Trucks: Monster Trucks (subject to change) Grave Digger driven by Gary Porter, Safe Auto Minimizer driven by Mark McDonald, Pastrana 199 driven by Cam McQueen, Destroyer driven by Dan Evans, and Bad News Travels Fast driven by Bruce Haney. Quad Wars and XSBA.
Weekend Race Recap
Friday - The Baton Rouge River Center was packed as the Monster Jam fans filled in for the first night of competition. The line up for this weekend is featuring four out of five Monster Trucks that are headed to the World finals to compete in 15 days from now.
The Activision wheelie contest was first and Destroyer started us out with a huge wheelie and the lead with a score of 24 that was not touched until Safe Auto stood it on the tail gate for the win with a 25. Pastrana 199 also stood it straight up in the air but the left rear tire sank into the trunk of a crush car and rolled the truck over for a score of 21. Grave Digger scored a 23 on his wheelie and Bad News rounded out the field with a 17.
In other action Destroyer made it to the racing finals after thrashing on the truck when he broke a hydraulic line in the semi finals. The crew chiefs for Safe Auto pitched in to help Dan's crew chief Lorie (Dan's wife) get the truck fixed in time to make it to the finals. Safe Auto was on a roll as he took the racing finals win over destroyer by a foot. Safe Auto made it there by getting the bye run in round one and defeating the fast looser (Pastrana 199 ) in the semi finals. Destroyer made it to the finals with wins over Bad News and Grave Digger. Grave Digger did have a win over Pastran 199 in the first round.
Freestyle was awesome as each truck took on the UTI van stack to get some huge air and they also took advantage of the huge floor to spin some great doughnuts. Bad News started things off with a 15 as Pastrana took the lead with a 18. Each truck up the score each time as Destroyer took the lead on his freestyle with a 19 only to get beat out by Safe Auto with a score of 21. Grave Digger was looking for his first win and drove the Black and Green wrecking machine into the ground for the win and a score of 23.
In the Quad war challenge team Texas defeated team Louisiana two races to one to take home the trophy.
Saturday Afternoon - For the first time in many years that Monster Jam has been here in Baton Rouge there was a Saturday afternoon show. The response from the Monster Jam fans was huge as family and friends packed the Baton Rouge River Center for round number two. Problems started right away for the Pastrana 199 team as Becky McDunogh had to franticly rush to fix the Pastrana truck when it would not start for the wheelie contest. Pastrana would not make it back until racing.
Safe Auto was still the truck to beat as Mark McDonald took the wheelie contest win, the Doughnut competition win and was seconf in freestyle and made it to the finals in racing. Bad News was impressive with his new motor that was replaced after the first motor blew up last week in Lafayette Louisiana. Bruce drove Bad News to the racing win over Safe Auto Minimizer. Grave Digger also took home a win by scoring a 27 in freestyle for the second time in a row this weekend.
Team Louisiana was the big winners of the day by finally taking the 10 lap main event over team Texas, and the fans got to watch some great freestyle tricks from the X S B A riders. Round one racing: Grave Digger def. Destroyer; Safe Auto def. Pastrana 199; Bad News bye round.
Semi finals: Safe Auto def. Grave Digger; Bad News def. Destroyer (fast looser) Finals: Bad News def. Safe Auto Wheelie contest Doughnuts Freestyle Destroyer 21 10 18 Pastrana 199 Broke 22 20 Bad News 20 19 17 Safe Auto Minimizer 26 (winner) 24 (winner) 26 Grave Digger 22 22 27 (winner) Saturday Evening - A wild night was to be had by all. Three different winners four competitions, one roll over, one of the closest racing finals win and Grave Digger catching on fire. Wow! What a start.
Safe Auto took his third win in the wheelie contest with a high score and awesome wheelie of 29. Destroyer was right there with one of the coolest wheelies that walked the truck completely across the cars and onto the floor but fell short with a 26.
Destroyer did get revenge when he beat Safe Auto and Grave Digger to take the racing trophy but only at a cost. When destroyer landed across the finish line he landed on the left front tire and bent the rim so bad that the wheel actually cracked finishing his night of competition. Destroyer also defeated Pastrana 199 in round one. Grave Digger made it to the finals with a bye run in round one and fast looser Bad News in the semi finals. Safe Auto had a win over Bad News in round one also.
Grave Digger finally got back to back wins by winning the doughnut contest and freestyle. Digger won the Doughnut contest by one point over Safe Auto and by one point in freestyle. The excitement came when Digger gave the crowd some extra freestyle and the truck caught on fire forcing the officials to shut him off as Gary Porter exited the truck. No one was hurt and the flames were put out as the fans screamed for more. This was definitely a night to remember and I am so glad I was apart of the Monster Jam in Baton Rouge. See you next week in Dayton Ohio for three more shows and the in Vegas in thirteen days.
