Fargo, ND - Fargodome

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Trucks: USHRA Monster Trucks including Grave Digger® driven by Chad Tingler, Spider-Man driven by Bari Musawwir, Bounty Hunter driven by Daron Migues, Iron Outlaw driven by Ben Winslow, Ground Pounder, Ice Monster, Martial Law driven by Paul Strong, and Desperado driven by Drew Haygood!


Friday 7:30 p.m.

Bari Musawwir and Paul Strong provided the wow moments for the opening night of the Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam. Bari, driving Spider-Man set the pace early in the night with a win in the wheelie contest. On both hits, Bari and Spider-Man went completely vertical, rotating just a bit to the left about a truck length above the crush cars and landing on the last car in the stack.

That got the blood pumping in the Dome, which set up the next wow moment, supplied by Paul Strong. The driver of Martial Law and team made a short trip up I-94 from Albany, Minnesota to the Fargo Dome and then had it all go awry during the first round of racing. Paul powered into turn one of his Chicago Style Obstacle Course Race, steering with the rear steer initially, pedaling the throttle trying to break the truck into a 4 wheel drift. As the rear end started to come around, Paul started steering into the turn with front steer, and that is when the hook, whip and slam took place. The truck high sided violently, disintegrating the roof and wind screen and most of the driver’s side of the body. During his interview Paul stated that he had “tested out the drift during intros” and felt he could put the hammer down, but the tacky surface inside the Fargo Dome was too much for the drift attempt. Paul would have an undisclosed mechanical issue during his freestyle run; in fact it was more of a parade lap that put him back in to his pit area.

Bad luck or mechanicals would not hamper Bari and Spider-Man. What got Bari was the tacky surface and heavy right foot. At the end of a killer freestyle run, and after time had expired, as an encore for the fans Bari attempted to put the super hero truck into a cyclone. Just as it looked as if he would break it free and get the rotations he wanted the left side hooked and the truck made a ¾ roll, almost having the momentum to carry itself back up on all 4 wheels before settling on its side.

The UTI Championship Round Racing Winner was Darren Migues driving Bounty Hunter. Darren powered the 2Xtreme Race team to the main event win with back to back victories over Chris Ryan and Ground Pounder. Grave Digger had advanced to the main event but had a front drive shaft issue that the team could not get fixed in time to make the main event, and the Michigan Ice Monster had a mechanical also that kept them from returning, so Panda and Pounder answered the call. Chris is a hard driving guy, always giving the fans what he wanted to see when he was a youngster sitting in the stands, watching. Now in the seat of a tremendous piece and with talent brimming over, Chris and Ground Pounder are always a challenger as stated by Darren Migues.

In Darren's interview he commented on the fact that he has faced off against Chris and Ground Pounder many times over the last few years and it is a 50/50 chance of getting the win. Darren ran an amazingly smooth and consistent run ending in victory lane.

Chad Tingler and Grave Digger, celebrating 30 years of being bad to the bone, kept the year long party going in Fargo. Chad had an outstanding freestyle run that ended with the top score and what I believe might be the wow moment on Saturday. There are 2 huge Stockholm stacks off set from one another, one by the red racing lane and one by the yellow. It must be about 70 to 75 feet apart, and I believe Chad and Digger were test running it tonight to try and double jump it later in the weekend. Chad loves to cross thread the track during freestyle and I just saw him do such a stunt in Sacramento a few weeks ago. It is definitely what I will be looking for as the weekend progresses.

Wheelie Scores:
Desperado drive by Drew Haygood 23 (if it wasn't for Spider-Man, Drew's hits were a firm winner)
Michigan Ice Monster driven by Chris Lagana 16
Iron Outlaw driven by Ben “BoBo the Clown” Winslow 13
Martial Law driven by Paul Strong 15
Ground Pounder driven by Chris “Panda” Ryan 16
Bounty Hunter driven by Darren Migues 22
Spider-Man driven by Bari Musawwir 24 (simply awesome!!)
Grave Digger driven by Chad Tingler 21

Racing Brackets
Round 1
Grave Digger chained Iron Outlaw
Ice Monster froze Desperado
Ground Pounder slammed Spider-Man
Bounty Hunter overcame Martial Law

Semi Final
Grave Digger buried Ice Monster
Bounty Hunter collected on Ground Pounder

Final
Bounty Hunter beat Ground Pounder (see explanation above in body of text)

Freestyle Scores:
Desperado 10
Martial Law 6
Ice Monster 8 (broke left front spindle)
Iron Outlaw 21
Ground Pounder DNS (mechanical, not sure what.)
Bounty Hunter 24
Spider-Man 26
Grave Digger 27

By Scott Heaton

Saturday 2:00 p.m.

Chris Ryan aka Panda and Ground Pounder went from not even being sure they would make the day’s event to winning the UTI Championship Round of Racing. In victory lane, the tremendously talented youngster thanked the Spider-Man and Grave Digger teams for the parts and labor they supplied to make sure Ground Pounder made the show. And make it they did. Winning racing and tying for 2nd in freestyle is an achievement that the Ground Pounder team can look back on at the end of the year and know that they gave the fans their all.

Bari Musawwir and Spider-Man had a good day as well. They should have been the winner in the wheelie contest, but were the winners in freestyle. Massive air and a torrid pace gave the super hero truck the win after 90 seconds of sheer abuse. Darren Migues and Bounty Hunter maybe should have been the winner of freestyle from my vantage point. He had triple the amount of hits on the obstacles as anyone else, due to the rapid fire way that Darren and Bounty Hunter attack the track. The only thing that didn't go right during Bounty Hunters run was the attempt at a cyclone at the end of the run. Darren tried valiantly to get the truck to break loose, but was unable to make the truck obey on the tacky clay surface in the Fargo Dome.

Chad Tingler in Grave Digger came out and won the wheelie contest, then was looking like he was on a vintage Grave Digger run when the rear spindle failed leaving the Black and Green Wrecking Machine on 3 wheels early in his run. So, no Grave Digger double jump today... but still hoping it will happen!

Wheelie Scores:
Desperado 17
Iron Outlaw 22
Martial Law 13
Ground Pounder 19
Bounty Hunter 21
Spider-Man 22
Grave Digger 26

Racing Brackets
Round 1

Martial Law single lane competition bye due to Ice Monster electrical issue
Ground Pounder hammered Desperado
Bounty Hunter cuffed Grave Digger
Spider-Man got Iron Outlaw

Semi Final
Ground Pounder beat Iron Outlaw who returned when Martial Law had mechanical
Spider-Man defeat Bounty Hunter

Final
Ground Pounder wins over Spider-Man

Freestyle Scores:
Desperado 14
Martial Law 3 (mechanical. Only made a parade lap)
Iron Outlaw 22
Ground Pounder 25
Bounty Hunter 25
Spider-Man 26
Grave Digger 19

By Scott Heaton

Saturday 7:30 p.m.

Drew Haygood and Desperado provided the wow moment and the feel good moment of the night. Drew came out and won the wheelie contest, his first Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam win of the 2012 season, although it could have been his second, his performance in wheelie was good enough to have won on Friday night as well. The wow moment was when Drew whacked the loud pedal on his 2nd wheelie attempt and sent the truck completely vertical. Actually a little past vertical, over rotating just a smidge, there was no saving the truck for Drew. Desperado slowly flopped over on its back. By slowly I mean that it looked that way, but it was obviously fast as Drew was trying to get the truck into reverse to back out of the situation but was not quite quick enough. The feel good moment came when Drew interviewed in the Advance Auto Parts Victory Lane. Drew's emotion and joy were overloading his sense, as he thanked the fans and the for the 2nd time he broke out into a celebratory victory dance, yelling “I finally got one!!!” Good one Drew!! Congrats to the Desperado team.

The other wow moment of the night was also a scary one. Panda or Chris Ryan driving Ground Pounder, coming off of the UTI Championship Round Winner earlier in the day came charging into the first turn way to hot. He started on the rear steering and then turned into it with the front and that put the truck up on 2 wheels, bicycling around the corner and losing the battle with gravity. Panda tried steering into it and powering out but he ran out of real estate and augured in hard. It rattled the youngster, but he came back out and freestyled like a man with his hair on fire, proving that youth has its advantages.

Chad Tingler provided a wow moment in racing, when he bicycled into the turn but just stayed steady on the throttle, riding the bicycle into the crush cars where the already hiked up left side hit the Stockholm Stack sending the truck back into a bicycle just as it seemed Grave Digger would settle on all 4. Chad again, stayed in the throttle riding the bicycle the length of the straight away. SO, basically he raced half of the track on 2 wheels!!! Chad and Grave Digger, celebrating 30 years of being bad to the bone also doubled down on Saturday night - winning both racing and freestyle.

Wheelie Scores:
Desperado 24
Iron Outlaw 20
Martial Law 4 (Paul Strong and team fought mechanicals all weekend long and tried their level best to give the Fargo fans a great show. Up to this point is was a hard road, but Paul and Martial Law did a killer job in freestyle reminding the fans to never give up)
Ground Pounder 18
Bounty Hunter 21
Spider-Man 20
Grave Digger 22

Racing Bracket
Round 1

Iron Outlaw beat Ground Pounder
Bounty Hunter beat Desperado
Grave Digger beat Spider-Man

Semi Final
Desperado returns as fast loser and nearly beat Iron Outlaw
Grave Digger beat Bounty Hunter

Final
Grave Digger beat Iron Outlaw

Freestyle Scores:
Desperado 15
Martial Law 17
Iron Outlaw 22
Ground Pounder 21
Bounty Hunter 24
Spider-Man 18
Grave Digger 25

By Scott Heaton