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Article By Ross Z. Bonar - December 4th, 2009 The end of another long season is upon us, and with that comes the annual Monster Truck Racing Association Meeting and Banquet. During the Banquet, the annual MTRA Awards ceremony is held as the membership itself recognizes some of the best accomplishments among its members. While it may not always be the most accurate measure of performance in a season, it is always a fun, welcome distraction from the daily grind teams go through in keeping their trucks at peak performance over the course of a grueling season. Winners in each category are decided by the judgement of each MTRA member, and we here at TheMonsterBlog.com always use the eve of the MTRA Banquet to share our choices for the annual Awards. This year more than ever, we are able to do a deep analysis of driver and team performance with the help of our 2009 Results Tracker. If you haven't been following it this year, check it out as it has the winners from each event in the entire industry in 2009. With that said, let's dive in and take a look at who TMB thinks should win tomorrow's MTRA Awards!
DRIVER / TRUCK OF THE YEAR:
This may be one of the most difficult seasons in recent memory when it comes to picking the MTRA Driver of the Year. The level of competition in 2009 was incredible, and no one driver stands out above the rest. Six MTRA drivers were champions of different series in 2009, and many others stat lines from the year are absolutely eye-popping.
I should note as we get started that since driver / truck combinations typically stay the same over the course of the season, we consider this the same award even though it is spread out over two categories in the MTRA Awards.
We'll start by looking at some statistics for every MTRA member driver who drove a MTRA certified truck in 2009. We'll break these down into racing and freestyle wins, racing and freestyle winning percentage, overall wins and winning percentage and the number of wins a driver achieved in lineups featuring 8 or more trucks. We'll also look at which drivers won championships this year.
2009 MTRA Driver Statistics:
2009 MTRA Driver Championships:
Sean Duhon - Southern Monster
Truck Showdown Champion
Doug Noelke - Monster Nationals
Racing Champion Jocelyn Perrin - Monster Nationals Freestyle Champion Larry Swim - Checkered Flag Productions Monster Truck Winter Nationals Champion
Now we've gotta somehow sort thought all of that to try and whittle the field down to a single driver. We'll begin with taking a look at the overall number of wins each driver picked up during the season. What jumps out is that the top 5 drivers in the wins category are seperated by a total of only 5 wins from 1st to 5th, with the number of wins per driver dropping quickly thereafter. You'll also notice that perennial Driver of the Year contenders Mark Hall and Dan Runte are well down the list - looks the playing field is getting much closer in a great group of MTRA drivers.
So we take a harder look at those top five drivers: Rick Long, Sean Duhon, Larry Swim, Doug Noelke and Rodney Tweedy. Duhon, Swim and Noelke were all championship winners in 2009.
Tweedy has far and away the best overall winning percentage (63%), followed by Long (43%), Noelke (40%) and further on back Swim (33%) and Duhon (31%).
Now we look at who performed the best in the biggest fields of trucks (8 or more): Rick Long has an incredible 11 wins in that category, followed by Noelke with 6, Swim with 3 and none for Tweedy or Duhon. This category also highlights some of the big wins by drivers like Mark Hall (7), Dan Runte (6) and Jon Zimmer (5). However, their overall winning percentages (Hall - 22%, Runte - 30%, and Zimmer - 24%) pretty much eliminate them from contention in the Driver of the Year race. With Duhon and Tweedy unable to win in events featuring 8 trucks or more, either through bad luck or lack of opportunity, we move on in our consideration without them. That leaves us Rick Long, Doug Noelke and Larry Swim.
When it comes down to these three drivers, there may be no wrong answer. Each had an amazing season worthy of a major honor. While Swim and Noelke have major titles to their names, Long racked up the most wins overall, the most wins in larger fields of trucks (8 or more) and second best win percentage in the MTRA. Each had huge wins including: Swim sweeping Pocatello against the likes of Jon Zimmer, Bill Payne and Mike Hawkins; Noelke taking three out of four racing wins in Lima against a field including Dan Runte, Mark Hall and Larry Swim; and Long coming out on top of a field including Tom Meents and Gary Porter to win racing at Englishtown.
So to make the incredibly tough decision, we used the TheMonsterBlog.com's 2009 Results Tracker to break down the lineups faced by each driver and make a hard judgment call on who faced the tougher average level of competition in 2009. Our conclusion is that Larry Swim faced the toughest average weekly mix of competitor trucks, followed closely by Doug Noelke and further on back Rick Long. That would partially explain Swim's lower winning percentage (33%) when compared to Noelke's (40%) and Long's (40%).
In conclusion, we find that Swim won the highest profile championship and had some of the best stats against the tougher level of competition. In an incredibly difficult choice, we believe that Larry Swim is the 2009 MTRA Driver of the Year. This is our choice, but we certainly wouldn't find any fault with the MTRA voters if they chose Noelke or Long.
MOST IMPROVED TEAM OF THE YEAR:
This season saw several teams make great strides in their programs, making for some interesting competition in the Most Improved Team of the Year category. The Extreme Team 4x4 of Mac & Liz Plecker, Storm Damage Racing of Tim Mente, and the Vertical Motorsports team of Mike Barnes were nominated for the great improvement in their performance in 2009. Truk Wurks was nominated for expanding to a two truck team and improved performance, and Ironman out of the Bobby Holman stable was nominated for upgrading to a new chassis. The nomination of the Big Dawg 4x4 team in this category once again surprised me as most would agree that Noelke's team is already an elite level team, performing at the highest level after coming off a racing championship in 2008 - thus we won't consider them in this category.
A quick breakdown of the nominees leads to a very clear and obvious choice. While the Truk Wurks team and Vertical Motorsports team may have contended for this award in a different year, Mac & Liz Plecker's Extreme Team 4x4 stepped up their game far and away the most in 2009. Mac has always been a solid performer since debuting Ballistic several years back, but in 2009 Mac has piloted his Bearfoot machine to an incredible season. Mac's 27.5 racing and freestyle victories this year ranks 6th among all MTRA drivers, and Mac finished with the most freestyle wins (16.5) and the best freestyle win percentage (63%) in the MTRA. While the level of competition Mac faced in 2009 was not at the level of what other MTRA drivers faced, Mac didn't blink when it came time to race the big boys. Mac's two biggest wins of the year came in Tulsa, Oklahoma where he defeated two Team Bigfoot trucks in head to head drag racing. A big congratulations to Mac Plecker on a great 2009 season, and on earning the 2009 MTRA Most Improved Team of the Year Award - let's hope the voters agree.
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR:
The real question in deciding the Rookie of the Year Award between Mike Barnes and Zach Adams is what do we consider a "rookie"? If we're talking about a rookie in the sense that 2009 was their first full season, then Barnes would not qualify as he debuted War Eagle back in 2007, making 2008 his first full year. However, if we're talking about MTRA Rookie then I suppose Barnes would qualify. But regardless, Barnes and Adams were both accepted as nominees by the MTRA, so we'll consider their 2009 seasons against each one other. While neither driver managed to put their truck in a racing or freestyle winner's circle this year, Mike "Dasher Crasher" Barnes did nail down several wheelie contest wins over the course of the year and turned many heads with some strong performances on the Checkered Flag Productions tour. Adams on the other hand, has struggled with the monster truck learning curve and with a new truck whose shocks have seemingly been tough to dial in - all what you would expect from a driver learning the ropes. So while Adams may be the only true "rookie" in the category, when comparing the two drivers' seasons against one another, Mike Barnes is clearly the top performer in this category and thus should be named the 2009 MTRA Rookie of the Year.
MECHANIC OF THE YEAR:
You know it was a bit of an off year for Hall Brothers Racing when perennial winner of the Mechanic of the Year Award, Tim Hall, was not even nominated. This opens the award up to a new face, nominees including Elliott Miller and Jeff Perrin of Perrin Motorsports, along with Doug Noelke of Big Dawg 4x4 and John Petersen of Bigfoot 4x4. While Jocelyn in High Maintenance and both Tail Gator and Big Dawg had great '09 seasons, there is really no disputing that Bigfoot 4x4 was the cream of this crop in 2009. Every Bigfoot truck performed solid week in and week out, with particularly impressive seasons from Larry Swim, Rick Long and Rodney Tweedy. John Petersen was a major part of this effort and definitely deserves the 2009 MTRA Mechanic of the Year Award.
PROMOTER OF THE YEAR:
What a tough pick this award is after the 2009 season. Checkered Flag Productions had an amazing year, as Ed Beckley and Zane Rettew stepped up their program immensely and put on some of the best events of the season. In a different year, I would say they would be the hands down choice for this award. But while tragedy struck Image Promotions in the passing of promoter George Eisenhart this January, the Monster Nationals family pulled together to continue to produce events at the highest level, just as George had done for so many years before. For Scott Neely and Mike West, the production staff, and all the teams that made up the Monster Nationals family this year, hats off for continuing to produce events in a way that George would have been proud of, even under the hardest of circumstances. Image Promotions' final season should earn them the 2009 MTRA Promoter of the Year Award once again.
SPORTSMAN OF THE YEAR:
All of the people nominated for this award are amazing individuals who we feel privileged to know. But in 2009, there are two very deserving of being honored as the Sportsman of the Year. Mike West and Dan Patrick. Mike West for carrying on his friend George Eisenhart's legacy in helping direct the remainder of the Monster Nationals season at the highest level. Dan Patrick for persevering and continuing on with the sport he loves. These two individuals are both deserving of this award, but we could only cast our vote for one. Patrick's contributions to the industry over the years are immeasurable and every event he participates in gives fans a chance to meet and watch a true legend of the sport perform. TMB chose Dan Patrick for the 2009 Sportsman of the Year Award as our thanks to Dan for everything he has done and continues to do for our industry.
SAFETY AWARD:
After a tragic, freak accident in January was attributed to broken pieces of a drive shaft loop assembly, one owner / operator immediately began looking for a way to prevent such an incident from happening again. The goal was to achieve containment should pieces of a driveline assembly break apart and thus a driveline blanket was developed that acts in much the same way as a transmission blanket. In the matter of a few weeks from that incident, this owner / operator had these drive line blankets developed, produced and implemented on all four of his trucks. That owner / operator was Brandon Lagarde, and this is why he deserves the 2009 MTRA Safety Award.
CONCLUSION:
While the MTRA Awards may not be the most accurate measure of performance over the course of the season (being nominated and voted on by members using their varying levels of research), there is no argument that they are a fun distraction at a time of the year when teams are stressing to prepare for a new season. Its nice to take a few moments and sit back and recognize the accomplishments of one another's peers after a season of long, hard work. Monster Jam has their awards banquet for their part of the industry, and it has been great that for many years the MTRA has recognized the best among the independents in the industry who choose to participate in the organization's never-ending goal of promoting safety in monster trucks. Tomorrow will be a long day of collaboration during the MTRA meeting as some of the industry's best and brightest join together to try and further their industry's safety. Tomorrow night the MTRA will have some fun and recognize the best achievements from its membership during 2009. This is one member's ballot - stay tuned to see how it all shakes out!
- Ross Z. Bonar ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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