Weekend Race Recap
Friday:
A
near Sell Out crowd came to the Pensacola
Civic Center in Pensacola
Florida
to watch the Thunder Nationals Monsters compete in four competitions Friday
night. With near record snowfalls in the north east U.S.
it was nice to be in shirt sleeves and clear skies with the blue waters of the
Gulf just a mile away.
Hometown
Hero Reptoid, driven by Jim Jack of nearby Milton Florida had his share of fans
present and they were not disappointed as Reptoid did extremely well in a couple
of the competitions.
The
evening was not the best for Brandon Harrington aboard the Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtle, as he worked his way to the race finals only to have electrical problems
in the race final. Turtle was forced to drop out of the race giving Virginia
Giant another chance to race Grave Digger
The
Civic
Center
was rocking to the wild antics of Hot Rod Bobby Cox, who kept fans laughing
all night.
Galactron
and Reptar battled it out in the floor in the classic, good versus evil, routine
and Quad Wars saw Team California
beat Team Florida.
Competition
Results:
Wheelie
Donut
Freestyle
REPTOID
18
10
24
BAD
NEWS
18
26
22
TEENAGE
TURTLE
24
24
24
VIRGINIA
GIANT 27*
30*
25
GRAVE
DIGGER
22
29
30*
Bad
News another Florida truck, driven by Bruce Haney did a great job in the donut
contest and in racing but could not overcome the Thunder Nationals champion,
Virginia Giant or the black and green Grave Digger.
Race
Results:
Round
One:
Grave
Digger bye run as the Freestyle Winner
Turtle
over Reptoid
Bad
News over Virginia
Semi-Finals:
Digger
over Bad News
Turtle
beat Virginia Giant (fastest Loser)
Finals
Grave
Digger beat Virginia Giant (Giant went to the race final when Turtle, with electrical
problems, could not answer the call to the line.
Saturday:
Thunder
Nationals finished a two day stay in Pensacola
Florida
with some wild action Saturday as the season winds down. The night was dominated
by the champions, Grave Digger and Virginia Giant but not without some hard
work and heart ache. At one time during the event only The Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtle was running without problems. Grave Digger had drive train problems,
Bad News had a hole in his tire big enough to put your fist thru and both Virginia
Giant and Reptoid were plagued with transmission problems.
It
was right after the wheelie contest that Jim Jack noticed Reptoid would not
stay in gear. “I didn’t have another tranny with me and I wanted to do a good
job for the hometown folks so I just patched it and went as far as I could”,said
Jim in an interview after the event. “ I did manage to keep it going thru racing”.
Diehl
Wilsons Virginia Giant, the Thunder Nationals Champion lost a transmission in
Freestyle, costing him the win against Digger. It was right before the intermission
and that was exactly the amount of time the crew needed to replace the powerplant
before racing.
Results
for the evening:
Wheelie
Donut
Freestyle
Reptoid
23
12
17
Bad
News
23
30
20
Mutant
Turtle
30
25
22
Virginia
Giant
24
30
26
Grave
Digger
30
30
29
In
what seemed more like a popularity contest Grave Digger won the Wheelie Contest
over Mutant Turtle in the cheer off.
In
the three way tie for the win in the donut competition Virginia Giant won over
Bad News and Grave Digger. All three did an incredible job with their donut
display.
With
most of the other trucks suffering from mechanical problems Grave Digger walked
away with the win in Freestyle after Giant lost his tranny and had to be towed
off the track.
Racing
Results:
Round
One:
Virginia
Giant with a bye run
Grave
Digger over Bad News
Turtle
beat Reptiod
Round
Two (Semi-Finals)
Virginia
Giant over BadNews
Digger
beat Turtle
Finals:
Grave
Digger over Virginia Giant.
