FREESTYLE - THE FINAL ROUND

WILDMANN

Rod Mann definitely seemed to be an underdog going into this event, but after a disapointing first round in which the track experienced mechanical difficulties, Rod came out and put on a stellar performance in Round 2, setting him up for a chance to pull of the upset in the Finals.  The Wild Mann wasn't going to leave anything on the table, as he started his run by blasting over the car-van-car set.  Rod followed that with an incredible sky wheelie, and then another strong sky wheelie at the opposite end of the track.  Trying to keep the good run going, Rod went for car-van-car set at the far end of the track, but when the truck hit the first car and put the nose up in the air, the RPM's went really high, and the truck shut off.  Something had broke, and Rod was done for the night.  Still, an excellent overall freestyle night and the crowd showed its appreciation by giving Rod a well-deserved round of applause!!

TORQZILLA

Torqzilla, driven by Darren Crossman came out for his final round, and started off strong, getting two strong sky wheelies off of the carsets on either end of the track.  It was not to be his night though, as the new truck apparently didn't feel quite right.  Darren brought the truck around in front of the fans, and then went back to the pits and parked it.  Unfortunately, the fans were not satisfied with that final round run, and a round of boos ensued.  All in all however, Darren Crossman and the folks at Don's Monsters had to be excited about the debut of their new truck.

PLAYIN' FOR KEEPS

Time to see some if Jesse Birgy would come out and take out that RV!!  Jesse made a strong first hit on the near carset, getting some air underneath the truck, which had proved difficult for him over the course of the evening.  Birgy then took the truck over the carsets a couple more times, but couldn't seem to get the truck any altitude and mostly just lumbered over the cars.  To the crowd's disappointment, Jesse never came close to the RV, but did come up with a very unique freestyle move to finish out his run.  Jesse brought the truck around to the frontstretch and pulled the truck's front tires right up against the concrete retaining wall in front of the stands.  A crew member ran over to the truck and disconnected something (couldn't really tell what), and apparently slipped the truck into 2WD, because Jesse then pulled off a great burnout, smokin' the rear tires, and really getting the fans into it!!  Big points for the very unique freestyle move more than made up for not following through with the RV.

BEARFOOT

Time for the headline truck to finish the show strong.  After two strong early round performances, Bearfoot and Don King were in position to easily finish off the competition with a good run here.  The first part of the run was all about sky wheelies, as time after time, King would launch the truck off the carsets.  The big WOW moment of the run came when Don King walked Bearfoot on the back tires up and over the car-van-car set, and got the truck way up in the air!!  The crowd went crazy and King capitalized on this, bringing the truck to the open space in the middle and ripping off some awesome donuts!!  Very strong run from Bearfoot, and King no doubt took the lead in the Monster Truck portion of the freestyle.  But there was one more truck left to run . . .

WILD THING TOUGH TRUCK

All night the announcer had been talking about what the tough truck driver could possibly do to graduate into a monster truck.  It was time to see, once and for all, whether or not this tough truck could run with the big boys.  After the strong performance by Bearfoot, it was going to be tough to try and steal one away for the little guys in this event.  Wild Thing started by making a great leap over the one set with the dirt ramp, and then brought the truck over in front of the mobile home.  The truck then disappeared behind the mobile home, and as the crowd realized what was about to happen, he blasted through the front of the mobile home!!!!  Never lifting, he landed and skidded the truck around in a hald donut.  Still not done, he headed back to the other end of the track and jumped the carset with the dirt ramp once more, but upon his landing his wheel flew off, ending his run!!  The crowd was going absolutely bonkers, and it was quite clear that a star had been born this night in Odessa!!

The announcer then called out the names of each truck, judging the winner by crowed applause.  Bearfoot was obviously in the lead, when Wild Thing's name was called out.  The crowd went crazy, and the impossibly had come true!!  A little tough truck had just been declared the winner of the Monster Truck freestyle show!!  Unprecedented and unbelievable, someone needs to give this man a Monster Truck and turn him loose, especially since he already has a monster truck freestyle win under his belt, even having never driven one!!

All in all, a great night at the I-70 Speedway, and a HUGE thanks to Brad Barlow for everything he did for us!!  Be sure to visit the I-70 Speedway website to keep an eye out for the next Eve of Destruction, because you've just got to be there!!  THE MONSTER BLOG sure won't miss the next Carmeggedon!!

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