Weekend Race Recap
FRIDAY 7:30 p.m. - A new era debuted as a spectacular success with the World Premier of Monster Jam Freestyle Mania in Mobile, AL, as a loud, enthusiastic crowd roared all night long for the all freestyle event that included eight of the sport's best freestyle Monster Jam trucks, plus Freestyle Motocross, Freestyle Quads, Freestyle BMX, Freestyle Super Bikes, and free fall dare devil Steve Direnzo in the Mobile Civic Center.
Lupe Soza won the first ever Monster Jam Freestyle Mania championship trophy when he won the wheelie contest, an expanded competition that was scored based on three separate wheelies. Soza's amazing wheelie where El Toro Loco actually did a pirouette in mid air highlighted his winning run that edged David Smith and King Krunch by a single point on the judges scorecards.
A true highlight for the fans in attendance came up next, with the the first ever Monster Jam Freestyle Mania "Jam Session", an amazing assualt of huge tricks in the air and on the ground with the Freestyle Motocross, Freestyle Quads, Freestyle BMX, and Freestyle Super Bikes all performing on the Civic Center floor at the same time.
Then some of the wildest action of the night came in the donut contest. First Lionel Easler broke off his Instigator's front left wheel during his strong set of donuts, then Mike Hawkins flipped the Equalizer at the end of another great round of donuts. Equalizer held the lead until Soza rocked the house to move El Toro Loco into first place, but this time Pablo Huffaker would not be denied, and Grave Digger's lengthy set of dizzying, high speed revolutions came away as the clear winner.
For the finale, appropriately, it was Monster Jam Freestyle. Again Soza put El Toro in position for another win a big air performance that ended with some time left on the :90 second clock when he rolled the truck onto its roof, but took over the lead until Digger time. Huffaker, who told the crowd earlier that this new type of event "was created just for us (Grave Digger)", backed up those words with a ragged edge all out freestyle attack that brought the fans to their feet yet again, the judges scoring Grave Digger with a perfect score of 30 for his second triumph of this historic night in Alabama.
MONSTER JAM FREESTYLE MANIA RESULTS:
FREESTYLE COMPETITION
Winner - GRAVE DIGGER 30
El Toro Loco 23
King Krunch 21
Gunslinger 20
El Matador 18
WHEELIE COMPETITION
Winner - EL TORO LOCO 26
King Krunch 25
Grave Digger 24
Equalizer 21
El Matador 18
Taz 18
Instigator 17
Gunslinger 15
DONUT COMPETITION
Winner - GRAVE DIGGER 27
El Toro Loco 26
Equalizer 24
King Krunch 22
Instigator 21
Gunslinger 21
El Matador 18
SATURDAY 7:30 p.m. - Even though every competitor in the largest field of Monster Jam superstars ever to compete in Mobile's Civic Center brought their "A" games, Saturday turned into a showdown between two of the past three World Freestyle Champions, Adam Anderson in Taz and Pablo Huffaker in Grave Digger each winning a pair of disciplines to wrap up an incredible World Premier weekend for the new Monster Jam Freestyle Mania event.
Anderson arrived in the Civic Center Saturday night with a chip on his shoulder and that paid off for the enthusiastic Alabama fans who saw the 2008 World Champ's best after Anderson and his crew spent most of Friday night repairing a badly damaged Taz. Taz sustained extensive front end damage after a hard landing in Friday night's wheelie contest but the youngest world title winner in the sport's history proved his piece was back to 100% when he opened the Saturday night event winning the wheelie contest. Next up was another brand new competition, a Timed Obstacle Course, where each truck raced the clock while having to cross five of the freestyle obstacles on the track. This time it was Huffaker back on top, Grave Digger's time of 22.31 seconds besting runner-up Taz by just under a second and a half.
The Timed Obstacle Course was followed by another amazing performance by the Freestyle Motocross, Freestyle Quads, Freestyle BMX, and Freestyle Super Bikes that, like Friday night's debut, had the fans on their feet, roaring their approval.
On to the donut contest that saw Huffaker, the 2007 World Freestyle Champion, able to spin Grave Digger around 18 dizzying times and the judges scored Digger one point better than Taz, so it seemed appropriate after the showdown between the former champs that Anderson would even the score, Taz winning freestyle by two points over Grave Digger to complete the incredible successful debut of the the Monster Jam Freestyle Mania.
MONSTER JAM FREESTYLE MANIA RESULTS:
FREESTYLE COMPETITION
Winner - TAZ 28
Grave Digger 26
Equalizer 25
King Krunch 23
Gunslinger 21
El Toro Loco 21
Instigator 20
El Matador 19
TIMED OBSTACLE COURSE
Winner - GRAVE DIGGER 22.31 seconds
2- Taz 24.74
3- El Matador 25.28
4- King Krunch 26.16
5- Equalizer 26.81
6- El Toro Loco 28.78
7- Instigator 30.62
8- Gunslinger DNF
WHEELIE COMPETITION
Winner - TAZ 26
Equalizer 24
El Toro Loco 24
Grave Digger 24
El Matador 21
Instigator 19
Gunslinger 19
King Krunch 14
DONUT COMPETITION
Winner - GRAVE DIGGER 28
Taz 27
Equalizer 23
King Krunch 23
Instigator 20
Gunslinger 20
El Toro Loco 15
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