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The Announcer - By Brian Varmecky (January 23rd, 2007 - www.wmtrl.com) - Mike Vaters Wins 3 in Kansas City--Tacoma is in!! The reports came in bunches this week! We are now up to 115 events reported out of 144, which is nearly 80%. Wins also came in bunches, as two drivers picked up 3 wins on the weekend. Michael Vaters took on Gary Porter in all 4 finals in Kansas City, and won the final 3. Vaters has 5 wins in 9 races and is ranked 4th in the world. Further west in Reno, David Smith and Dan Rodoni had a similar battle, with Rodoni winning Friday, and Smith taking the final three, ending the weekend with a wild crash across the finish line. Unfortunately, we still need the semi-finalists from the final 3 events in Reno, so those wins are not currently counted. Pablo Huffaker was runner-up at Ford Field and holds his lead with 519 points in 6 events. Sean Duhon and Neil Elliot are right behind him, with only 10 points separating the Top 3! Big news from Tacoma: we have it! All 5 Tacoma Dome events have been reported, which is a first for the WMTRL. Linsey Weenk had 2 wins in 4 finals in Tacoma, and is now ranked 5th. Team Bigfoot has all 4 drivers nestled between 11th and 25th, with Rick Long leading the team. Dan Runte was at a freestyle only event this weekend, and did not earn any WMTRL points. Keith Sturgeon continues to improve, and now has 2 wins in 5 races. Defending champion Mark Hall is off to a rough start. After going 1-1 in Huntington, he blew an engine in Cleveland on Friday and lost to Doug Noelke in the semi-finals on Saturday. We don’t have Colorado Springs results in, and as a result of all that, the Raminator is currently ranked 38th. Finally, we have our first global race result of the year, as Clive Featherby was the winner of the World Nationals in Brisbane, Australia! The event was the first sell-out for the Ekka Showgrounds in over 20 years! Congratulations to Clive on the win and successful event, and we hope that the Aussie monster truck scene will continue to grow! Please note that the new minimum for events to be included in the standings is 4. That value will increase to 8 by the end of January.
- WEEK IN REVIEW LATE KENNEWICK (AMP) – No points because fewer than 4 drivers competed in racing.
LATE SAN ANGELO (AMP) – Bob Holman wins 1 of 2 finals, losing to Ronnie Sturges on Friday, but knocking off Sam Sturges on Saturday.
LATE TACOMA (USHRA) – The biggest event in the northwest is the Tacoma Dome, but we always have trouble getting results. For the first time ever, we have results from ALL 5 events in Washington! Chad Tingler defeated Linsey Weenk on Friday, but Weenk won both events on Saturday, first against Norm Miller, and then over Jeff Bainter. Jimmy Creten arrived in Tacoma on Sunday after crewing with his wife in Anaheim and promptly won both events on Sunday, defeating previous winners Linsey Weenk and Chad Tingler. Thanks to Tacoma, Linsey Weenk is now ranked 5th in the World.
LATE TOLEDO (Morris) – No points awarded Sunday in Toledo because the final round was not run.
LATE YOUNGSTOWN (Tura) – Dale Benear only missed one final in Youngstown, after he broke during his semi-final win on Saturday afternoon. Benear had beat Bennet Clark on Friday, but had to sit and watch as Clark knocked off Tim Bee in the finals on Saturday afternoon. In the evening, it was Benear eliminating hometown favorite Joe Sylvester, which moves Benear into 17th.
AZTEC (AMP) – Charles Benns wins 1 of 2 finals, defeating Ged Barcroft on Friday, but losing to Murphy McCrorey on Saturday.
BRISBANE (KC’s) – Clive Featherby in “Outback Thunda” defeated his son, Billy, and a field of celebrity all-stars to win the World Nationals in Brisbane. Check out The Monster Blog homepage for more details on this big event!
CINCINNATI (CFP) – No points because the drivers did not race.
CLEVELAND (IMAGE) – In a rare 6-truck field on the Monster Nationals tour, both Dodge teammate struggled and failed to advance to the finals. Instead, it was Doug Noelke and Rick Long squaring off during both finals, with each driving picking up a win.
COLOMBUS (AMP) – Jay Snyder with two wins over Larry Birch.
DETROIT (USHRA) – Tony Farrel picks up a win, as Pablo Huffaker has problems with his Grave Digger. Despite the loss, Huffaker is still ranked #1 in the world.
EL PASO (AMP) – Bigfoot rookie Keith Sturgeon earned another win in his young career, defeating Kevin Kozala on Friday. However, veteran Ronnie Sturges would take the crown on Saturday, knocking off Sturgeon in the finals.
EVANSVILLE (TNats) – Dan Patrick flexes his muscles and wins two against Ed Eckert and Bruce Haney.
JACKSON (TBO) – No report.
KALAMAZOO (AMP) – No report.
KANSAS CITY (USHRA) – Gary Porter has yet to miss a final this year, and he continued his streak with 4 more consecutive finals in Kemper Arena. On Friday, he knocked off Michael Vaters in Black Stallion for the win. Porter would see the black Ford 3 more times in the finals, but Vaters would win them all, and move himself into 4th in the world!
MEMPHIS (USHRA) – Rookie Lenny Kuilder with a win over Marc McDonald on Friday, and McDonald defeated Rod Schmidt on Saturday. Schmidt made the finals by using the fast loser position, as Tom Schmidt in Big Crunch beat the Grave Digger in the opening round.
MINNEAPOLIS (USHRA) – Chad Tingler with the win over Alex Blackwell.
MOBILE (AMP) – Jeff Bursey and Larry Swim filled the role of runners-up this weekend, as SIR’s Brandon Legarde wins both events in Mobile.
MOLINE (MORRIS) – Isaiah Morales is the surprise star of the weekend, winning 1 of his 2 finals. He defeated boss Michael Hawkins on Friday, but lost to Dodge’s Dale Benear on Saturday.
RENO (USHRA) – It was a dual between Dan Rodoni and David Smith during all 4 events, with Smith winning 3 of the 4. Unfortunately, we’re missing the semi-finalists from those three events, and so they have not been counted.
SAN DIEGO (USHRA) – Another missing event, but we do know that Jimmy Creten defeated Rick Swanson in the finals. Linsey Weenk with a semi-final performance.
SHREVEPORT (TNT) – No report.
SIOUX FALLS (CFP) – No report.
TAMPA (USHRA) – Neil Elliot with another win, this time by defeating Scott Hartsock. Elliot is one of only 5 ranked drivers to have not missed a final. He has earned 90.5% of the his possible points, which is the best in the world.
TORONTO (USHRA) – Four different finalists on two different tracks. Randy Brown knocked off Lou Antonazzi in the finals on Saturday. Racing on a very muddy indoor truck on Sunday, Rick Raab got by John Seasock for the win.
Total: 144 Reported: 115 (79.9%) Missing: 29
- UPSETS OF THE WEEK Memphis – Tom Schmidt in “Big Crunch” with a big win, knocking off “Hot” Rod Schmidt in “Grave Digger” in the first round! Also in Memphis, rookie Lenny Kuilder earned his first racing win, defeating Marc McDonald in the final round. Toronto – Lou Antonazzi in “The Broker” knocks off Rick Raab in “American Guardian” in quarter-final racing. Antonazzi advanced to the finals at Rogers Centre where he lost to Randy Brown. Moline – Isaiah Morales defeats both Dale Benear and Michael Hawkins for a win at the Mark of the Quads. Morales has made the finals in 75% of his events.
- STATS AT A GLANCE One of the new stats we’re calculating this year is EWR, or Event Win Rating. It’s a way of standardizing events so that we can compare each driver’s schedule and how difficult his or her events have been. It’s not a perfect formula yet, which is why it does not affect the standings, but we can already get some information from it. Fourteenth ranked John Seasock has had the most difficult schedule so far, with an EWR of 1.085. He was a quarter-finalist in Houston, win in Atlanta, and was both a quarter- and semi-finalist in Toronto. That’s 4 big dome events against the top USHRA drivers. Tom Meents and Tony Farrel have EWRs of 1.077, also from big domes. Doug Noelke and Mark Hall has EWRs of 1.006, showing that smaller, competitive events can be just as difficult to win as the domes. Pablo Huffaker leads the world with 86.5 points per race. Second-place Sean Duhon has accumulated the most points, 690. His 77.8% win percentage is also the best in the world. Lee O’Donnel has the distinction of being the highest ranked driver without a win. He is 0-4 in finals, but has earned 61.5% of his possible points. The biggest event of the year continues to be USHRA’s Houston, TX Monster Jam, with an EWR of 1.210.
- NEXT WEEK - Thunder Nationals in Albany, including former champion Diehl Wilson and his “Virginia Giant” - Monster Jam in Greenville, Hidalgo, Knoxville, Little Rock, Sacramento plus the big events in Anaheim, Indianapolis, and Orlando. - Monster Nationals in Madison, WI - Steel Thunder Tour in Huntsville - ...and the CFP Winter Nationals in Belton, Florence, and Salisbury!
CLICK HERE TO VISIT WMTRL.COM FOR MORE INFORMATION!!
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