Monster Jam Raymond James Stadium Tampa, FL 02/06-06/2010
Monster Jam Racing Winner
Monster Jam Freestyle Winner
MAXIMUM DESTRUCTION
GRAVE DIGGER
Trucks:
Grave Digger (Dennis Anderson), Maximum Destruction (Neil Elliot), Blue Thunder (Linsey Weenk), Gunslinger (Scott Hartsock), Stone Crusher (Steve Sims), Superman (Chad Fortune), War Wizard (Randy Moore), Predator (Allen Pezo), Instigator (Lionel Easler), El Toro Loco (Chuck Werner), Mopar Magic (Ricky Ownley), Pouncer (Wayne Smozanek)
Weekend Race Recap Saturday 7:30 p.m. - Linsey Weenk probably had as strong a night as an Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam driver can have without winning a trophy, taking Blue Thunder to the Championship Race where he lost by a matter of feet to Neil Elliot in Maximum Destruction, then the native Canadian turned in a phenomenal freestyle performance only to see Dennis Anderson rise to the occasion and Grave Digger edged past Blue Thunder for the freestyle win in front of a sold out crowd in excess of 60,000 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.
The track construction crew did an outstanding job of giving the drivers an excellent track to battle on despite heavy rains in Tampa on Friday, and the Chicago style oval had plenty of surprises and exciting finishes round after round. To some the first surprise came in qualifying, where Steve Sims outgunned the better known drivers in the field with Stone Crusher setting the fastest time to earn the number one seed in the race bracket. In the first two rounds Sims continued to post the best times, but then Sims fell in the semifinals to Weenk in Blue Thunder. In the bottom half of the bracket the excited fans got what they wanted in the semifinals with a macth-up between Max-D and Digger. In a race that Elliot wanted badly after losing a controversial final to Anderson in Orlando a week ago, Elliot pushed Maximum Destruction to the narrow win over Grave Digger, to adavance into the finals where he edged Weenk and Blue Thunder in another photo finish, then he launched into a celebration that ended with Max-D on its roof.
The best early freestyles were turned in by Ricky Ownley in Mopar Magic and Chad Fortune in Superman, Fortune carrying the lead late into the draw until Weenk hit the floor. After seeing Insitigator, War Wizard, and Stone Crusher all flip over to end their runs prematurely, Weenk went with a huge air and cross-thread dominated performance that was able to fill both the regulation clock and bonus time, Weenk's roll over on top of the bus stack coming after all the time had been filled and Blue Thunder roared into the lead. Next up was Maximum Destruction and Elliot's first leap was huge, but that was it. It appeared that something broke on the truck when it finally came back to ground, rolling Elliot over after only one leap. Anderson was next, and The Icon later said that after watching Weenk's run that had earned a standing ovation from the Tampa fans he knew what he had to do and he did it, turning in a ragged edge freestyle with massive leaps and a pair of unlikely save. Anderson filled all of the time in spectacular fashion to bring the crowd back to its feet and earn the freestyle win for the Grave Digger team.
RACING RESULTS
Fast Qualifier - Stone Crusher
1st round - Stone Crusher def Pouncer; Predator def War Wizard; Mopar Magic def El Toro Loco; Maximum Destruction def Superman; Grave Digger def Gunslinger; Blue Thunder def Instigator
2nd round - Stone Crusher def Predator; Maximum Destruction def Mopar Magic; Grave Digger def Blue Thunder (Blue Thunder advanced to semifinals as fastest 2nd round loser)
Semifinals - Blue Thunder def Stone Crusher; Maximum Destruction def Grave Digger
CHAMPIONSHIP RACE - MAXIMUM DESTRUCTION DEFEATED BLUE THUNDER
