Columbia, SC - The Colonial Life Arena

Tweet




Trucks: USHRA Monster Trucks including Taz, Nitro Circus, Reptoid, Stone Crusher, Mopar Magic, and Bad News. Subject to change without notice.

Weekend Race Recap

Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam
Columbia, S. C. Friday Night
By: Joe Lowe

Jets, Megasaurus, and Monsters made up the bulk of the action Friday night at the Colonial Life Arena. First things first, with the lineup of monsters including Mopar Magic, Stone Crusher, Reptoid, Bad News, Nitro Circus and Taz.

Mopar Magic was driven by crew chief Cliff Thomas due to a family commitment for driver Ricky Ownley. It had been many years since Cliff had been in the drivers seat but you would never know it by his incredible performance. He was easily able to keep up with the new boys of Monster Jam.

Another story that happened long before showtime was with Bad News. Bruce Haney took the truck to Wendys as a part of the Wendys Motorsport Series. Somehow during the display Haney broke an axle on the truck and it had to be replaced before Bad News could compete in the event. “I have had many broken parts during events before” said Bruce in a pre-event interview. “But NEVER have I had to repair the truck just to get it back from a display”.

Action began early with the Wheelie Contest, while the contest was won by Adam Anderson aboard Taz, it was a close competition with only two points separating the top three trucks.

Anderson also won the racing championship defeating Nitro Circus in a very close race. Cam McQueen drove Circus hard in the semi finals as the round fast loser to get to the final showdown. Taz was able to hold him off with Anderson eyeing a double down night as we headed to Monster Freestyle.

One extra event was added as the night went on. Both Cam McQueen and Adam Anderson began to brag that their truck could do the best donut. Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam officials gave them the opportunity to prove their point and the fans loved it. Anderson won in a cheer-off.

Next it was off to Monster Freestyle with Taz being shut out of the competition by both Stone Crusher and Nitro Circus. In the end the fans gave the win to Nitro Circus.

Results:
Truck                                                       Donut                                       Freestyle
Mopar Magic                                            21                                            14
Reptoid                                                    11                                            12
Bad News                                               17                                            17
Nitro Circus                                             24                                            23
Stone Crusher                                         25                                            23
Taz                                                          26                                            22

Racing Results: Round One
Bad News defeated Stone Crusher
Taz beat Nitro Circus
Mopar over Reptoid

Semi Final:
Round One fast loser Nitro Circus beat Bad News
Taz over Mopar Magic

Finals:
Taz wins over Nitro Circus

The night also included Mike Wild West and the worlds only jet powered golf cart, Teed Off. Mike lit up the night with flames coming from the big jet engine powering the cart.

Both kids and their parents loved the antics of Sprocket the clown. As the night ended fans stood in line to get autographs from their favorite drivers before heading home.

 

Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam Columbia , SC

2:00 Show

 

 

The fans turned out huge at the Colonial Life Area for the afternoon show of Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam. They did not go away disappointed as all the stops were pulled out of the days action.

We began with the two hit wheel stand competition which is always a fan favorite. Reptoid was first out of the gate but did not turn in his best performance with a score of 11. Mopar Magic was up next and soon set the bar high receiving a score of 26 from the judges. Bad News was also not at his best either as the score for his wheelie given was only 15 points.

Nitro Circus was next in the shoot, and came to play giving the fans something to cheer about. And the judges responded awarding the big truck 27 deserving points. There were only two truck left and neither one could topple the beast from Calgary , Alberta . Stone Crusher and Taz both came close with scores of 25 leaving Nitro Circus your winner in the Wheelie Competition.

 

Wheelie Competition Results

Reptiod  11

Mopar Magic  26

Bad News Travels Fast  15

Nitro Circus  27

Stone Crusher  25

Taz  25

 

The first round of Monster Jam Racing pitted Mopar Magic against Nitro Circus with Nitro advancing. Next came Bad News and Reptoid with Bad News raining over Reptoid and advancing to the next round. Both Stone Crusher and Taz were broke and could not compete in the racing event. The Semi Finals began with Nitro Circus facing off against Bad News, with Nitro Circus flying across the Ford Finish Line first. The Semi Finals ended with Mopar Magic meeting Reptoid head to head, but Mopar Magic had some tricks up his sleeve as he won the day securing his place in the Finals. The Final round was upon the people of South Carolina as Mopar Magic went to battle against Nitro Circus, but once again the Monster from the North was to much for the Magic of Mopar as Nitro Circus went on to win the Finals of Monster Jam Racing. His eyes were now set on sweeping the days events as the Big Truck got ready for Freestyle.

 

Freestyle was an all out free for all as the fans roared with approval.

First out of the gate was Mopar Magic receiving a 15 from our judges. Next was Reptoid doing only one point better scoring a 16. Then came Bad News taking the lead with 18 points. Then along came Nitro Circus turning in an impressive performance with a score of 23. Stone Crusher was still out of the competition and able to play with the big boys but Taz and his crew worked feverishly to get the truck back into the game. Tas went on to win the event receiving an impressive 24 points.

 

Freestyle Results

Mopar Magic  15

Reptoid  16

Bad News  18

Nitro Circus  23

Taz  24

Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam Columbia Saturday Night

By: Joe Lowe

 

For the third event of the weekend the mighty trucks of the Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam were put to the test Saturday. The day began with the Built Ford Tough Party In the Pits at 11am followed by the 2pm show. After an autograph session following the afternoon event the drivers had less than two hours to prepare for the evening Monster Jam.

 

Five of the trucks reported to officials that they were ready with all passing a very close inspection. It was Steve Sims’ Stone Crusher that was not ready for the event. Steve said the problems in the afternoon show  were worse than thought and Stone Crusher’s transfer case was broken and could not be fixed until they took the truck to the shop.

 

Sims was the most disappointed person in the arena when Stone Crusher could not be fixed and not being one to let his fans down he decided to take over the driving duties aboard Mopar Magic. Driver Rick y Ownley had the weekend for some personal business putting crew chief Cliff Thomas in the Mopar seat. “Cliff is the best crew person we have and I need him working on the trucks right now”, said Team owner Sims. With that the switch was made with Steve driving Mopar Magic for the first time that most of us could remember.

 

The Stone Crusher/Mopar Magic story was only one of several stories playing out Saturday night in Columbia . Cam McQueen and his Nitro Circus truck had been raining on world Champion Taz’s parade all day long forcing yet another donut throwdown between the two trucks. With Taz winning the donut contest and then coming back to defeat Nitro in Freestyle. Taz may have won the freestyle competition but Anderson rolled the truck at the end of his :60 run leaving crews to patch the truck together in order to get it in the hauler to be repaired at the North Carolina shop before next weekends event.

 

McQueen lost the entire rear end of Nitro Circus in the first 30 seconds of his freestyle run. Cam tried to continue driving but was forced to end his run early. Judges, according to Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam rules, were mandated to take the lack of a full sixty second freestyle into consideration and Nitro was given a score of 11.

 

The nights event also included Megasaurus, Mike West and his jet powered golf cart, Teed Off, and Sprocket the Clown who challenged announcer Peter Tocco to a dance off. Yes, a dance off and it was to say the least interesting.

 

Taz was again denied a double down after losing the race final to Nitro Circus. The two young guns of Monster Jam, World Champion Adam Anderson in Taz and Cam McQueen aboard Nitro Circus again split the nights championships leaving the question of who is the better driver to settled another day.

 

Results:

Truck                                       Wheelie                                   Freestyle

Mopar Magic                            20                                            22

Reptoid                                    13                                            16

Bad News                               16                                            19

Nitro Circus                             26                                            11 (broke)

Taz                                          27                                            29 (rolled at the end of his :60)

 

Race Results:

Round One:

Mopar Magic bye run

Bad News over Reptoid

Nitro Circus downed Taz

 

Semi-Final:

Taz defeated Mopar Magic

Nitro Circus over Bad News

 

Finals:

Nitro Circus over Taz

 

So ended the weekends Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam stay in Columbia with another weekend in the books and the NGK Spark Plugs Monster Jam World Finals in Las Vegas one week closer.