Monster Jam Centennial Garden Bakersfield, CA 02/28/2003
Monster Jam Racing Winner
Monster Jam Freestyle Winner
Friday - Gravedigger Saturday - Gravedigger
Friday - Bounty Hunter Saturday - Black Smith
Trucks: Grave Digger, Black Smith, Shocker, Bounty Hunter, and Scarlet Bandit.
Weekend Race Recap
Bakersfield, CA (February 28-March 1, 2003)
Friday Friday night's show was one that thr fans and I won't soon forget. There was a lot of wild things that happened but the show went off without a hitch.
We started out with the "Fast 50's and the "Go Ped's'". They entertained the crowd for our pre-race enhancements. Go-Ped.com came out with two new ramps that were much higher than their normal ramps. They did all kinds of tricks and the crowd loved them. They put on a good show.
Quad Wars:
It was Team Los Angeles vs. Team Bakersfield. They each scored a win in the heat races which put one rider from each team on the front row. This created a great set-up for the final. Team LA took the win, but they put a huge block pass on the Team Bakersfield rider that was in the lead. The USHRA officials said the move was illegal and that set up a 3 lap "winner take all grudge race". Team Bakersfield's captain (Jason Anderson) was up against Team LA's captain (Nick Granlund). Granland took the win. It was a good race and tomorrow's race will be one to watch!!!
Freestyle Motocross:
The freestyle motocross riders put on a great show. In fact, for the first time we saw a trick called "The Kiss of Death", we have not seen that trick at any time during this season. Billy Walls was the overall freestyle winner in the Freestyle Step-Up and Jump contest, he clearly out-classed the field of 4 riders that we had here tonight.
Monster Truck Racing:
We had 5 top notch Monsters here tonight. Shocker (Pat Gerber), Black Smith (Carl Van Horn), Scarlet Bandit (Dawn Creten), Bounty Hunter (Jimmy Creten) and Gravedigger (Pablo Huffaker). In Drag Racing it was all Gravedigger as he took the win in the final over Black Smith. The highlight of the Monster racing was when Scarlet Bandit (Dawn Creten) beat her husband, the Bounty Hunter (Jimmy Creten) in the First round.
Monster Freestyle:
In freestyle, it was a very tight lay-out of a course, this required a lot of driver input and skill. The first out was hometown racer Shocker, he had a decent run and scored a 19. Scarlet Bandit scored a 17. Then came Black Smith, he had a great run and scored a impressive 23 point run. the judges werte very tough. Bounty Hunter scored a 26 and he looked like the man to beat. His run was unreal in this tight arena. Then came Gravedigger. He started so strong and then...he rolled. It was about 15 seconds into his run. They turned him over, but for safety reasons he could not restart. Digger scored a 16. Giving the win to Bounty Hunter. During my interview with Pablo Huffaker, he said that Digger would be set "ON OVERLOAD" for tomorrow nights show.
It was a good night in B-Town!
Larry Naston / USHRA Announcer
Saturday
Tonight's show was great. Every element of our program went extremely well and we had a very smooth show flow all night long.
Fast 50's and GoPed's started the night off again tonight. The GoPed boys suprised not only the crowd but themselves as well. Brandon Currie did a complete backflip on the new ramp. This is the ramp that is three times as high as the ramp they have used in the past. This was huge due to the fact that this was the first time the ramp had been used at a show. The crowd loved these kids.
LBZ Freestyle:
Again, Billy Walls was the class of the field. He has the "KISS OF DEATH" trick down pat. This is an extremely insane trick. The trick requires the rider to take his eyes completley off the landing ramp at a very critical time. Tommy Jean and Tim O'Brien had great runs as well. They both could have been winners on any other night. Bobby Lee started things off with some sick air and Team LBZ did what they came here to do, set the crowd into a frenzy. Mike Russell (LBZ Owner) was a big help announcing the event, he added a lot of needed expert commentary. The tricks that these rider's were doing , most freestylers could not do in any competition. The LBZ Step-Up went to a staggering 16 feet. That contest was deemed a tie between Billy Walls and Tim O'Brien. In the LBZ Freestyle Jump-off it was Team LBZ's Billy Walls with the victory. It was a great night for Team LBZ as they won every thing in sight.
Monster Truck Racing:
Monster truck racing was won by Gravedigger (Pablo Huffaker), one-by-one he mowed the field down until he met his teammate Blacksmith (Carl Van Horn) in the final. Gravedigger put him away in orderly fashion. Fast qualifier for the racing was Black Smith with a 1.42. Gravedigger did some major wrenching on his truck to get Digger ready for the final. The extra work paid off as he won the racing final.
Monster Freestyle:
Monster Freestyle had some judges that were not the best we have ever had. The first truck out was hometown favorite Shocker (Pat Gerber) he had a good run to score a 19. Next it Scarlet Bandit, she scored a 22 point run, this is where we had our judge problem. She had a good run, but she was scored a 10 from one judge and it was not warranted. The judge should have scored her a 7 or 8 at the most, but that is the way it goes. Bounty Hunter and Black Smith had great runs and scored 28 point runs. it looked like we were going to have a tie for the win but Gravedigger had not run yet. Off went Gravedigger , and he had a great run, it was easily the best run of the weekend but the judges scored it a 27. So we did end up with the tie. We had an applause off and Black Smith was declared the winner. The crowd was still upset that Gravedigger was not the winner by score, he truly had the best run.
All in all, it was a great weekend in Bakersfield, and the crowd can't wait until next year....
