Detroit, MI - Ford Field

Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam
Ford Field
Detroit, MI
January 8, 2011

Truck line-up: Grave Digger (Charlie Pauken), Maximum Destruction (Tom Meents), Advance Auto Parts Grinder (Frank Krmel), Ironman (Lee O’Donnell), El Toro Loco (Marc McDonald), Stone Crusher (Steve Sims), Monster Mutt (Joe Miller), Shock Therapy (Jon Zimmer), High Maintenance (Jocelyn Perrin), Dragon’s Breath (Becky McDonough), War Wizard (Randy Moore), Bad Habit (Joe Sylvester), Mopar Magic (Morgan Kane), Excaliber (David Brown)

Saturday January 8, 2011, 7:30 p.m.

Lee O’Donnell has won Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam events televised by Speed in the past but it was always in a fill-in roll, substituting for another driver. Saturday night in Detroit O’Donnell grabbed the racing victory in the Speed event at Ford Field in Detroit behind the wheel of his Ironman truck, then Tom Meents thrilled his legions of Maximum Destruction fans in the motor city with rocking freestyle on his first return back to the home of the Detroit Lions in some four years, winning that competition in front of the roaring crowd.

Crowd favorite Frank Krmel made his debut as the newest Advance Auto Parts Grinder driver in front of his hometown fans an impressive one, setting the fastest qualifying time and rolling through the 14 truck bracket all the way to the final round before losing a close battle with O’Donnell in the Championship Race. The stadium oval race course saw several great battles and close finishes, including a pair of photo finishes in the semifinal round when Krmel’s Advance Auto Parts Grinder edged Meents and Maximum Destruction by about 6 inches and O’Donnell claimed a tight win over Marc McDonald and El Toro Loco, leading to O’Donnell putting Ironman on the championship stage in Ford Field.

Going for the Double Down trophy after winning the race event O’Donnell came out first in freestyle and stayed in the lead through the first half of the competition before Steve Sims in Stone Crusher edged O’Donnell out of the lead. Before that it was Joey Sylvester who had the crowd cheering with a wild freestyle that ended with Bad Habit rolling over with way too much time left on the clock to get a big score. Eventually it was Jon Zimmer in Shock Therapy and then McDonald in El Toro Loco and Detroit native Krmel who each rocked the house with huge efforts, El Toro Loco having the top score when Meents brought his brand new Maximum Destruction on to the dirt and went huge, the wow moment coming with about :30 left in regulation time when Meents rolled the truck, Max-D coming onto the tailgate where the truck was suspended in that position for several second before Meents was able to get his new piece back onto its wheels and despite a flat tire and a rough sounding motor Tom was able to fill the remaining time including bonus and put up a winning number that reigning World Champion Charlie Pauken would fall just a bit short of in his Grave Digger freestyle, the crowd standing and cheering as the freestyle battle of World Champions this time was won by eight time world title winner Meents.

RACING RESULTS
Fast Qualifier - Advance Auto Parts Grinder
1st round - Advance Auto Parts Grinder def Bad Habit; Grave Digger def Monster Mutt; Maximum Destruction def High Maintenance; Shock Therapy def War Wizard; El Toro Loco def Mopar Magic; Stone Crusher def Excaliber; Ironman def Dragon’s Breath (Mopar Magic advanced as fastest 1st round loser)
2nd round - Advance Auto Parts Grinder def Mopar Magic; Maximum Destruction def Grave Digger; El Toro Loco def Shock Therapy; Ironman def Stone Crusher
Semifinals - Advance Auto Parts Grinder def Maximum Destruction; Ironman def El Toro Loco
CHAMPIONSHIP RACE – IRONMAN DEFEATED ADVANCE AUTO PARTS GRINDER

FREESTYLE RESULTS
MAXIMUM DESTRUCTION 30 (27 + 3 bonus points)
Grave Digger 27 (24 + 3)
El Toro Loco 26 (23 + 3)
Advance Auto Parts Grinder 25 (23 + 2)
Shock Therapy 23 (21 + 2)
Stone Crusher 21 (19 + 2)
Ironman 20 (18 + 2)
War Wizard 19 (17 + 2)
Bad Habit 16
High Maintenance 15 (13 + 2)
Dragon’s Breath 15 (13 + 2)
Excaliber 11
Monster Mutt 9