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Weekend Race Recap
Saturday Night:

A capacity crowd in the Edward Jones Dome saw parity in Monster Jam on display as Daron Basl won his first ever stadium event televised by Speed when he drove El Matador to the Championship Race triumph over Chris Bergeron and Brutus, then Jim Koehler continued what may be his best year since he won the World Freestyle Championship in 2003, winning the St. Louis freestyle competition in Avenger.

With the Edward Jones Dome sold out in advance of the Monster Jam superstars arrival, the highly anticipated night of action started with a popular surprise for the St. Louis crowd when former two-time World Champion Madusa rolled onto to the track for qualifying as a special, unadvertised addition to the field. It was Tom Meents in Maximum Destruction who earned the number one seed for the race bracket by setting the fastest qualifying time, with Charlie Pauken in Grave Digger 2nd fastest. So it appeared after qualifying that the favorites were the ones to beat, but once round one began surprise results were the theme of the night.

The first surprises came courtesy of David Smith in King Krunch who overcame a sub-par qualifying lap with a pair of great early runs that pushed him into the semifinals, King Krunch knocking off Marc McDonald and the Safe Auto Minimizer in the opening round, then Smith shocked the second fastest qualifier, Pauken, in the second round as King Krunch squeaked out a close win over Grave Digger. El Matador was moving smoothly through the middle of the bracket, but the top of the ladder was full of developments. Meents drove Max-D to a win over Brutus in the second round but the truck was blowing thick smoke out of it throughout the lap, and a blown motor ended the seven time World Champion's night at that point. Brutus returned to take that position in the bracket and beat fast loser Grave Digger in the first semifinal race, then Basl nosed out his teammate Smith, El Matador winning a photo finish race over King Krunch. That set-up the surprise finale matching two drivers making into the Championship Race at a Speed TV event for the first time, El Matador and Brutus.

Both hungry drivers got off the line strong in the final race, which was one lap longer than the other races during the night. Brutus had a slight lead with that one extra lap to go, with El Matador making up the difference on the final two hits over the crushed cars and Basl walked on to the winner's stage for the first time at a televised event as the night's racing champion.

For freestyle Monster Jam officials took advantage of one of the largest floors in the sport to build the most extreme obstacles ever seen in the Jones Dome, highlighted by a double bus jump and the new step-up multi-car obstacle, and it proved to be a track that was tough on the talented field with several trucks ending their runs rolling over with time left on the clock, which hurt their scores. Early on McDonald's Safe Auto Minimizer had the lead even though his run ended with a few second still on the clock, his final move launching over the double buses, but his truck landing with an end over end flip. Koehler brought out his new Avenger looking for his second TV win of the season after he opened the campaign by winning the opening freestyle of the Speed season in Minneapolis. Koehler's high energy run thrilled the crowd with amazing air and he too endoed the truck on landing after tackling the double buses, landing on his wheels and driving on but the Avenger was too damaged to continue. Still, Koehler had virtually filled the clock and despite not getting any bonus time points Avenger took the lead. The trucks that followed all had problems, with Grave Digger, the final truck on the track, breaking early in the run leaving Koehler as the last man standing, and the '03 champ was the St. Louis freestyle winner.

Damon Bradshaw had been very upset when he flipped his truck less than half way through his scheduled time and since the truck did not receive damage, officials allowed the former Supercross star, who had competed in St. Louis in that sport more than a decade ago to, come back out for an encore, thrilling the fans and Bradshaw delivered big time. The Air Force Afterburner encore had the crowd rocking as Damon nailed every obstacle with the night's biggest air bar none, earning the 2007 Monster Jam Rookie of the Year some of the night's biggest cheers as the event ended.

RACING RESULTS

Fast qualifier - Maximum Destruction

1st round - Maximum Destruction bye run; Brutus def Air Force Afterburner; Bounty Hunter def Donkey Kong; El Matador def Madusa; King Krunch def Safe Auto Minimizer; Grave Digger def Avenger

2nd round - Maximum Destruction def Brutus; El Matador def Bounty Hunter; King Krunch def Grave Digger (Brutus advanced to semifinals due to Maximum Destruction's blown motor and Grave Digger advanced to semifinals as fastest 2nd round loser)

Semifinals - Brutus def Grave Digger; El Matador def King Krunch

CHAMPIONSHIP RACE - EL MATADOR DEFEATED BRUTUS

FREESTYLE RESULTS

AVENGER 23
Safe Auto Minimizer 22
King Krunch 21
El Matador 19
Bounty Hunter 16
Madusa 10
Donkey Kong 10
Air Force Afterburner 9
Grave Digger 6

by Scott Douglass