EL TORO LOCO

Lupe Soza in El Toro Loco was next up and he was ready to show the crowd what the crazy bull could do.  Lupe started the run off big by going straight for the bus stack and launching up and over it.  He then brought the truck up to the 30-car set and launched it way up into the air!!  El Toro Loco caught a wild bounce on the cars, sending the truck onto two wheels, and Lupe made a great save to keep it from going over.  Without missing a beat, he went up and over the bus stack, and then roared around to the near car pyramid.  All those Wheelie Contests at the smaller shows seemed to have paid off, as Soza launched the truck's nose straight up into the air for an amazing sky wheelie!!  Back over to the 30-car set for another hit, and again, huge air.  Coming off the cars, the truck caught a funny bounce, and nosed straight into the ground!!  Lupe handled it great, and kept on truckin'.  He turned it around and went right back at the 30-car set, getting more huge air from the opposite direction, and then brought it around, launching over one of the dirt hills!!  To finish out the run, Lupe hopped up onto the bus stack and parked on top of it to the roar of the crowd!!  The judges turned up their cards, and Lupe was the first truck to break the 20-point barrier, but still a low score of only 22.  In all reality, Tony Farrell's run was probably a point or so better, as a score of about 27 would have been much more appropriate for El Toro Loco.

GRAVE DIGGER

George Thorogood's unmistakable guitar riff and those trademark red lights announced the presence of Randy Brown and Grave Digger as he roared out onto the track.  Brown drove around the track waving to the fans, and then went straight for the dirt hill and flew high through the air to open his run.  Brown then went right at the bus stack, up and over it, and then followed that up by making an angled hit over the side of the 30 car set.  Next it was over to the far end of the track, hitting the 30-car set and driving right across the top of it.  He spun the truck around and moved over into the open area of the track, pulling off the best donuts of the night.  Next he went for the dirt hill, and got some insane air off of it, and then, mirroring Tony Farrell's spectacular move, combo'ed it with a hit on the 30-car set, launching the truck skyward!!  Catching a wild bounce upon landing on the cars, Brown scrambled to keep the truck from going over and did a fantastic job of doing so.  Time expired, but Brown kept right on going, with huge hits over the dirt hill, the wheelie car, the far car pyramid, and the bus stack.  He then worked the landing from the bus stack into another awesome donut, and drove out of that and up and over the 30-car set with a sideways hit to end his run!!  A fantastic run overall from Randy Brown and Grave Digger, but the first 90 seconds was what he was scored upon, and while quite good, it wasn't quite as good as El Toro Loco and Blue Thunder.  The judges, to their credit, didn't give the usual "Digger Bump" that usually seems to award extra points to Grave Digger at USHRA shows just for being Digger.  Brown's score was a 21, and while low, it was appropriately one point lower than El Toro Loco's.  In our version of the Freestyle scoring, Brown is given a 26, just behind El Toro and Blue Thunder.

MAXIMUM DESTRUCTION

Tom Meents was ready to defend his St. Louis Freestyle victory from a year ago, that was voted as 2005's Freestyle of the Year.  The Meents team seemed to be inspired by the stunt performed earlier in the show, and decided to try one of their own.  Guy Wood brought out Bob & Tom and parked the truck in front of the near dirt hill.  Tom Meents drove up to the top of the hill and gunned the engine, as the crowd went wild catching on to what was about to happen.  Meents backed Max D as far back as he could and then smashed the gas down, launching off the dirt hill, and up and over the Bob & Tom truck!!  Tom Meents and Maximum Destruction then launched an aerial assault on the Edward Jones Dome, the likes of which will not be soon forgotten!!  Huge air over the bus stack, and next in his sights was the 30-car set.  Meents absolutely rocketed into the sky over the set, getting some unbelievable air, and coming down onto the cars, taking a wild bounce like others before him, but unlike the others, the bounce flipped him over onto the side of the truck and off of the set.  As the truck bounced onto the dirt, it landed on the front tires in a nose dive, but that is all Meents needed to make one of his trademark impossible saves as he gunned the engine, and rocked the truck back onto the tires.  Now most drivers would need a moment to recover from such a moment, but not Tom Meents.  Without skipping a beat, he launched right up and over the bus stack!!  Next up, huge air over the dirt hill, and into the combo move, as he hits the 30-car set and launches up and drives over it.  He then brought it around for a wild sideways hit on the 30-car set, and then back over the bus stack, making another great save upon landing.  One more crazy launch over the 30-car stack, and an odd bounce off the cars sent him into a wild ride that included not one, but two awesome saves to keep the truck on its wheels, ending Meents' amazing run by bumping into the parked El Toro Loco!!  The crowd was going wild, and the judges flashed up three 9's for a score of 27, giving Meents the lead, but still leaving room for the reigning World Freestyle Champion Bounty Hunter to take the Double Down Award.  Going back to our scores, we would have given Max D a perfect 30, because there really was no topping that run.  Nonetheless, Jimmy Creten was going to give it his all.

BOUNTY HUNTER

Creten rolled out onto the track and took a slow lap around waving to the fans.  Creten started out his run with a nice hit up and over the bus stack and motored around to take on the 30-car set.  All night the trucks had been taking wild bounces when landing on the cars, but it had yet to end anyone's run early.  Jimmy Creten would be the unlucky person to change that.  Creten made a great hit on the 30-car set and launched way up in the air, but the landing threw the truck up onto the side and over, and there was nothing Creten could do to save it.  Done, after only two hits, and the World Freestyle Champion was visibly upset over not being able to live up to that title.  The judges flashed up a score of 10 for Bounty Hunter, giving Tom Meents the Freestyle victory!!

Tom Meents was very pumped up over his Freestyle victory, and he showed how what a classy guy he is during his interview.  Meents dedicated his win to the late Calvin Carrington, who was killed in the tragic incident last weekend in Tulsa, OK.  Earlier in the week on Wednesday, Meents left a display at a Harley-Davidson dealer in St. Louis early to fly down to Georgia to attend Carrington's funeral.  Meents said that Carrington was riding along with him during his run and that he gave him a wild ride to go out on.  Congratulations to Tom Meents for his big victory!!

As people began to file out of the stadium, Scott Douglas, the announcer, got word that Jimmy Creten and the officials were checking out the Bounty Hunter in preparation for an encore performance!!  Creten was definitely not happy with the Freestyle performance he had just given, and was determined to make sure the St. Louis fans left knowing why he is the reigning Freestyle World Champ.

Creten started out his encore just as he did his original run, launching over the bus stack, and then going once again for the same move on the 30-car set that flipped him over before.  Creten launched into the air and caught the landing perfectly this time, riding a wheelie over the remaining cars, and off the set!!  Earlier before Creten's original performance, they had brought out a RV camper just for Bounty Hunter.  With his flip, it almost looked the camper would escape untouched.....But not now.....Creten made an awesome blast through the camper, sending debris flying everywhere!!  Creten then rode around and made an awesome sky wheelie sideways jump over the 30-car set and then went right up and over the near car pyramid.  Creten finished his run with a crazy combo, first flying through the air over the dirt pile, and then hitting the 30-car set at an angle, causing the Bounty Hunter to flip once again over the cars!!  A wild encore from Jimmy Creten in Bounty Hunter, definitely living up to the title of Freestyle World Champ.

FREESTYLE SCORECARD

THE FINAL WORDS

Well, that wraps up our mini-coverage from St. Louis.  The Full Coverage will be up as soon as I can get to it, but this was just too awesome of a show not to get something up about it today.  Rajeana and I had an absolute blast at this show, and I want to thank everyone with Live Nation for another great show, especially the event director Anita Schroedle, who was great to us.  Also, a huge thanks out to my beautiful wife Rajeana for doing a great job of keeping track of all the results and scores during the show.  Was also great to get to hang out with our own Chris Kaelin at the show, you can see some of his great pics on the Fan Forum by clicking here!!

Finally, thanks to all the drivers for putting on one heck of a show, and giving us some performances that we will not soon forget!!  They brought a taste of the World Finals to St. Louis, and I can't wait until next year when we will travel out to Las Vegas for World Finals 8.  Again, this was just our mini-coverage and full recap from St. Louis, we will have much, much more coming from this show in the next few weeks, so stay tuned!!  Thanks for reading, and leave us some feedback on the Fan Forum!!

Ross Z. Bonar - The Monster Blogger

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