Tampa, FL - Raymond James Stadium

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Trucks: USHRA Monster Trucks including Grave Digger® driven by Dennis Anderson, Maximum Destruction® driven by Neil Elliott, El Toro Loco® driven by Chuck Werner, Madusa, Advance Auto Parts Grinder℠ driven by Lupe Soza, Grave Digger The Legend℠ driven by Adam Anderson, Stone Crusher driven by Steve Sims, Monster Magic driven by Bryan Wright, Bounty Hunter driven by Jim Creten, Scarlet Bandit driven by Dawn Creten, Gunslinger driven by Scott Hartsock, Ground Pounder, Michigan Ice Monster, Black Stallion driven by Mike Vaters, Iron Warrior driven by Trey Meyers, and Captain America driven by Chad Fortune!

Truck line-up: Grave Digger (Dennis Anderson), Maximum Destruction (Neil Elliott), Grave Digger The Legend (Adam Anderson), Advance Auto Parts Grinder (Lupe Soza), El Toro Loco (Chuck Werner), Bounty Hunter (Jim Creten), Madusa (Madusa), Captain America (Chad Fortune), Stone Crusher (Steve Sims), Gunslinger (Scott Hartsock), Scarlet Bandit (Dawn Creten), Black Stallion (Mike Vaters), Iron Warrior (Trey Myers), Monster Magic (Bryan Wright), Ground Pounder (Chris Ryan), Michigan Ice Monster (Chris Lagana)

Saturday 7:00 p.m. –For the second straight week it was an Anderson Double Down at a major southern Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam stadium event but this time the first name of the winner was Adam, who drove The Legend to the victory in the Championship Race, beating last week’s Double Down winner, his father, Dennis Anderson and Grave Digger; then Adam won the tie-breaker in freestyle over Neil Elliott and Maximum Destruction to claim all of the trophies on a beautiful night capping off an 80 degree day at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.

The Anderson’s both brought their A games to Tampa and they had to against a superstar laden line-up and in qualifying on the big oval track the cream was already rising to the top with Grave Digger earning the top seed for the racing bracket by posting the fastest run in the time trials, with Jim Creten and Bounty Hunter laying down the second quickest time followed by the Legend, Maximum Destruction and Chad Fortune’s Captain America rounded out the top five.

The top performers in time trials were backing it up in the early rounds of the racing bracket with a second round highlight matching Maximum Destruction and Captain America in one of the night’s best, most exciting, and closest races. With the trucks virtually even on the final turn both drivers pushed their machines to edge going for the win, Captain America posting the victory by four-one hundredths of a second and then Elliott crashed and rolled Max-D just past the finish line. Grave Digger would eliminate Captain America in the semifinals, and then in yet another photo finish Grave Digger The Legend beat Bounty Hunter.

The Championship Race then was an Anderson family affair, Dennis in today’s modern Grave Digger style and Adam in the retro-style blue and gray version of the early Digger now called Grave Digger The Legend. Fittingly on a night of thrilling finishes the Anderson’s came to the finish line together, the win going to the Legend by a matter of feet, the third consecutive time that Adam has beaten his Dad head-to-head in a major stadium race.

As another example of the tremendous competitive balance on the race track these days in Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam in a Tampa line-up that included two of the biggest racing winners from a week ago (Grave Digger in Atlanta and Bounty Hunter in Detroit) it was Adam Anderson and the Legend team taking the racing trophy this time.
As he did when he impressed so many in Georgia last weekend Fortune again turned in a crowd pleasing freestyle to put Captain America in the lead until Bounty Hunter matched his score. Then it was time for Maximum Destruction and Elliott flat rocked the house, bringing the roaring crowd to its feet with his high energy, big air, ragged edge performance. Legend was next and matched Max-D move for move, making it tough for the judges who scored both with a 29. When Grave Digger wasn’t quite 100% all the way through and scored a 28 it came down to the tie-breaker judge who gave the nod to the Legend over Maximum Destruction, Adam Anderson’s first Double Down trophy of the year for the Legend portion of the Grave Digger team.

RACING RESULTS
Fast Qualifier – Grave Digger 19.46

1st round – Grave Digger bye run; Ground Pounder def. Gunslinger; Captain America def. Monster Magic; Maximum Destruction def. Black Stallion; Grave Digger The Legend def. Iron Warrior; Stone Crusher def. Madusa; Advance Auto Parts Grinder def. El Toro Loco; Bounty Hunter def. Scarlet Bandit

2nd round – Grave Digger def. Ground Pounder; Captain America def. Maximum Destruction; Grave Digger The Legend def. Stone Crusher; Bounty Hunter def. Advance Auto Parts Grinder

Semifinals – Grave Digger def. Captain America; The Legend def. Bounty Hunter

CHAMPIONSHIP RACE - GRAVE DIGGER THE LEGEND DEFEATED GRAVE DIGGER

FREESTYLE RESULTS

GRAVE DIGGER THE LEGEND 29 (26 + 3 bonus points) – won decision of tie-breaker judge
Maximum Destruction 29 (25 + 4)
Grave Digger 28 (25 + 3)
Advance Auto Parts Grinder 26 (24 + 2)
Captain America 23 (21 + 2)
Bounty Hunter 23 (21 + 2)
El Toro Loco 19
Gunslinger 18
Stone Crusher 18
Madusa 17
Scarlett Bandit 15
Michigan Ice Monster 13
Ground Pounder 9
Black Stallion 3

By Scott Douglass