Evansville, IN (January 17-18, 2003)

Tonight, the defending Thunder Nationals champion takes on the local monster... and the Evansville crowd could not have had more to cheer about.  When the dust cleared, each truck took a victory in tonight's competition. 

 

In the the Wheelie Contest, one of the two local monsters, Pony Express, had to carry the home town fans, as the other local truck, American Dream, stalled in the pits, unable to run.  After the final truck ran, however, it was the defending 2002 Thunder Nationals champion Deihl Wilson's Virginia Giant that the crowd voted the the winner. 

 

After some tense moments in the pits, the crew came through for American Dream and got the monster ready in time for the Doughnut Contest.  With perhaps the toughest field of trucks for a Doughnut Contest on hand, the local truck had his work cut out for him.  Bad News ran perfectly, and the crowd responded with a great score. He was bettered, however, by the ear-wrenching performance of Virginia Giant.  Equally as impressive was American Dream, on the track making up for lost time.  His performance too was perfect, and the perfect score from the crowd awarded him with the victory.

 

When it comes to Freestyle, there's clearly a reason why Virginia Giant is champion.  Tonight, the contest belonged to the truck, and the crowd could not get enough of him.  After blowing two engines, in two weeks, this time everything went Giant's way. It went perfect in fact... the crowd's score was a flawless 30.

 

We knew we were in for an interesting Quad Wars as last year's Team Evansville captain comes back to town, but this time as the captain of the rival team, Team Chicago.   With words exchanged early between the defector and his former home town fans, we knew the crowd would not want to see Chicago take the victory.  Even though Chicago ran well early in both heats, the finals were all Evansville.  The crowd, naturally, cheered loudly at the sight of their former captain leaving with the loss.

 

In side by side racing, the two local monster truck met in the Semi Finals.  The crowd was then assured that their home-town favorites would arace to the end.  On this night, it was Dave Turpen in American Dream.  In the other race, the fastest losing time came back to take on Giant, but Bad News was sent back to the pits, and Virginia Giant off to the finals.  The crowd was split, cheering equally for both the defending champion and the home town monster.  The race could not have been any closer as the checkered flag fell.  Clearly, the first show's victory went to American Dream, setting the stage for some great competition for the two remaining shows. 

 

Saturday Afternoon