Friday 7:30 p.m. - As Monster Jam's annual spring trip to Southwest Florida has built itself into a bigger and bigger event each year, the fans have clamored to get Tom Meents to compete in the Florida Sports Park events. This year they got their wish and Meents made it worthwhile, winning both the racing and freestyle competitions in Maximum Destruction to open a three event weekend in the spacious swamp buggy facility.

Randy Brown got the winning underway by powering Grave Digger to victory in a unique wheelie contest. Each truck had to hit two wheelies for the judges and fans, first a sky wheelie on the back stretch, then coming onto the front straight and attacking a wheelie bump in search of a slap wheelie. Brown was equally strong in both disciplines, and finished up riding out the longest slap wheelie of the night to claim the win.

Next up was racing, the first race action for Meents since he claimed his record 8th World Championship when he won the racing title last month in Las Vegas. Meents showed the Naples fans exactly how he regained his spot atop the Monster Jam racing mountain on the long Chicago style course by driving Maximum Destruction to wins over Lionel Easler's Instigator and Ricky Ownley in Mopar Magic to claim a berth in the Championship race. In the other half of the bracket it was another driver fresh off a World Finals performance, Steve Sims in Stone Crusher, who shocked the crowd by upsetting Grave Digger in the semifinals to earn a shot at Meents in the finals. Sims kept the finals competitive but it was a Max-D night as Meents won the night's Championship Race.

Sims' Stone Crusher and Mopar Magic trucks were honored as the Team of the Year at the 2009 Awards Banquet in Las Vegas, and both Sims and Ownley were on their game in freestyle, both filling the expanded 2:00 time period with huge air, great combos, and an amazing Mopar Magic slap wheelie that left the pair of teammates tied for the freestyle lead until Brown roared onto the track in Grave Digger. A high energy, non-stop action two minutes from the Digger saw Brown take the lead with only Maximum Destruction left to compete. Meents thrilled the fans who've waited so long to see him come to the Florida Sports Park with the night's biggest air, but the judges had a difficult decision with both Grave Digger and Maximum Destruction filling the clock with amazing runs. The judges scored the win for Maximum Destruction by one point, with Meents quick to give credit to Brown's amazing run, saying "the winners tonight were these fans"!

RACING RESULTS

1st round - Grave Digger def Bad News; Stone Crusher def Pure Adrenaline; Mopar Magic def Gunslinger; Maximum Destruction def Instigator
Semifinals - Stone Crusher def Grave Digger; Maximum Destruction def Mopar Magic
CHAMPIONSHIP RACE - MAXIMUM DESTRUCTION DEFEATED STONE CRUSHER

FREESTYLE RESULTS

MAXIMUM DESTRUCTION  28
Grave Digger  27
Mopar Magic  25
Stone Crusher  25
Gunslinger  21
Instigator  19
Pure Adrenaline 16
Bad News  11

WHEELIE CONTEST RESULTS
GRAVE DIGGER  24
Maximum Destruction  20
Stone Crusher  18
Gunslinger  16
Mopar Magic  13
Instigator  12
Pure Adrenaline  10
Bad News  9

Saturday 7:30 p.m. - A capacity crowd at the Florida Sports Park witnessed another chapter of the greatest rivalry in motorsports first hand as Grave Digger and Maximum Destruction put on an amazing battle with Randy Brown driving Grave Digger to the racing win in a photo finish over Tom Meents in Maximum Destruction to win the Championship Race before Meents outdueled Brown in an amazing freestyle competition Saturday night.

Meents opened the night victoriously with a pair of huge wheelies to claim the wheelie contest win in Max-D. Then in racing the two big guns roared through a star studded line-up on a collision course to the Championship Race. Round by round the racing action was scintilating on one of the longest and fastest race courses the monsters compete on anywhere in the world, but it was the finale between Grave Digger and Maximum Destruction that had the crowd on its feet and roaring its loudest. Bothe superstars left the starting line strong and were blazing around the swamp buggy track at some of the highest speeds seen, and in what may be the best one on one race of the entire year both trucks let it all hang out coming off of the final turn with Brown's Digger claiming the win by a matter of inches. Brown pushed his truck so hard to the finish line the Grave Digger was all over the place after crossing the finish line, Brown having to come up with an amazing save to keep the truck from flipping over but knocking the front tire off its bead in the process.

The amazing race finish had the crowd anticipting the Digger-Max freestyle duel even more, but before that pair took to the track the southwest Florida fans were wowed by truck after truck in the star studded line-up, and Steve Sims rocking performance put Stone Crusher into the lead as Grave Digger came out to a standing ovation. Even though his crew worked hard to fix his tire after racing the front left shoe went flat about half way into the two minute time period, but Brown refused to quit an grabbed the lead with a run highlighted by incredible cross thread moves on the big back stretch obstacles. Having seen Brown's fantastic run Meents was up to the challenge as he flew Maximum Destruction all over the spacious venue, also amazing the crowd with his cross threads and astonishing the crowd with the night's biggest air as the judges scored Meents with a perfect 30, Maximum Destruction's score ending up two points better than Grave Digger as the night ended with Meents in the crowd, presenting his helmet to a young Max-D fan following Brown's trip into the stands where some lucky Grave Digger fans ad been preseted the Digger flag off of the back of the Black and Green Wrecking Machine.

RACING RESULTS
1st round - Stone Crusher def Bad News; Maximum Destruction def Pure Adrenaline; Grave Digger def Mopar Magic; Gunslinger def Instigator
Semifinals - Grave Digger def Stone Crusher; Maximum Destruction def Gunslinger
CHAMPIONSHIP RACE - GRAVE DIGGER DEFEATED MAXIMUM DESTRUCTION

FREESTYLE RESULTS
MAXIMUM DESTRUCTION  30
Grave Digger  29
Stone Crusher  27
Pure Adrenaline 25
Gunslinger  25
Instigator  21
Bad News  20
Mopar Magic 11

WHEELIE CONTEST RESULTS
MAXIMUM DESTRUCTION  25
Grave Digger  23
Gunslinger  22
Stone Crusher  21
Mopar Magic  18
Instigator  16
Pure Adrenaline  14
Bad News  12

Sunday 2:00 p.m. – Tom Meents capped off his first weekend ever competing at the Florida Sports Park in Naples in style by sweeping both the racing and freestyle competitions in Maximum Destruction.

The event opened with Randy Brown blowing the field away in Grave Digger to win the wheelie competition, but once racing started Brown damaged a knuckle on the Digger in a first round win over Chris Baker in Pure Adrenaline, with Brown electing to drop out of the racing bracket to make sure his truck was ready for freestyle. Meents rolled through the racing bracket on the long, fast, oval track and took Max-D to the Championship Race where Baker provided the opposition. Pure Adrenaline was able to hang in there with Maximum Destruction up to the final turn where Meents pulled away to take his second racing event win of the weekend in southwest Florida.

Once again in freestyle it was Steve Sims in Stone Crusher who set the bar high and had the lead when Grave Digger took to the swamp buggy track. Brown was on his game with a series of huge leaps and cross threads, but in hitting a massive sky wheelie Grave Digger seemed to begin to turn sideways in the air and landed awkwardly, Brown somehow saved the truck from flipping over but the landing damaged the truck too severely for Digger to continue, so Stone Crusher remained in the lead until Meents wrapped up the weekend with maybe the most amazing performance of the weekend in Naples. Hitting everything big in a variety of directions Meents filled the clock bringing every fan in the near capacity crowd to their feet and after filling the regulation time Meents continued to power Maximum Destruction for another couple of minutes in an encore that received yet another standing ovation. The run ended with Maximum Destruction on its roof and Meents celebrating another Swamp Buggy Track Double Down!

RACING RESULTS

1st round - Grave Digger def  Pure Adrenaline; Mopar Magic def Instigator; Maximum Destruction def Gunslinger; Stone Crusher def Bad News Travels Fast (Pure Adrenaline advanced to semifinals due to Grave Digger breakage)
Semifinals – Pure Adrenaline def Mopar Magic; Maximum Destruction def Stone Crusher
CHAMPIONSHIP RACE - MAXIMUM DESTRUCTION DEFEATED PURE ADRENALINE

FREESTYLE RESULTS
MAXIMUM DESTRUCTION  30
Stone Crusher  24
Gunslinger  22
Grave Digger  22
Mopar Magic  21
Pure Adrenaline 20
Bad News  17