8:00 Show
In between the two shows, we made our way over to a Meijers store to
kill some time and then went to grab some dinner. Note to self and to others: Avoid the
Ponderosa Steakhouse that's near the arena...nasty. I was in talks with Elliott Miller to
get him up to date on what happened at the first show before he arrived for the second
show as well. The 6:00 pit party came very quickly and we headed back to the arena to take
part in it.
We instantly ran into Elliott stocking up on nachos at the concession stand and
followed him over to the Project X pits where some more thrashing was going on.
A transmission swap for Project X was in order and nearly finished when we showed up. I talked with Kevin for a few minutes and wished him luck heading into the next show. We made our way around to the other side of the arena to find Dave Rife also working away on his truck. Chatted with Bill Wirth for a while catching up on all sorts of stuff as I hardly get to see him run. Said he wants to run a black Bearfoot body like Brian Womack did for a season. That look was awesome and I'd love to see him be able to bring it back for his truck. Moving on down the line I caught up with Bobby Holman who remembered me from the MTRA meeting and banquet and we talked back and forth on a few things and also his new Venom truck that I'd be seeing in Cape Girardeau two weeks later. I totally lost track of time and realized I'd spent an hour talking with everybody and needed to be getting off the floor. We decided to move across the track this time and sat on the other side for a different perspective on the action. Elliott and his Dad joined us and we were ready for monster trucks! You remember the truck lineup, right? Good!
Freestyle Round 1
Beast-- Holman would again kick off freestyle and be faced up with Project X for the second time. Holman would need to step it up some more over his first run if he wanted to top Poore. He lined up the far set of cars and stood the truck up pretty well, carrying the front end in the air over most of the set. But all was not well after the jump. Holman turned the truck around and was headed back to the pits. Reason being that his left rear tire had a foot long gash in it from the crush car! The tire was toast and unfortunately there was no fixing it. After one hit, Beast was done for the night. A very ominous start to say the least. Score: 1. And if it could not get any worse for Beast....it would.
Project X-- The door was wide open for Poore to waltz in, make a run and move onto the Freestyle Finals with his competition now on the sidelines. With the truck all set to rock, Poore rolled out of his pit and lined up the fresh car on the back of the near set. He eased up to the car and then mashed the gas, shooting Project X straight up and down on the first car, twisted on the rear wheels, tilted backwards even more, walked it across three cars before finally slamming the front end down off to the right of the set! HUGE wheel stand! Absolutely incredible jump! All four tires were completely off the ground with the truck resting on that rear wheelie bar. That is the kind of jump I came to see! BUT! Are you kidding me? On the landing, the left front tire clipped the edge of the crush cars but the right front slammed into the tuff truck hill and blew apart the complete front housing! Project X was breaking thousands of dollars worth of stuff on one jump and would now join Beast sitting in the pits for the rest of the night! Two jumps in and we're down two trucks, not the way to go. Score: 6 for that titantic wheel stand.
With no truck able to move on from the first round of freestyle, the top two from the remaining three would move on instead. Would these last three survive freestyle or end up victims in this carnage-fest?
Freestyle Round 2
American Bad Ass-- Everyone had their fingers crossed, and I bet Rife did too as he rumbled out onto the track. Nice first jump on the near set and more importantly the thing seemed to still be in one piece. Good rolling jump across the far set as Rife wasn't getting much distance off his jumps but was more popping the truck up in the air and letting in really smash down on the cars. In an effort to try and keep momentum up, he stayed on the gas much much more than anyone had or should have when he rounded that big FMX hill to get to the near set. The truck rocked up onto two wheels and I thought he was going to roll over right into the other trucks and it also sent several people running. Rife continued towards the near set but suddenly event announcer Tony Stephan said "uh oh....that's not good" in a very serious voice. He was looking in the direction of the pits and with the hill in the way I couldn't tell exactly what the problem was. As Rife sent Bad Ass flying over the cars with a near perfect leap, Stephan says that when Rife went around that corner, he hit the jack, which was holding up the rear axle on Holman's Beast. The jack handle broke off and the jack was knocked underneath the truck and now wedged in the frame! Oh lovely. Holman did not look the least bit pleased and rightfully so. Rife hit the back set for one more jump and parked his truck. Thankfully it held together. Score: 5. After Rife got out, Holman walked over and told Rife what happened, I won't speculate what was said but from my view Holman didn't look overly upset and no arguing or fighting happened so hopefully it was all settled peacefully.
Maximum TORC-- Corey Neff would begin his run at the same car which ripped apart Beast's tire, but he managed to escape without damage and hit a decent jump off it. The bounce off the cars allowed Neff to try and yank up a slap wheelie and he probably would've had a nice one but with no space he had to let it down. He setup on the near set now on the car where Project X just was and hit his own excellent wheel stand, rolling the back end up onto the cars and walked it across a few before hitting the front end down. Neff got a good run at the far set again and aired out Torc clearing the cars. He lined up the near set more time and hit another great wheel stand. On the landing the truck veered to the right and didn't move from the middle of the track. Now what!? Neff shut the truck off as people began to look towards the rear end near the engine. A power steering belt had snapped and Torc was now without front steering. Neff managed to get the truck out of the way and off the track after some tricky rear steering. The belt was replaceable which was the good news. The bad news was that it would not happen in time to come back for the Freestyle finals. Torc would be out, and American Bad Ass and Bearfoot were automatically in. Score: 7.
Bearfoot-- Wirth already had a free pass into the next round but that wasn't going to stop him from putting on a decent run. Wirth used the same philosophy as his previous runs and kept a pattern the whole way and never differed from it. He hit the near set first with a real nice leap over the cars and pogo'd off them. A small jump on the back set and then a hard hit again on the near getting even farther this time. Finally got some good air off the far set then threw the front end way up on his final jump on the near side. Another long jump on the far side before calling it good and parking the truck up on the FMX hill again. Solid run but the pattern can become dull and mundane. But he was also trying to just survive. Score: 6
So....Beast, out. Project X, out, Max Torc, hopefully not out as we moved into the Freestyle Finals. Cross your fingers because you better believe I was.
Freestyle Finals
American Bad Ass-- Rife's truck was still in one piece as he attacked the near set for a good jump to open the run. He circled to the far set and hit a near identical jump of the first. Came back around to the near side and....parked it? Oh man, a two jump freestyle? Ouch. Score: 2.
Bearfoot-- Wirth again wouldn't have to do much to secure a freestyle victory for himself. His first run was better than Rife's and now he only had to top two simple jumps. Wirth bolted out of the pits and exploded over the near set with a big jump to open his run and might have just sealed it with that one. A smaller jump on the back side but that set hasn't been kind to anyone all day. Wirth nailed the near set once more but took it easy this time and parked it. Score: 3. My freestyle winner and the crowd's vote as well goes to Bill Wirth in Bearfoot. Though the wheelie of the day and of 2005 so far easily goes to Kevin Poore in Project X.
During intermission, Elliott and I fought through the crowd and made our way down to Project X were tons of people were checking out the damage and getting a word with Kevin. The jump destroyed plenty in the front end but also bent the rear frame wheelie bar that got mashed as it was the only thing supporting the weight of the truck for a few seconds during the jump. That bar has saved Poore from going over backwards more than once now. I also ran into Jeff and Jocelyn Perrin of the Lil' Miss Dangerous team and they mentioned my video and coverage from Rockford Speedway. We talked for a few minutes and then everyone got ready for the second half of the show.
Qualifying Recap
With only three trucks intact, Qualifying would get stretched out a little to fill up the show. The trucks would now get to make a pass in both lanes and obviously the slow truck would not sit out racing this time. The #1 Qualifier would face the winner of the #2 and #3 race in the Finals. Bearfoot took the number one spot with another giant leap over the cars, Maximum Torc was fixed and had two smooth runs to take the second place spot and American Bad Ass just couldn't get the distance on the jumps and took third.
Racing Round 1
American Bad Ass vs. Maximum Torc-- Neff takes the far lane and Rife would be in the near lane. Neff was not able to race in the first show due to being the slowest qualifier and needed to bounce back here. The flag dropped and a hole shot neither way as they hit the cars. Neff powered down and kept the truck low and dove at the finish line while Rife went way skyward and bounced off to the side of the set near the third car, never getting the momentum needed to win. Winner: Maximum Torc.
Bearfoot vs. Maximum Torc-- Neff goes back to the far lane and Wirth is in the near lane. Wirth got left sleeping at the line in the first show and did not want to make that same mistake again. Neff looked good so far all night and no better way to rebound from not qualifying earlier than to win it in the finale. The flag dropped and both drivers hammered hard to the cars hitting the stacks at exactly the same time. Bearfoot went to the big air again getting all tires way off the ground and did a rainbow arch style jump to the finish line while Neff was able to stay low, level and leap ahead of the skyward Wirth and nip Bearfoot at the line. Winner: Maximum Torc in a thriller.
As soon as the show ended, it was a mad dash to the parking lot and to hit the road yet again. We made it back to Chicago right around 12:30am and less than 12hrs later I was heading south for another 4+ hours....yee-haw.
BIG THANKS to Danny & Kris Torgerson and also to Jennifer at the TMS office for arranging our access to the show and the invitation to any others, really appreciate it. Also, thanks to Elliott Miller and all the drivers for taking some time out to chat it up. If you were to put both of the highlights from these two shows together into one show, it would of been excellent. Even by themselves, both performances were solid and this trip was well worth it. If you need dates or information on any Torgerson Motorsports event coming to your area, check the WMTRL event schedule on MonsterMayhem.org, TMSmonsters.com or e-mail me and I'll be happy to get what I can for you. Thanks for reading!