Another year and another summer fair season. July of 2006 was the fifth year in a row for a trip up to Grayslake and some mid-week monster truck action from Paul Shafer Motorsports at the Lake County Faigrounds. The monsters would compete the usual Wheelie Contest to kick off the action on the 4-car set. Then pair up for side-by-side flat drags and finish the night with Freestyle on whatever was left of the cars.
Lineup:
Bearfoot -- James Tigue II
AMSOil Shock Therapy -- Wayne Tigue
Dominator -- Kyle Chandler
Ballistic -- Mac Plecker
Bad News Travels Fast -- Bruce Haney
Wheelie Contest
Bearfoot was the crowd choice as the Wheelie winner, I would give it to Wayne Tigue in Shock Therapy.
Racing
Round 1
Ballistic vs. Dominator
Winner: Dominator
AMSOil Shock Therapy vs. Bad News Travels Fast
Winner, in an upset: Shock Therapy! The big top end power of Bad News was missing on this run.
Racing
Round 2
Bearfoot vs. Bad News Travels Fast
Haney comes back as the fast loser and defeats the Wheelie winner, Bearfoot, to advance. Winner: Bad News
Dominator vs. Shock Therapy
Winner: Shock Therapy continues to roll.
Racing Finals
Bad News Travels Fast vs. AMSOil Shock Therapy
Haney gets revenge and storms back to take the win over Tigue. Winner: Bad News Travels Fast!
Freestyle
Ballistic
Simple run from Plecker, just could not get the rolling wheelie's going, which are a favorite of his. Finished the short run with a good set clearing hit, but too tame to really get us excited. The weak track is always a downfall, so creativity is key.
Dominator
Chandler picked up the pace a little bit and ripped off several hits on the cars and managed some decent air on each pass. Chandler & Dominator are a solid up and coming team with good talent and a lot of power, both of which were on display in November 2005 at the Shafer Motorsports World Finals. Based out of Maine, Chandler performs a lot on the east coast and northern Canada, be sure to check out Dominator if he swings through your area.
AMSOil Shock Therapy
Tigue gave us the WOW moment of the day with a huge first hit, which shot the truck straight up and then spiked into the fourth car. Awesome...awesome...wheel stand. Tigue took a few more cracks at it, but could not match anywhere near the power of the first hit. Started strong but couldn't keep the pace.
Bad News Travels Fast
Haney struggled on this run, never able to get the truck vertical or much air under the tires. The left side car did have a nice slope to it and Haney took advantage with a couple nice long jumps and clearing it on the last attempt.
Bearfoot
Just like his brother Wayne, James Tigue roared out of the pits and immediately blasted the truck into the air with a towering leap over the cars. But, unlike Wayne, James was able to keep the speed and air towards the top end throughout the entire run. Tigue cleared or came very near clearing the 4 cars on every hit and finally got a rise out of what was left of the crowd. His efforts paid off and was easily declared the Freestyle Winner.
Congrats to the winners of the evening, James Tigue & Bruce Haney! Thanks to Paul Shafer & Bobby Paul for the accommodations and to Eric Stern for chatting it up with me in the stands. Click below for a look at Grayslake 2007!