Weekend Race Recap
Saturday 1:00 p.m. -
Damon Bradshaw dominated Monster Jam’s return to the jam packed Gelredome in Arnhem, Holland, taking a European Double Down behind the wheel of El Toro Loco by winning both the racing and freestyle competitions against a star studded line-up Saturday afternoon, the first of three events scheduled for one of the most popular stops on the Monster Jam World Tour.
The long, fast racing course on the huge stadium floor was full of surprises throughout, with Candice Jolly shocking the big guns by powering her Monster Mutt Dalmatian to the fastest qualifying time. Earning the number one seed had no perks for Jolly however since 8-time World Champion Tom Meents flipped Maximum Destruction in the time trials and was seeded last on the racing bracket, matching him up with the fast qualifier. Meents got the better of that match-up and eliminated the top qualifier in round one as Max-D knocked off the Mutt to set up a real highlight in round two, Maximum Destruction facing off with Grave Digger. There it was Charlie Pauken who was able to grab the win in a close race that thrilled the capacity crowd. In the bottom half of the bracket it was Bradshaw, moving over to the El Toro Loco team in Europe, who was on his game round after round, eventually eliminating Lee O’Donnell and Nitro Circus in the semi finals. The other semi went to Digger as Pauken bested Frank Krmel and Donkey Kong to set up a Championship Race that featured two of the most popular trucks among the Dutch fans, El Toro Loco versus Grave Digger. That final race was close throughout, and with every fan in the Gelredome standing and cheering Bradshaw brought El Toro Loco across the finish line a half length ahead of Grave Digger.
As expected freestyle was full of thrills on a huge course laden with big obstacles, some drivers actually calling the freestyle layout a “mini-Vegas” in the event that was recorded to be a part of next year’s Speed TV series. English truck Swamp Thing got the crowd rocking early on when Tony Dixon flipped the U.K. based truck, and former two-time World Champion Madusa’s run also ended early when she flipped her big Ford before getting into bonus time. Late in the performance order Swedish star Anders Flogard had the lead after his impressive run in Thor, but Krmel took over the top spot with a high flying Donkey Kong performance. Next up was Bradshaw, and he showed the fans in the Netherlands just how he claimed this year’s World Freestyle Championship in the Air Force Afterburner. Smoothly transitioning into the El Toro Loco machine Bradshaw went big from the green light, combining huge air with an aggressive attack on each of the challenging obstacles. With four judges scoring the :90 time period Bradshaw earned a 35 out of a possible 40 for his regulation time, and then earned the maximum 5 bonus points available for his final 30 seconds. With the crowd roaring El Toro’s 40 points took the lead with Digger and Max-D still to come. Both Pauken and Meents went big but neither filled the clock, Grave Digger breaking half way into the run and Maximum Destruction ending with the day’s most spectacular crash and flip with :30 left on the clock, and Bradshaw had brought El Toro Loco home a Double Down winner in this year’s Arnhem opener, freestyle ending with El Toro Loco, Donkey Kong, and Thor in the top three spots.
RACING RESULTS
Fast Qualifier – Monster Mutt Dalmatian
1st round – Maximum Destruction def Monster Mutt Dalmatian; Grave Digger def Thor; Donkey Kong def Disney XD; Nitro Circus def Madusa; El Toro Loco def Backwards Bob; Batman def Swamp Thing
2nd Round – Grave Digger def Maximum Destruction; Nitro Circus def Donkey Kong; El Toro Loco def Batman (Donkey Kong advanced to semifinals as fastest loser of 2nd round)
Semifinals – Grave Digger def Donkey Kong; El Toro Loco def Nitro Circus
CHAMPIONSHIP RACE – EL TORO LOCO DEFEATED GRAVE DIGGER
FREESTYLE RESULTS
EL TORO LOCO 40 (35 + 5 bonus points)
Donkey Kong 36 (32 + 4)
Thor 34 (31 + 3)
Maximum Destruction 31
Batman 30 (29 + 1)
Nitro Circus 28 (26 + 2)
Madusa 27
Swamp Thing 25
Monster Mutt Dalmatian 23
Disney XD 17
Grave Digger 16
Backwards Bob 9
Saturday 8:00 p.m. -
An amazing freestyle competition that saw truck after truck raise the bar higher to keep the crowd standing and cheering in the end again found reigning World Champion Damon Bradshaw at the top of the heap, taking advantage of the bonus time to edge Grave Digger and Maximum Destruction to cap the second of three events at the Gelredome in Arnhem, Holland, following Charlie Pauken driving Grave Digger to the event’s racing championship.
To switch things up and balance the way the race brackets were determined officials decided to set the Saturday night bracket by a blind draw, and the luck of the numbers matched El Toro Loco and Maximum Destruction in the first round, a race won by Tom Meents to keep Bradshaw from taking a second straight Double Down in the Netherlands. Again Max-D and Digger would meet, this time in the semifinals, and again Pauken edged Meents, this time by less than a foot, to advance to the Championship Race. In the other half of the bracket John Seasock took advantage of the one fast loser spot available in the semifinals, beating Frank Krmel and Donkey Kong to move into the finale against Grave Digger. Pauken fell a little short in the afternoon finale but would not let that happen again, topping Batman by a truck length for the racing win.
The amazing freestyle action opened with Lee O’Donnell setting the bar high with a strong performance in Nitro Circus, then fans got to witness a new driver debut. In the afternoon show George Balhan suffered a wrist injury in Backwards Bob, so for the night event Grave Digger Crew Chief Dustin Brown took over and turned in an impressive first ever stadium freestyle. As it was in the afternoon performance it was the Swede, Anders Flogard in Thor whose strong high energy run had the lead until late in the competition. Then El Toro Loco knocked Thor off the top of the scoring chart with a phenomenal run that included massive air, great saves, everything the judges were looking for, and most importantly, Bradshaw filled the entire regulation clock and all of bonus time. His score of 41 meant that he could not be beaten without his rivals earning bonus points which turned out to be critical. First Meents, after he, his Crew Chief Brandon Lambert, and with help from virtually every other team in the pits thrashed for more than three hours between events to repair a badly damaged Maximum Destruction from the afternoon event, was sensational with huge air, repeatedly leaping the daunting double jump, and earned yet another standing ovation. Meents rolled Max-D just as he filled the regulation time. The regulation judges scored Maximum Destruction one point better than El Toro Loco, but he did not make it to bonus time. The same thing from Grave Digger. An amazing run than ended with a wild barrel roll, the Digger actually landing on top of Monster Mutt. But that happened near the end of the :90 seconds, so despite getting a perfect score of 40 from the four Dutch judges, the four bonus points that Bradshaw had earned let the reigning freestyle champ hold off Max and Digger for another El Toro freestyle win in Arnhem.
RACING RESULTS
1st round – Donkey Kong def Thor; Monster Mutt Dalmatian def Disney XD; Grave Digger def Nitro Circus; Batman def Madusa; Maximum Destruction def El Toro Loco; Swamp Thing def Backwards Bob
2nd Round – Donkey Kong def Monster Mutt; Grave Digger def Batman; Maximum Destruction def Swamp Thing (Batman advanced to semifinals as fastest loser of 2nd round)
Semifinals – Donkey Kong def Batman; Grave Digger def Maximum Destruction
CHAMPIONSHIP RACE – GRAVE DIGGER DEFEATED BATMAN
FREESTYLE RESULTS
EL TORO LOCO 41 (37 + 4 bonus points)
Grave Digger 40
Maximum Destruction 38
Thor 35 (32 + 3)
Monster Mutt Dalmatian 34
Batman 33
Donkey Kong 31
Nitro Circus 30
Madusa 29
Backwards Bob 26
Swamp Thing 22
Disney XD 11
Sunday 1:00 p.m. -
Another capacity crowd in Arnhem was treated to a classic showdown between freestyle legends Maximum Destruction and Grave Digger, and Nitro Circus made it a third different racing winner to wrap-up a phenomenal weekend of action at the Gelredome.
In a racing bracket that again featured wild action and photo finishes the thrills started in the very first race of round one, when Damon Bradshaw in El Toro Loco eliminated Dustin Brown in Backwards Bob. Crossing the finish line with a big push to try and come from behind Brown’s truck flipped over at high speed, the fill-in driver rolling a monster for the first time. Bradshaw would go on to eliminate John Seasock in Batman and Tom Meents in Maximum Destruction, earning a berth back in the Championship Race where he had claimed the victory Saturday afternoon. The bottom half of the ladder had Lee O’Donnell stepping Nitro Circus up round by round, and in maybe the weekend’s closest race, Nitro Circus edged Charlie Pauken in Grave Digger by inches in the semifinals. The finale lived up to the expectations, with a pair of racers from other backgrounds putting on a scintillating show. Former Supercross legend Bradshaw and off-road racing ace O’Donnell battled even to the final turn. Bradshaw cut an outstanding final turn in El Toro Loco, but O’Donnell said he “was not losing that race” and backed it up with a huge burst of power that carried Nitro Circus to the win in yet another photo finish, O’Donnell hitting the throttle so hard that he lost control after the finish line, the truck rolling wildly and suffering significant damage that kept him out of the freestyle, but O’Donnell had the racing win that he coveted.
Early on in freestyle it was a pair of former World Champions setting the pace. First Madusa totaled a score of 38 with her best performance of the weekend that included an amazing leap over the huge double jump, then Seasock equaled Madusa’s score with a run full of unique hits on the challenging course despite flattening a tire early but continuing until Batman’s axle broke at the end of bonus time. Dan Evans then grabbed the lead. His crew had worked until 4:00 a.m. to correct electrical issues that had plagued Disney XD all weekend and clearly got them fixed as Evans also nailed his best high energy run of the three events in Holland. Finally moving Evans out of the lead was Candice Jolly, who brought the crowd back onto its feet with a sic air display in Monster Mutt Dalmatian that ended when she landed a big jump with a wheelie that sent the spotted dog crashing into Donkey Kong. The four Dutch judges scored Jolly with a perfect score of 40, but the crash into Kong came as regulation time was expiring so she did not earn any bonus points.
The final competition of the weekend where Meents had previously been shut out of the win column would see the 8-time World Champion turn in a freestyle that the fans will never forget. Max-D’s signature high flying, ragged edge freestyle was in evidence from the start but it was a series of amazing saves that took the crowd’s breath away. Once he landed on top of the Backwards Bob truck but was able to drive off and continue. Seconds later another Maximum Destruction barrel roll saw Meents pull out a seemingly impossible save and he would rock on, hitting every huge jump over and over until the truck could not continue. The score of 40 from the regulation judges was a no-brainer, but it was the bonus points that would determine the ultimate victor. Meents scored three bonus points to take the lead. So Pauken had to find a way to top Meents and he came close. Grave Digger’s freestyle included not only massive air but the weekend’s most incredible wheelies, ending, somewhat appropriately, with Digger crashing into the parked Maximum Destruction truck. That ending came just a couple of moves into bonus time and Grave Digger was scored 2 bonus points, leaving Meents with a one point win and one final standing ovation from the sold out crowd at arguably the biggest and greatest event held outside of the United States.
RACING RESULTS
1st round – El Toro Loco def Backwards Bob; Batman def Swamp Thing; Maximum Destruction def Monster Mutt Dalmatian; Grave Digger def Donkey Kong; Nitro Circus def Madusa; Disney XD def Thor (Thor returned to second round due to Batman’s mechanical problems)
2nd Round – El Toro Loco def Thor; Grave Digger def Maximum Destruction; Nitro Circus def Disney XD (Maximum Destruction advanced to semifinals as fastest loser of 2nd round)
Semifinals – El Toro Loco def Maximum Destruction; Nitro Circus def Grave Digger
CHAMPIONSHIP RACE – NITRO CIRCUS DEFEATED EL TORO LOCO
FREESTYLE RESULTS
MAXIMUM DESTRUCTION 43 (40 + 3 bonus points)
Grave Digger 42 (40 + 2)
Monster Mutt Dalmatian 40
Disney XD 39 (37 + 2)
Madusa 38 (36 + 2)
Batman 38 (36 + 2)
Donkey Kong 34 (33 + 1)
Backwards Bob 32 (31 + 1)
El Toro Loco 32
Thor 28
Swamp Thing 25
