Stafford Springs, CT - Stafford Motor Speedway

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Trucks: USHRA Monster Trucks including Grave Digger driven by Randy Brown, Maximum Destruction driven by Tom Meents, Blue Thunder, Advance Auto Parts Grinder, War Wizard, Thrasher, Eradicator, and Backdraft.


Saturday Afternoon 2pm

Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam
Stafford Motor Speedway Saturday Afternoon
By: Joe Lowe

Cooler weather, a great group of Monster Jam fans and the best trucks in the business combined to make one of the best events of the year at Stafford Motor Speedway Saturday night.

The track was fast and the times and scores were extremely close as the afternoons event unfolded. The afternoon began with a strong showing by Linsey Weenk driving Blue Thunder.

Linsey drove Thunder to an early win in the Wheelie Contest. That win set the stage for all drivers to turn up the heat with three winners in three competitions.

Lupe Sosa drove the Advance Auto Parts Grinder to the race win and Randy Brown earned the high score of 27 in Grave Digger.

Combine the monster truck action with pro-trucks and FMX and you have one heck of an exciting afternoon. Winner in the pro-Truck division was Colin Dorshimer out of Penn. His time of 21.25 was enough to beat the second place truck of Scott Smith who was clocked at a time of 22.72.

Monster Jam Results:
Truck Wheelie Freestyle
El Toro Loco 15 18
Thrasher 18 11
Eradicator 22 21
Backdraft 14 24
Blue Thunder 21 25
Grinder 23 24
Max D 21 24(rolled)
Grave Digger (Randy Brown) 20 27

Advance Auto Parts Racing Results:
Round One:

Grinder beat Grave Digger
El Toro Loco downed Eradicator
Max D defeated Thrasher
Blue Thunder took out Backdraft

Semi-finals:

Grinder beat El Toro Loco
Maximum Destruction over Blue Thunder

Finals:
Grinder beat Max D.

Many stories were played out during the afternoon.

The Slifco Family, daddy Andy and son Jeremy worked extremely hard displaying how a change in shocks could make a huge difference in performance. Big air and driver confidence made the team fun to watch.

Tom Meents rolling Max D in freestyle illustrated how tough the track could be on trucks and drivers.

Lupe Sosa proved the Grinder truck is here to stay and was a force to be watched closely.

The Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam just keeps getting better and better. Saturday afternoon at Stafford Motor Speedway proved that.

Saturday Night

Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam
Stafford Motor SpeedwaySaturday Night
By: Joe Lowe

If you know racing at all you know the one thing you can count on is “nothing ever goes as planned”. That is what everyone was reminded of Saturday night for the second of three events at the legendary Stafford Motor Speedway.

Tom Meents, after rolling the truck in the afternoon show, two wheeled his way to victory early with an impressive win in the wheelie contest. That was the end of his good luck as problems returned during racing forcing the 8 time world champion to sit out the rest of the night. After beating Grave Digger in round one of racing, the front end locked up while Max D was heading to the start line for the semi-finals. With Tom’s truck out of the competition Grave Digger returned to defeat Thrasher. Grave Digger’s second chance at a race win was short lived as he lost to Linsey Weenk in Blue Thunder.

Other victims of the Stafford Speedway Gremlins were hometown boy Pat Summa and Thrasher. Electrical problems kept the truck out of competition early with Summa missing the Wheelie Contest and Freestyle. Thrasher was able to get things repaired for racing, earning a bye run in the first round before falling to Grave Digger in the semi-finals.

Jeremy Slifco’s Backdraft was forced to sit out the racing portion of the night. He didn’t fair too well in the wheelie contest but did return with a very impressive, high flying freestyle earning a very respectable score of 23 from the judges.

With the cool night air and cheering crowd the Advance Auto Parts trucks ran hard all night long making for another incredible event.

In the pro-truck competition Colin Dorshimer again earned the win defeating Scott Smith by 3 tenths of a second.

FMX riders Rick Janesky, James Skiles and Dan Newth brought fans to their feet for their part of the show. Newth surprised the thousands in the stands with not one but two backflips.

Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam Race Results:

Round One:
Blue Thunder defeated Grinder
El Toro Loco over Eradicator
Max D. beat Grave Digger
Thrasher with a bye run

Semi-Finals:
Blue Thunder beat El Toro Loco
Grave Digger downed Thrasher (Digger came back when Max D broke going to the line)

Finals:
Blue Thunder defeated Grave Digger

Linsey Weenk’s Blue Thunder got faster with every round of racing. Weenk gave credit to his crew chief, Billy, for keeping the truck dialed in as the conditions changed during the night’s event.

Other results:
Truck Wheelie Freestyle
El Toro Loco 15 19
Thrasher broke broke
Eradicator 20 20
Backdraft 16 23
Blue Thunder 18 25
Advance Auto Grinder 21 26
Maximum Destruction 23 broke
Grave Digger 19 27

After a long autograph session things were still going strong in the pit area as crews continued to work on the trucks in order to be ready for the Sunday afternoon event. All promised to fixed, tested and ready to rock and roar for the 2pm Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam.

A big thanks to W.I. Clark for the track equipment and to Ridge and State Automotive of Hamden Ct. for providing the crush cars for the event.

Sunday 2pm

Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam Stafford Speedway
Sunday Afternoon
By: Joe Lowe

Tom Meents said it best Sunday. “I remember 6 or 8 years ago when the Sunday afternoon show didn’t have many fans in the stands. Today we have an almost soldout event because fans know we don’t have to worry about fixing anything for another show. We can just load it in the trailer and take our stuff back to the shop for repairs”. With that the Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam began and the drivers didn’t hold anything back.

After winning the wheelie contest, Lupe Sosa’s Grinder truck left the track during qualifying earning a 5 second penalty. Randy Brown had problems as well with qualifying with the truck failing to hit two ramps earning a:10 penalty. Grinder would make up for him race problems later in the second half of the event.

Linsey Weenk drove Blue Thunder to the fastest qualifying time but fell to Max D in the race championship. Blue Thunder also came in second to Grinder in Freestyle.

The wheelie contest and racing were exciting with some surprises but it was the Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam Freestyle that brought fans to their feet time after time. The first two trucks lost tires. Now monster trucks do lose tires from time to time but back to back is not something that normally happens. Pat Summa’s Thrasher truck had suffered problems all weekend but it was :40 into an impressive freestyle that things went very bad. The tire came completely off the truck rolling down the track. Thrasher could not continue and was done for the day. Next out was Andy Slifco aboard Eradicator in less than :5 he too lost a tire. It seemed to be contagious.

After the rough start for Eradicator and Thrasher things heated up. El Toro Loco was the first to complete the full :90 but it was Blue Thunder blowing out two tires at the end of regulation time that brought fans to their feet for the first time. Weenk took the “Built Ford Tough” flag off the truck and gave it to one of the thousands of screaming fans.

Not to be outdone Lupe Sosa drove Grinder hard rolling it at the end of his time on the track. The driver was not hurt but the truck had to be towed off the track. Again another flag, “Advance Auto Parts”, went to one of the fans as well as a DVD.

Max D. did a great job as did Grave Digger but it was hard for the judges to put any truck in the same class as Blue Thunder and Grinder Sunday. In the end Grinder’s score of 26 earned him the win and the hearts of Monster Jam fans in Ct.

FMX was again exciting with the tri of riders giving fans an encore train of a superman, K.O.D. and backflip.

In Pro Trucks Colin Dorshimer again dominated giving him a clean sweep for the weekend.

Monster Jam Race Results:
Round One:
Max D. beat Grave Digger
El Toro Loco over Eradicator
Grinder downed Backdraft
Blue Thunder defeated Thrasher

Semi-Finals:
Max D beat El Toro Loco
Blue Thunder over Grinder

Race Finals:

Max D over Blue Thunder

Results:
Truck Wheelie Freestyle
El Toro Loco 21 21
Thrasher 21 13 (broke)
Eradicator 23 2 (broke)
Backdraft 17 23
Blue Thunder 19 25
Grinder 27 26
Max D 26 24
Grave Digger 23 24