Monster Truck Racing Round 1

Time to put up or shut up. The money is on the line and bragging rights of being a World Champion pushed these 16 driver's to the limit in one of the wildest days of racing ever. Win and you move on, lose and you're done. No second chances with fast losers or break rules. You better be able to win and your truck better be able to survive.

I moved over to the other side of the infield for shooting pictures as it was a better angle and I'd be under the canopy right next to the timing equipment. Plus, its not often you get shots of monster trucks flying in the air with a vast forest in the background!

Dragon Slayer vs. Smoke-- Kreg Christensen didn't make the extensive and draining haul to Florida from Utah for nothing and showed he wanted a piece of the prize as he "Smoked" Paul Shafer in this race. Slayer looked strong while Shafer would have to rely on his main ride if he hoped to continue on. Winner: Dragon Slayer.

Bearfoot vs. Equalizer-- The rain was still slightly falling as the action continued. Hawkins had trouble over the first jump as the truck slid off to the left side. Swim launched hard and straight out of the hole and maintained excellent speed down the track. Hawkins tried to catch up but ultimately fell a truck length short. Winner: Bearfoot.

Wild Thang vs. Bigfoot #11-- Rick Long put down the slightly faster time in Qualifying but he would be upset here in a wild race. Harwood blasted off the line cleanly with a half-truck lead. Harwood settled the truck very fast as he blistered the track with a 6.939 run. Long had major problems staying on the course and did not hit the second ramp squarely. Long took a crazy landing off the cars and crushed one of the ProMT timing sensors!! Thankfully, the truck somehow manage to only destroy the tripod and did not crush the important sensor equipment and within 10 minutes we were back ready to race. Winner: Wild Thang

Captain USA vs. Monster Patrol-- The slight delay to fix the timing lights was gladly welcomed as the rain stopped falling as this race staged. Both trucks were even over the first jump with good, straight hits on the big ramp. They barreled towards the finish seemingly together but it was Dabney with a slight lead as they cleared the cars. Monster Patrol hit the ground first and cranked out enough tire speed to beat Captain USA at the finish. Our closest race of the day and the times proved it. Winner: Monster Patrol.

Spiderman vs. Dominator-- Our break from the rain was short lived as it began to fall yet again. Only half way through the field and already Round 2 was going to have some unexpected participants and the list continued to grow. Jensen took a hole shot on Chandler but the truck was not aimed straight for the run to the final set. Chandler had a great line to the final set and pushed Dominator for all it had. Spiderman seemed to spit and sputter down the track and was not gaining enough speed to hold the lead. Chandler hit the cars with Jensen then passed him in the air! Dominator hit the ground running and sped past Spiderman for a 1/4 truck length win and certainly the biggest upset win so far and maybe the biggest of Kyle Chandler's young career. He picked up .4seconds from his Qualifying run and showed he was a serious contender to win the thing. Winner: Dominator.

Kid Rock #29 vs. Bad News Travels Fast-- Swim had already put one truck through to the next round and certainly wanted to double his chances of victory. Haney was not going to be a push over as Bad News has some of the biggest top end power of any truck out there. The trucks were fairly even up and over the first set but Bad News nosed into the ground hard and it tossed the truck off to the left. That was all the opening Swim needed as he roared down the track and flew to his second Round 1 win. Winner: Kid Rock #29.

Frankenstein vs. Rampage-- Shafer would get a gift run into Round 2 as the Mag on Rampage got too wet during the rain and would not allow the truck to fire up. Miller's Championship dreams were drenched but Shafer continued the charge as he did not take it lightly on his Bye run and laid down the quickest E.T. of the round with a 6.916 pass. Winner: Frankenstein.

Bigfoot #14 vs. Carolina Crusher-- Two trucks that suffered problems in Qualifying but only one was fixed. Harkey showed the new axle was working just fine as he put down a near perfect pass. His time would have to pick up though, he was almost a half second behind Frankenstein and Wild Thang with a 7.303. Meanwhile, James Tigue still had transmission problems as the truck never got up to full speed and crossed the cars well behind Bigfoot. Winner: Bigfoot 14.

In the short time before Round 2 would begin, Kreg Christensen and Paul Jensen pulled off the quickest two-tire swap I'd ever seen! Kreg wanted the bigger lugged tires from Jensen's truck on his truck to try and help his chances of winning. After a less than 5 minute break, it was right back to the racing and the route to crown a Champion!

Monster Truck Racing Round 2

Bearfoot vs. Wild Thang-- The two top dogs in the Shafer camp went head to head for spot in the semi-finals. Both trucks have been running outstanding and both drivers looked to be on the top of their game at the right time. Harwood drilled Swim on the light and conquered the first jump perfectly and had Wild Thang settled down in a hurry. Swim was not far behind and mashed the big Hemi to catch up. Harwood blasted down the straight away and soared over the cars with Swim still trailing. Harwood hit the ground first and dashed to a 3/4 truck length win in what was the quickest time of the entire day: An outstanding 6.765, two tenths of a second quicker than anyone had run. Winner: Wild Thang.

Dominator vs. Monster Patrol-- Kyle Chandler started off on such a high note by beating Spiderman, only to have it all wash away. Chandler put a hurtin' on Dabney off the line and had a 1/2 truck lead over the first jump and started turning all the horses loose when something went away! Smoke spewed out of the engine area and probably out of Chandler's ears as he watched Dabney drive past him and jump to an easy victory. The rain claimed Dominator as a victim. Water got into the kill switch and shorted out the truck, cutting off all the power. Chandler had the race won off the line too. Winner: Monster Patrol. Dabney, even though an old pro, has to be considered a surprise to have made it this far and Dominator would've been even more of a surprise.

Bigfoot #14 vs. Dragon Slayer-- Would the tire swap pay off? Both trucks were dead even off the line with very strong launches. Christensen may of had the lead over Harkey as they charged over the first set, but Kreg's truck hooked to the right and pogo'd in no-mans-land. Harkey was not straight in his lane either but recovered quickly. Dragon Slayer appeared to be in the lead as they hit the ramp. Christensen was all kinds of out of shape and barely clipped the ramp with two front tires as the Hummer shot off to the right side of the cars. Harkey stayed perfectly straight while Christensen was just trying to stay on all four tires! Dragon Slayer landed on the right two tires, hooked into the ground and shot forward towards the finish as Harkey got tossed around on his landing too. Both drivers wrenched on the steering wheel to pull their trucks in the right direction and they clipped the finish line in an extreme photo finish that would have to be called by the ProMT officials. The times were 7.127 for Bigfoot and 7.160 for Dragon Slayer! Incredibly close race, but Harkey inches it out and came from behind for a birth in the Semi-Finals.

Kid Rock #29 vs. Frankenstein-- Last chance for both these guys to put a truck into the next round. Swim had just ran this lane minutes prior in a nearly identical truck so maybe he picked something up for this time around. Another strong start with both drivers getting excellent launches off the line. There might be a defect in the left lane because yet another truck had problems! Frankenstein bounced hard off the first jump and hooked to the left and caused Shafer to get out of the gas to correct the truck's path. Meanwhile, Swim had no problems at all and barreled down the track with an exceptional pass at 6.862 seconds, the 2nd fastest of the entire day! As the day moves along, the track is getting quicker and quicker. Winner: Kid Rock #29.

Monster Truck Racing Semi-Finals

17 trucks were whittled down to the final four. 3 Shafer trucks and 1 Bigfoot. Harkey and Swim I expected to be among the top threats to win the event. Harwood would definitely be considered an underdog winner but it was certainly a possibility with the career day he was having. Dabney has more monster truck experience than the other 3 guys combined, but his racing stats have dropped off over the years with very few events ran on long tracks. Crunch time was upon us and no room to hold back now.

Bigfoot #14 vs. Wild Thang-- Harkey set the #1 Qualifying time earlier in the day, but has since had that time topped once already by Harwood and nearly twice. Harwood has also already knocked out Bigfoot 11, could he pull of another huge win? The drivers remained in what was probably their lane of choice. Harkey ran the right lane all day while Harwood set that quick E.T. in the left lane. Hole shot surprisingly went to Wild Thang! Harwood blasted the truck over the first hill with a ton of air and grabbed a short lead. Harkey rolled the first hill beautifully and applied the power to the ground quicker than Harwood. Harwood bounced way too hard after the first jump and fell behind. Harwood did not quit and stood on the throttle for all the truck had and was reeling Bigfoot back in. Harkey leaped Bigfoot out as far as he could with the finish line in his sight. Harwood cleared his entire row of cars and probably could've cleared another 5 or 6 cars with a valiant leap to try and catch Bigfoot but it was not to be. Harkey barely edged out Harwood by less than two tenths of a second. 7.030 to 7.206. Harwood lost a half second compared to his Round 2 time and the bad bounce definitely was to blame. Winner: Bigfoot.

Monster Patrol vs. Kid Rock #29-- In a rather odd move, Larry Swim chose the left lane instead of the right lane where he had set his fastest time of the day the previous round. He ran the lane in Qualifying and had a very good time but with the problems other trucks were having in it, I had to question that decision. Was it all mind games to put Dabney in a lane he also had not touched since Qualifying? If the results from Qualifying applied here, this should be a half second victory for Swim. Slight hole shot to Dabney in the far lane but Swim stuck right with him. The #29 truck pogo'd very hard over the first jump and Swim had to back out of the throttle to bring the front end down. At that point, Dabney most likely had the race won, but as he hit the ramp the truck came to a grinding halt and slid off the left side of the ramp! Swim regained control and finished the track in a time that was a full second behind his previous effort. Once again the bad bounce bites another truck but lucky for Swim, Dabney had bigger problems. The rear end assembly on Monster Patrol scattered into pieces after the first jump and would leave Dabney in 4th place overall and out of the money. Winner: Kid Rock #29

Monster Truck Racing FINALS

Months of build up. Swirling controversy. 17 trucks, all vying for one thing and one spot: World Championship. Two trucks and two drivers remained with an opportunity to grab it and make this event live up to all the hype and expectations. They delivered.

Bigfoot #14 vs. Kid Rock #29-- It could not have been written any better. Two of the top favorites to win this event, both of whom suffered serious enough damage to result in talks of not even being able to compete, made their way through 3 rounds of racing to once again square off, and this time, for the Championship. Dave Harkey looked like a champion all day as he piloted Bigfoot 14 to the #1 Qualifying spot then knocked off Carolina Crusher easily, barely edged out Dragon Slayer and then got the better of a Wild Thang truck that had topped his #1 time.
Larry Swim probably would've liked to reach the finals in his full-time truck Bearfoot and what a classic battle that would've been with Bigfoot vs. Bearfoot. But, an open seat provided an extra chance for Larry and he took full advantage Qualifying #4, and then got three fairly easy wins over Bad News, Frankenstein and a real gift win against Monster Patrol. This would be Swim's 8th trip down the track on the day and if he didn't have it figured out by now, Harkey would jump all over him.

Its show time!....

Hard launches out of the blocks by both drivers and no clear advantage on either side. Harkey again stayed smooth as glass over the first hill and settled down fast. Swim ran into major problems again with the jump as the truck pogo'd hard on the landing. Swim had no time to let out and correct and instead slammed his foot to the floor to try and reel in Bigfoot. Somehow Swim remained nearly even with Harkey as they approached the cars. The #29 truck blasted off the ramp with some huge, out of control, sideways air clearing all the cars. Harkey again was straight as an arrow way up in the air and appeared to still be ahead of Swim as they neared the finish. Swim's truck dug into the ground just before Harkey's truck and the huge momentum Swim was carrying propelled the #29 truck through the finish line right with Bigfoot in another insanely close photo finish race! How in the world Swim made the race that close after such a poor start was beyond anyone!

Everyone quickly turned to the ProMT table to get the official times: Harkey in Bigfoot ran his best race of the day an amazing time of 6.813. But, it was a LOSING effort! Larry Swim ran the 2nd quickest time of the day with a winning 6.779 second pass to claim the Shafer Motorsports World Championship in a flat-out incredible final round race that everyone had hoped for.

As soon as I got the times I ran full speed toward's the #29 truck which had come to a stop way down the track. Larry jumped out of the truck having no clue who had won! I yelled "Hell yeah Larry!!" and he said something along the lines of "Are you serious!? I won!!?" and took off running towards the crowd. Swim ran down the fence high-fiveing anyone and everyone with a hand out in an awesome show of fan support.

Swim grabbed the huge 7-foot tall trophy and was ready to celebrate when questions began to arise...

Rick Long and Dave Harkey both came over and mentioned to Larry that they weren't so sure he hit the final jump with two front tires. With the way Swim approached that final jump and from my pictures, there was probably a really good case to that theory too. Upon viewing video from a camera which was near the starting line in Swim's lane and the following picture from Bryan Wagner, there is clear proof Swim made a wild, yet very legal, run and rightfully was declared the winner.

Swim got on the microphone and thanked everyone in attendance and described just what it felt like to now be called a World Champion!

I have been and always will be a Bigfoot fan for life, but there are too many great drivers out there deserving of their moment to shine. Larry Swim has proven time and time again he is a top caliber driver, a great individual on the track and an even greater guy off the track. This kind of day and recognition for Swim was long over due.

After things calmed down a bit, Swim was interviewed with his truck for some local news stations about the big win.

A little relaxation for Larry, but for just about everyone else, it was back to work. Many teams had repairs to make before Freestyle on Sunday. Doug Charles ran into more problems after he re-fired Overkill and raced it down the left lane pretty hard just for the heck of it. Of course, I did not have my camera ready as he grabbed some pretty good air on the second jump. But, the little playtime cost him more pieces as parts of the drive shaft came spitting out as he rolled into the pits. Kirk Dabney was in the process of ripping the entire rear end of Monster Patrol apart after breaking an axle and planetary in the Semi-Finals.

The track crew also was hard at work tearing the racing lanes apart and preparing the Freestyle obstacles. But, they were really starting to get some attention as the stacks they were constructing were simply insane. Not insane in a "cool, I want to see some big air off that" way. But, more in a "someone will die if they jump that" way.

Many drivers were immediately calling foul on the 22-car stack and demanded it be scaled down or they would not be running. Wise choice I must say. In case it was torn down, I had to get some proof of me dominating it though:

Thanks to Bryan Wagner for capturing my pose.

As darkness began to fall, a large group of drivers and friends rounded up and headed out to eat. It was a great time chatting with several drivers, their families and meeting new people.

When we arrived back at the fairgrounds, almost everyone had called it a night as trucks had engines covered incase of rain and all the lights had been shut down. Made for some neat night shots with the flash though.

Unfortunately, one guy was still up and that was Kirk Dabney. The back of Monster Patrol was completely torn apart now and with pieces scattered everywhere. Dabney was in for a long night and early morning to put it all back together.

The freestyle track was pretty much set out in the field and thankfully the huge stack of cars was scaled down to a slightly more reasonable 14-car pile and they were pretty well smashed down making the pyramid more like a big, metal hill. The bus pyramid looked pretty ominous though with no real step-up to the side of the bus.

Day 1 of the Shafer Motorsports World Finals was complete. A new champion crowned in an incredible day of racing, one I will never forget. But, the weekend is only half over as Sunday brings a new competition and a chance for another driver to be called Champion. Will an already proven freestyler like Kreg Christensen or Larry Swim step up to take the win? Or will a relative unknown like Kyle Chandler, Rick Long or Paul Jensen break through for their biggest win ever? A whole day of drama, excitement and intense freestyles lie only a click away!

Shafer Motorsports World Finals Day 2 Coverage

 

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