FREESTYLE COMPETITION (continued)

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLE

Brandon Harrington in the Turtle would follow King Krunch, but would not be able to match his run.  Harrington did a nice job of filling the clock, and using all of the obstacles on the course, but he was unable to pull off any kind of "wow" moment, and the run, while solid, was merely average.  The judges would give Harrington a 23 for his Freestyle score.

MAXIMUM DESTRUCTION

Time for the heavy hitters to take aim at David Smith's score of 28.  Neil Elliott rolled out in Maximum Destruction determined to make it a Saturday night sweep of Racing & Freestyle.  He then set out to do just that, hitting both carsets and the van stack hard, from both direction, getting some huge air for such a small arena.  The suspension on that truck is a marvel to watch in action as it was being put through its paces.  As the time began to expire, Elliott attempted to spin Max D into a set of donuts, but like Chuck Warner before him, the truck hooked in the dirt, but unlike Warner, Elliott made a great save to keep it from going over on its roof.  The crowd went crazy as Neil Elliott emerged, and scores came up...10, 10, 10...a score of 30 for Max D vaults him into the lead!!

GRAVE DIGGER

The final truck out to Freestyle would, of course, by the Grave Digger and Gary Porter.  The best Porter could do would be to tie Elliott and hope to win the cheer off.  Porter's run would be all about keeping up a lot of momentum, as the cars and van stack were so smashed down it would be hard to work with.  Porter filled the time with fast paced passes over both car sets and the van stack.  Twice, he tried to spin Grave Digger into donuts, but was unable to really get a good set going, mostly just doing a couple of half spins.  Nonetheless, when the scores came up at the end of Porter's run, it was...10, 10, 10...another perfect 30!!

At this point the track announcer brought both drivers out to the center of the floor for the crowd cheer off to determine the winner.  The crowd roared in approval of both drivers, but it was decided that there was just a little more enthusiasm for Maximum Destruction, and it would be Neil Elliott taking the win!!  The night was dominated by Digger and Max D, with Porter taking the Wheelie contest, and Elliott taking the Racing & Freestyle wins.

Even though I had a great time and enjoyed the show, I couldn't but be a little annoyed on the way out at the Freestyle judging.  Unlike the big stadium shows on the SPEED Channel, it was almost like there was little importance placed on the scoring, as the three judges picked couldn't have been more than about two 6-year-olds and a 10-year old.  I can appreciate that they want the kids to have a good time, but in my opinion, Freestyle scoring is serious business, not to be done by little kids.

The best of run of the night, in my opinion, was Rolling Thunder's.  While Maximum Destruction's was also very good, Bendzick was the one of the only trucks able to get a solid set of donuts going, and he had the best hits on the van stack of the night.  He also still drove the truck through rear steering problems.  I could still see giving the win to Neil Elliott though, based on that great save he made to keep the truck from going over.  But Grave Digger's run was no 30, just as Bendzick's run was much better than a 24.  Oh well, thats the way it goes, would just like to see more importance placed on the way Freestyle judges are picked.

THE FINAL WORDS

All in all, it was a really good time, and I was glad that I made the trip up to the show.  Got to see an excellent lineup with some trucks that I hadn't seen before, and they put on a pretty darn good show.  More importantly, I got in that first test run with the new Nikon D50, and all in all, I was pretty satisfied with the results.  Not the greatest pictures in the world, but definitely a step up, and with Indy coming up just a week later, this show was a very important test run for me in learning the new cam.

A huge thanks out to all the folks at LiveNation for putting on another fun show, and to all the folks who participated and made it fun!!  That's a wrap for another Monster Blog Coverage, as the next will be from the Indy Monster Jam!!  Be sure to stop by the Fan Forum and let us know what you thought of it!!

- Ross Z. Bonar - The Monster Blogger

EVEN MORE FREESTYLE!!