Gravedigger had been on a pretty good roll the past few weeks with Rod Schmitt driving Gravedigger number 7. He had won just about every event he had entered...until tonight. In the first round of Eliminations, Gravedigger beat Big Dawg (Doug Noelke), Predetor (Allen Pezo) beat Wild Hair (Jason Whitte) and Radical Rescue (Jason Childress) beat Prowler (Larry Jarzel). The second round got a little more rambunchious with Digger taking Wild Hair to task and Predetor spanking Radical Rescue. That set up a final of Gravedigger and Predetor. As they lined up fpr the start of the final, the fans went crazy for Gravedigger. Off the start it seemed like Digger was going to win hands down. But Rod Schmidt went wide in the second
turn, this allowed Allen Pezo (Predetor) to make up some time. As the two trucks rounded the second to last turn Digger again went wide, Predetor took the lead and never looked back. It was a huge up-set win for Allen Pezo and Predetor.
The finish order was as follows:
Predetor: Allen Pezo Winner, Gravedigger was runner up.
Monster Truck Freestyle:
All six Monsters had great runs in the freestyle competition. The lowest score was a 20. Freestyle started, the drivers were pumped up. Big Dawg and Wild Hair both scored a 24 and Prowler scored a 23. Then Allen Pezo scored a 25, and it looked like he may be the man who walks away with the Friday title. Then came Gravedigger, he was unreal. Rod Schmitt used every inch of the track and blasted eveything in sight. He scored a perfect 30. Freestyle scores were as follows:
Winner: Gravedigger / Rod Schmidt
Runner-up: Predetor / Allen Pezo
Freestyle Motocross:
We had three very good riders, Greg Durkee, Derek Cook and Steve Wagner. They put on a fantastic show for the crowd. In the finals they broke out the "Bag of Tricks" and it was impressive to say the least. Each rider was allowed 6 jumps in the final and then we had an applause -off to determine the winner. Steve Wagner was deemed the winner, but the all did a great job. The tricks were clean and very well exicuted. Again, we had a great group of riders that really did a great job.
Street Warriors:
Nine entries filled the field and they were a good group of drivers. The fast time of the night belonged to winner of the event, but it did not come in the final round. Mike Lury, a first time driver, ran a fast time in the first round of 32.03. Oddly enough, his winning time in the final was a 32.71. He beat Siryun Silvilai in the final Siryun ran a 33.22.
I had a great time tonight. I really enjoied the crowed. I am very excited for tomorrow night and Sunday afternoon.
Larry Naston / USHRA Announcer
Saturday
Saturday nights show was a great event. The crowd was much bigger that we had expected and that was a grat suprise. Even the "Built Ford Tough Party in the Pits" was a blast. I met people from several different states, some as far away as Washington state.
Monster Truck Racing:
It was a huge night of upsets in Monster truck racing. The winner of Frifday nights racing was Predator, and tonight he again met up with Grave Digger...but that was in the semi final round and he beat Gravedigger again. In the final Predator met Big Dawg (Doug Noelke) and Big Dawg took the win. Prowler (Larry Jarzel), Big Dawg (Doug Noelke) and Predator (Allen Pezo) were first round winners. That set up the semi final round where Predator beat Gravedigger (Rod Schmidt) to advance to the final against Big Dawg (Doug Noelke). As mentioned above Noelke pulled the upset wit over Predator and Allen Pezo.
Monster Truck Freestyle:
Freestyle was again a great show with another huge upset win. Allen Pezo took Predator over the Freestyle jump landing ramp and got major air and just wowed the crowed. He scored a 27 point run. Jason Whitte (Wild Hair) scored a 24 point run that was good for third place. The second place run was a 26 scored by Gravedigger. It was not one of his better runs, and he said after the show that he would do better on Sunday. You could tell that he was upset with his run and felt bad. The rest of the field better look out on Sunday, Rod Schmidt is determined to win it all on Sunday. Predator was the winner and he was stoked.
Freestyle Motocross:
Again, Steve Wagner from Kansas City , Mo. took the win with some great jumps and tricks. Derek Cook was second and Greg Durkee was third. There three riders put on a great show and the fans really enjoied their performance.
Overall:
With the nice suprise we got with the size of the crowd, I can only hope that tomorrow's show will be fantastic. This is a fun venue to work and our sponsors;
Diamond Shamrock (Presenting), Town and Country Towing, Hertz Equipment Rentals and Concrete Systems have been great to work with. This has been a great two nights and we have one more show to go!
Larry Naston / USHRA Announcer
Sunday
This was no run of the mill Sunday show. The drivers were pumped up for a big time Monster Jam and that is what they gave the crowd. Diamond Shamrock and Ford Trucks put the word out and treated the fans great.
Again, it was a walk through thr park for Mike Lury. He took his Ford Ranger to the win over a field of nine racers, to notch his third straight win of this three day show. The fun part of the Street Warriors was the kind of trucks that came out to race. It was a mirciale that some of these trucks could even make it around the track, but they did and some of the did very well. The final round was Mike Lury and Armando Ortiz (Ford F-150). As I mentioned above, Mike Lury won with a time of 21.72 to Ortiz's 23.97. The crowd really liked these guys.
Steve Wagner ( Kansas City, Mo. Kawasaki) won for the third night in a row. He bested Derek Cook (Lawton, Ok. Honda) and Gregf Durkee (Scottsdale, Az. Kaw.). They rode very well and the ceowd went wild every time they hit the ramp. This was a group of riders that were very sharp on their approach to the show. They looked and rode very professional. It was a great freestyle show.
The racing portion of thr show was as wild as it gets. We even had a roll-over with Gravewdigger in the semi-finals. The semi final round had Predator (Allen Pezo) and Wild Hair (Jason Schmidt), Predator advanced to the finals with a convincing win over Wild hair. In the secon d pair, it was Gravedigger (Rod Schmidt) racing Big Dawg (Doug Noelke), The race was even until Gravedigger rolled over in the final turn. That put Predator and Big Dawg in the final. It was the same match-up as last nigh as last night when Big Dawg won hands down. But today Predator was a little bit more hungry. Allen Pezo took the win.
This was thye best freestyle of the weekend. All of the trucks ranh well and they were going for it. Wild Hail (Jasoin Whitte) had two rear broken axles and still came out, and he ran backwards. Two of our Monsters ran a score of 22: Radical Rescue (Jason Childress) and Prowler (Larry Jarzel). Then came Allen Pezo (Predator) who scored a 29. In my opion it was the best run of the day. He hit everything, including the landing ramp for the freestyle mx'er's. The crowd went nuts. Then came Gravedigger (Rod Schmidt), he scored a perfect 30 and won the event. His run was great, but in my opion it was not as good as Predator, but the crowd scored him a 30.
It was a great time here in Albuquerque, and the fans were great. A special thank you to Sabrian Garza and the entire staff at the building. Diamon Shamrock and Ford Trucks were a big help in putting this event together.
