spot until Anderson gave the Houston fans what many of them have been coming to see for more than two decades, Grave Digger going ballistic. The huge jumps and wild cross threads put Digger in the lead with two trucks still to run. First Meents started out rocking and also completely flipped Max-D only to land back on the wheels and continue but the truck broke at the half way mark and even though Meents kept on and filled the clock, the broken truck couldn’t match Grave Digger’s run in the scoring of the judges. When Meents’ score came up short Dennis commented “well now we know an Anderson is going to win”, since the only competitor left to run was reigning World Champion Adam Anderson in Taz. The champ came out strong but broke a rear planetary, then the front tie-rod, and Dennis Anderson thanked his fans for 27 years of support as he claimed the freestyle winner’s trophy.

RACING RESULTS
Fast qualifier – Maximum Destruction

1st round - Maximum Destruction bye run; Taz bye run (due to Iron Outlaw’s damage); Gunslinger def King Krunch; Cowboy def Escalade; Air Force Afterburner def Pouncer; Grave Digger def Blue Thunder in a photo finish; Predator def El Toro Loco; Bounty Hunter def Monster Mutt

2nd round - Maximum Destruction def Taz; Gunslinger def Cowboy; Grave Digger def Air Force Afterburner; Bounty Hunter def Predator

Semifinals - Maximum Destruction def Gunslinger; Bounty Hunter def Grave Digger

CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: BOUNTY HUNTER DEFEATED MAXIMUM DESTRUCTION

FREESTYLE RESULTS

GRAVE DIGGER 30 (26 regulation points + 4 bonus time points)
Escalade 28 (25 + 3)
Air Force Afterburner 24 (21 + 3)
Maximum Destruction 23 (22 + 1)
El Toro Loco 21
Bounty Hunter 21 (19 + 2)
Blue Thunder 20 (18 + 2)
Taz 19 (16 + 3)
Iron Outlaw 18 (16 + 2)
Predator 16 (15 + 1)
Gunslinger 16 (14 + 2)
Monster Mutt 15
Cowboy 11
Pouncer 10
King Krunch 9