Weekend Race Recap
Durham, NH (April 11-13, 2003)
For the first time ever in New Hampshire, Grave Digger competed at the final round of the Thunder Nationals at the Whittemore Center Arena. Charlie Pauken behind the wheel proved to be a treat for the fans at the "Whit". Charlie dominated the competition all night with a complete sweep of all monster truck competitions.
Charlie had his work cut out for him behind the wheel of Grave Digger with near flawless performances prior to each one of his runs by his competitors. Bad News set the bar high in the Doughnut Contest right away with a score of 29. Eradicator soared through the air during the wheelie contest to score a 29 for that competition. Charlie had to put on a perfect performance in order to win and he did just that with perfect scores of 30. During the Freestyle Competitioin, American Guardian dazzled the fans with a great freestyle run and scored a perfect 30. Charlie performed flawlessly and the competition went to a crowd applause off with Grave Digger the winner!
To end the night perfectly, Charlie dominated the side by side racing competition to take the checkered flag. Don't miss the next 3 performances at the Whittemore Center Arena on Saturday at 2pm and 8pm and also on Sunday at 2pm. Stop by your local New England Dodge dealer to get your free pit pass and come down early for the pit party from 11:30am-12:30pm on Saturday. (Saturday 2pm ticket and pit pass required for entrance.)
Doughnut Contest Winner - Grave Digger
Wheelie Contest Winner - Grave Digger
Freestyle Winner - Grave Digger
Side by Side Racing Winner - Grave Digger
Saturday 2pm
Doughnut Contest Winner - Bad News
Wheelie Contest Winner - Grave Digger
Freestyle Winner - Grave Digger
Side by Side Racing Winner - Bad News
Before a sold out afternoon crowd, Bad News certainly proved to the fans that he drove all the way from Flordia to New Hampshire with his "A" Game. Coming of a night before of total Grave Digger domination, Bruce Haney brought to crowd to their feet with his fast spinning donut to start the show. Continuing to be fiercely competitive throughout the night, Bruce piloted Bad News into the side by side racing victory. He started the afternoon out with the perfect performance and ended the afternoon flawlessly.
To quote Charlie Pauken, "everyone is running so hard out there that I'm going to have to be creative to try to win." Creative he was during freestyle to capture the 2nd freestyle win of the weekend.
Saturday 8pm
Doughnut Contest Winner - Grave Digger
Wheelie Contest Winner - Grave Digger
Freestyle Contest Winner - Grave Digger
Side by Side Racing - American Guardian
This may have been the best wheelie contest that I have ever seen. Pat Suma stood Thrasher on its tailgate and danced across the set of cars flawlessly. Next up, Andy Slifko stook Eradicator straight up and down almost to the point of no return. Then Charlie Pauken grabbed the win in Grave Digger as he looked straight at the roof of the Whittemore Center Arena during his run.
After putting on the flawless freestyle performance, Charlie Pauken had problems with a brand new transmission during side by side racing which put him out for the night. American Guardian put the pedal to the metal against Eradicator in the finals to capture the win!
Sunday
The 2003 Thunder National series came to a conclusion in Durham this afternoon as an eager crowd applauded the Digger swept both the freestyle and racing competitions. With Charlie Pauken at the wheel, Digger battled rival American Guardian, navigated by 2003 Rookie of the Year, Rick Raab, for the Donught Contest title, which Raab dominated. Not to be overlooked, was the wheelie skills of Andy Slifko in Eradicator, who propped the entire back end on a stack of cars as he walked it across the ruble and bounced to victory.
The Sunday afternoon show was a culimation of five drivers skills and fierce competition - ultimately a great conclusion to the 2003 Thunder Nationals series!
