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The Announcer - By Brian Varmecky (January 9th, 2007 - www.wmtrl.com) - LET'S GO RACING!! Busy has been the word here at WMTRL headquarters, as we’ve been recording results all weekend. We’re behind our early goals of percentage reported, but the numbers are a bit misleading at the moment. To date, we have 34 of 59 events fully recorded (57.6%), but of the 25 missing, 4 are awaiting driver identification and 6 may have just been exhibition. Once we’ve heard back from our contacts (some of whom are still on the road), we should be able to bring the numbers up.
- WEEKEND RECAP In the standings, Marc McDonald is on top after sweeping his three events in Columbus. He nearly won Rookie of the Year last year, but now seems to be a threat for the world championship. The 91-points event in Ohio made it the 2nd biggest event of the year. The biggest event (by far) was the 16-truck field in Houston, where Tom Meents earned a massive 127 points. Meents also won 91 points in Minneapolis back in December, and finds himself ranked 2nd in the World. He certainly has the talent to stay in the Top Ten, but pre-race breakage cost him a lot last season. With some better luck in 2007, Meents is certainly a contender for the world championship. BIRMINGHAM - Pablo Huffaker starts the season in familiar fashion, winning all 3 events over Lee O’Donnell in Birmingham. The weekend also saw Damon Bradshaw’s first heat win against Chad Fortune on Saturday night. ROCHESTER - One of the winningest Digger drivers in recent years has been Randy Brown, and he’s just put 3 more under his belt as he thunders to the top of the Thunder Nationals circuit. Mike Vaters in his new Black Stallion encountered an early upset when teammate Trey Meyers knocked him out in the opening round of the weekend, but Vaters made the finals on Saturday and Sunday. We still need the semi-finalists for Sunday to count the event. COUNCIL BLUFFS - Neil Elliot and Charlie Pauken had a nice feud out in Iowa. They met in the finals all four events, with Elliot winning the first two, and Pauken tying the series with the final two wins. DES MOINES - No sweeps in Des Moines, as each night had a different winner! Chad Tingler was almost eliminated in the first round when he lost to John Killenger on a penalty, but he used the fast loser position to return to the finals. However, Alex Blackwell came out on top Friday night. Tingler returned to the finals during the day race, and knocked off Andy Slifko on the Chicago-course. To end the weekend, fan favorite Mark Schroeder picked up his first win since August 26th, defeating Andy Slifko in Eradicator. LEXINGTON - The state of Kentucky has been severely lacking in racing events, but the US Hot Rod Association finally gave the fans a race of their own. Lupe Sosa came out on top, defeating Bobby Parr in the finals on the concrete drag. KNOXVILLE / CEDAR RAPIDS - Still not sure what all happened in AMP Knoxville, but we do know that Dale Benear in Raminator swept the weekend’s racing. The other AMP event in Cedar Rapids saw Dave Rife take the finals win over Casey LaDelle. No report from Friday. MONTGOMERY - Bruce Haney pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the weekend, winning back-to-back Chicago-style events against Gary Porter! Haney isn’t on the standings yet, however, as we don’t know who drove the Turtles truck. Once we find out, look for the Bad News Chevy to be near the top. CFP WINTER NATIONALS – The longest active running point series, the CFP Winter Nationals, kicked off with 5 events in 2 cities. Out in Cape Girardeau, MO, Dan Runte won both events, defeating 2006 series champion Brad Campbell and Jason Grill respectively. Runte made over 80% of his final rounds in 2006 and is off to a flying start once again. Back east in Trenton, NJ, Jon Zimmer in the Traxxas T-Maxx swept all 3 races against Bigfoot’s Dave Harkey. (We don’t have Friday results yet) SIR Racing has had a great start to the year after making lots of progress in 2006. Together, they have 4 wins in 6 events! TNT STEEL THUNDER – The new Steel Thunder tour opened in Salt Lake City and Nashville. In Utah, James Tigue won the first night, but rookie Ron Duncombe shut the door on Saturday, winning both events. In Nashville, Allen Pezo beat new teammate Lenny Kuiler on Friday. Not report from Nashville for Saturday. HUNTINGTON – The Monster Nationals get an earlier start this year with the addition of Huntington’s Big Sandy Superstore Arena. Defending champion Mark Hall takes the first win over arch-rival Doug Noelke. No report from Saturday. LITTLE ROCK – There were many firsts in Little Rock, as Powell made his debut with the Sin City Crusher team, Lionel Easler debuted his Instigator truck, and Devin Jones unveiled the brand new Barbarian. We’re awaiting confirmation on the chicago-style races, but we know that Kirk Dabney took home both drag races, beating teammate David Brown on Friday, and Chris Powell on Saturday. No word from Fayetteville (which may have been a freestyle only event) or Kalispell. Neither Mark Hall nor Linsey Weenk are in the standings yet, and that’s because our minimum race total is current 2 events, and they both sit at 1. (Weenk competed in Houston, and Hall competed in Huntington for which we only have Friday results)
- WHAT’S an EWR and PPP? Even faithful followers of the WMTRL might be thrown off by these new terms for the 2007 season, so here’s a quick run down on what they mean, and how they look after the first big weekend. EWR is Event Win Rating. Obviously, if you win 1 event, it counts as 1 win. As you’ll see on the standings, some drivers have won several! But with such variety in field size and bracket types, a win at one event might be easier than a win at another event. Certainly winning a race is tough, but your opponent can make a big difference in how tough. Factors like bye-runs and fast losers also affect the difficulty of advancing. The EWR takes all these factors into account and compiles them into one number so that you can compare otherwise incomparable events. Keep in mind, we’re still experimenting with this, so it doesn’t affect the standings just yet, but so far, it seems promising. Our average EWR (1.000) is based off a field of 8-trucks (no fast losers) with an average rank value of 3.5 (which is based off where the drivers were ranked the previous year). In the standings, you’ll see that Tom Meents has one of the highest EWRs at 1.075, which is very good. If you check his schedule, you’ll see that he competed in two very tough fields: 8-trucks in Minneapolis and 16-trucks in Houston. The Houston event had EWR of 1.210 which is huge! Why? Because you needed 4 heat wins to win the event, there were no fast-loser positions, and the drivers were some of the toughest in the sport. (Yes, I know there was actually a fast loser, but in this case, it was because 2 trucks broke pre-race, so it was actually a substitution. Half the field made the following round, from 16 to 8) Tom has had tough opponents and no opportunities to be a fast loser, which has given him a very high EWR. In contrast, the Lexington event had an EWR of 0.608. This is because the field was smaller, they used a fast loser in the second round, and the drivers were lower in the rankings. (Two of the drivers are rookies, and so they weren’t ranked at all last year) Keep in mind, none of this has to do with driver skill or competency or anything: it’s based on performance. For example, some people may say that the Colts were more skilled than the Steelers in 2006 (and they may be right), but the Steelers still won the game. And it’s certainly no indication of how exciting or competitive the event is, as spectators were certainly thrilled with the racing at Rupp Arena. PPP is a bit easier to grasp. It stands for “percent of points possible.” First, “points possible” is the term given to the sum of 1st place points of all the events on a driver’s schedule. Take Council Bluffs as an example: each event was worth 86 points. Neil Elliot competed in all those events, and so the total points possible that he could have earned is 344 (86 x 4). Neil won twice and was runner-up twice and earned 290 points, which is 84% of the points he could have won. The PPP is another way of showing how much a driver wins, but without having to worry about all the WMTRL specifics like average rank value. The higher your PPP, the more you’re winning!
- UPSETS OF THE WEEK Bruce Haney takes home two Chicago-style wins against 2004 World Champion Gary Porter! Haney has been a strong runner in the summer months, but a win-filled winter may put him in the top of the standings. John Killenger defeats Chad Tingler in “Grave Digger” in Round #1 out in Des Moines. Yes, Tingler lost due to a penalty, but it takes a legal run to be a winner! Ron Duncombe wins twice in Salt Lake City, knocking off Paul Jensen in back-to-back finals. Duncombe has now competed in 5 races and won twice! Keep an eye on this western rookie in the Maverik Monster Trakker. Jon Zimmer defeats Dave Harkey three times in Trenton. I’m not sure if this qualifies as an upset, as Zimmer has proven to have the skills (and now the equipment) to run with the best, but a sweep against Bigfoot in a points race deserves some extra attention. Damon Bradshaw knocks off Chad Fortune in the first round of action in Birmingham, marking Bradshaw’s first heat win in a monster truck! Michael Vaters debuts his new trucks in Rochester, but gets knocked out by Trey Meyers (in Vaters’ old truck) in the first round. Trey has a good truck under him now and will likely turn in more big wins this year. Neil Elliot won twice in Council Bluffs, but he was fast loser on Friday. That’s because Jim Bendzick took the win in the first round. Bendzick is another up-and-comer on the Monster Jam tour. Keep an eye on Rolling Thunder in 2007. Finally, Marc McDonald with a three-race sweep in Columbus. He had an awesome rookie season in 2006, and proves it was no fluke.
- RECAP We’re off and running in 2007. As expected, the Monster Jam crew has taken the top spots, thanks to a large number of high point events. But with nearly 50 events again next weekend, expect some big changes in the standings. And remember to report results from all the events you attend this season, and help us crown the 2007 monster truck world champion!
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