Another fun thing that went on before the Monster Trucks came out to tear some stuff up, was a guy in a beat up old car came out onto the frontstretch to burn some rubber and smoke the tires for the crowd.  Unfortunately for him and amusingly for the rest of us, he was only able to get one tire to spin in the old boat of a car, but the crowd still got a kick out of it.

And then it was on to the First Round of Monster Truck Freestyle!!

FREESTYLE - ROUND 1

WILDMANN

Rod Mann in the Wildmann truck was the first to take to the track.  Had cruised his website before going to the show and saw that he was pretty good at getting the truck to go vertical, and couldn't wait to see what he had in store for us here in Odessa!!  Mann brought the truck over to the first set of cars, and pulled off a great leap over the cars.  Unfortunately, something broke on the landing and Rod was forced to end his first round run.

TORQZILLA

Now a very exciting moment as Darren Crossman fired up the brand new Torqzilla truck!!  Darren took the truck out, and while you might think he would take it easy the first time attacking a set of cars, you would be wrong.  Crossman launched the truck off the far set of cars and it got out of shape going over the van at the end of the set!!  Darren made a great save (it would have been bad to roll the truck the very first time you hit an obstacle with it), and brought the truck around to the set of cars headed in the other direction.  He then cruised down the track towards the cars on the other end where Wildmann got into trouble earlier.  An incredible leap over the cars, and the crowd goes nuts as the new Torqzilla ends its first run!!

BORN TO BE WILD

Time for the next truck from the Don's Monsters, Inc. stable, Born to Be Wild, driven by Larry Quick.  Larry brought the truck out, and shot fire out of the hood pipes for effect, getting the crowd's attention.  Larry made three passes over the different car sets, and apparently broke something on the last landing, as he would sit out the rest of the night.  A disappointing showing from the Born to Be Wild truck, but you can't predict breakages.

PLAYIN' FOR KEEPS

Time for Jesse Birgy and the Playin' For Keeps Chevy!!  Birgy made a quick pass across the near set of cars and took the truck back around to the far end of the infield.  He took on the same set that nearly claimed Torqzilla with the van at the end, and nearly got rolled over himself!!  Birgy rode it out, and kept the truck from going over!!  Birgy took a couple more tame hits over the carsets and then decided to go after car set with the van in the middle!!  Playin' For Keeps got the nose way up in the air, and went right up and over the obstacle!!  A great way to end his first run, and the crowd is pumped up at this point!!

BEARFOOT

And now to finish out the first round of freestyle, it was time for Don King in Bearfoot!!  King brought the truck up to the first set of cars and got the nose way up in the air!!  Then Bearfoot brought the car up to the lone car set up for slap wheelies.  Bearfoot launched it over the car, but wasn't quite able to get it into a wheelie.  Bearfoot then attacked the near set of cars, again getting the nose up in the air!!  King brought the truck back around, looking lost for a minute, but then it became apparent he was going for the set with the van in it, and he got some great altitude on the front on the initial hit and rode the truck on the back wheels all the way over the set!!  King then brought the truck over to the frontstretch and let the horses loose in front of the crowd!!  A great finish to round one!!

WILD THING TOUGH TRUCK

But wait . . . freestyle isn't over.  How can all the monster trucks have run and freestyle not be over??  Then the Wild Thing tough truck fired up and zoomed out onto the track!!  Not really sure what he could be up to, I missed the video on this part.  Then he headed right for the near stack of cars!!  He hit it hard, and launched it up in the air, but not quite enough to clear the set!!  He got stuck on top of the cars, and the crowd was going crazy!!  A tough truck taking on a set cars with no dirt ramp is unheard of!!  We could only hope that the truck wasn't damaged enough to keep him from Round 2!!

THE BUS RACE

Next up was the bus race!!  Featuring some local TV news and local radio station celebrities in a head-to-head grudge match, and mixing in some track personnel, and a wild card (Dr. Danger was to make his first appearance tonight during the race).  I hadn't never seen a bus race before, and I have to say, it was really cool getting to watch school buses flying around the track!!  Other than that, however, there wasn't as much action as I thought there would be.  Down to the last lap and none of the buses had even seemed to touch.  Then however, taking us all by surprise, the rear end of one of the buses exploded right in front of the grandstand!!  Must have been the one Dr. Danger was riding it . . . And it was.  The bus then finished the last lap on fire, and the crowd was going insane!!  Big props to Dr. Danger for his first stunt of the night!!

Dr. Danger wasn't done yet though.  Click below to see more of his action!!

KEEP THE ACTION GOING!!