Night 2
No two nights of monster trucks are the same and a couple different switches took place for Saturday Night. First, the minor happenings. My Dad was replaced by Andrew's Dad, Randy, who drove Andrew, our friend Vince and myself up to the Bradley Center this time. We would also be switching sides of the arena for a different perspective on the action.
Now for a bit bigger change and it is in regards to the track layout. Everything was basically the same except the crush car rows were now shortened down to 4 cars each instead of 5. New cars were brought in and placed in the number 1 and 3 spots in the rows with cars from Friday night in the 2 and 4 slots.
After the Pit Party, I tracked down Dan Runte of Bigfoot to present him with his 2004 WMTRL Top Ten plaque. Dan was shocked when I said I had a (small) plaque for him and was very interested in what the WMTRL entails. Runte finished 10th in 2004 out of 189 drivers and all his stats can be found on the WMTRL site under the 2004 World Almanac page. Congratulations Dan and we just may be doing this again next year!
The East Coast Extreme Team Freestyle Motorcross riders would kick off the show with the big air and the big tricks. The crowds are always into it and tonight's was no exception with a turnout well over and above Friday night's attendance. All the riders took a few jumps and ended with 'the train' where they chase each other up the ramp with no room for error. Another fine job by the FMX crew.
Once the FMX hauler was clear of the track, it was right into the first monster truck event of the night:
Wheelie Contest
Project X-- With more fresh cars and Poore's truck at full strength, would we see a repeat of last night? Poore rolled up to what is now the near set for us (far last night), punched the gas and shot the truck up not nearly as vertical as last night but pogo'd the rear end on the first car then walked the truck across all four cars and down the ramp twisting and turning on the back tires before tapping the brakes and dropping the truck over on the left side then up on one wheel, before finally back on all fours, stopping within inches of the van near the side wall. Another stellar wheelie from Poore and who says all he does is roll it. With the truck still intact, Poore would take his second jump over on the far set and hit another nice leap but not like the caliber of that last one. Score: 9.
Monster Patrol-- Tweedy did not hit any breakout moves last night and was looking to improve in every contest. His first jump was an improvement as he yanked the front end up pretty well and rolled the truck across two cars. He went for the rolling wheel stand again on the near set but did not get the initial height to pull it off. Score: 4.
Raminator-- Dishman had a very good Friday night with the freestyle victory but was lacking in the wheelie department. His first jump continued the trend and his distance out-matched height on that one. His second jump was much better, getting all four tires in the air but still no where near close enough to overtake Project X. Score: 3
Devastator-- The hometown guy and crowd favorite, Mark Schroeder in Devastator rolled out next to defend his night 1 wheelie contest victory. Schroeder attacked the near cars first with an eye-popping leap rivaling that of Kevin Poore's as he leapt up onto the second car and walked the truck all the way across and down the ramp in complete control on two wheels. Awesome jump and one more to go. He nailed the far set in the same way, popping right up onto the first car and walked the truck nearly all the way down the row before the front end fell back down as the rear end crossed the last car. Two excellent rolling wheelies from Devastator. Score: 10.
Bigfoot-- 2004 WMTRL Top Ten finisher (had to put that cheap plug in) Dan Runte in Bigfoot would need back-to-back perfect wheel stands for any hope of toping Devastator. Runte attacked the near set very hard just like Friday night and shot the front end way up in the air as the rear end carried across the cars in the air as well and smashed down into the fourth car, pogoing Bigfoot off the end of the set. This wheelie contest has turned in to what every wheelie contest should be as the old school rolling wheelies have been brought to the forefront tonight. Runte unleashed a perfect jump on the far set, landed the back end on the second car and danced Bigfoot across the set, tripping the rear tires over the final car and shooting off the set stopping right up against the other van! Awesome, simply awesome. Score: 10. I cannot pick a winner between Runte and Schroeder but the Milwaukee crowd stuck behind their local truck and voted Devastator the winner.
Some modified/stock looking tuff trucks were on-hand to take some laps around the very painful looking course that really tossed the trucks around. Many nose-dives and several needing a tow off the track from the hard hits.
Racing Round 1
Monster Patrol would not race due to an unknown mechanical problem.
Project X vs. Raminator-- As far as I know, this is the first ever meeting between these two trucks. First time pairings seem to happen a lot on the Rolling Thunder Monster Truck Challenge as with such varied lineups, the "dream match-ups" and "one-time grudge races" are always a top draw. Dishman in the far lane, Poore in the near lane. Off the flag, hole shot went to Poore in Project X but the mighty power of Raminator out muscled the bionic beast in the other lane to take the win. Very good race, Poore nearly had him. Winner: Raminator.
Bigfoot vs. Devastator-- A rematch of last night's Finals which saw Bigfoot thump Devastator with a big hole shot and way too much air for Devastator. The lanes looked much more even on this night and it was a chance for Schroeder to even the score as well. Ah, but a new night does not always equal new results. In fact, it was nearly identical. Runte rocketed of the line first with another wheelie, hitting the cars with the rear tires first, clearing the entire set with the nose down and back up. Meanwhile, Schroeder was behind from the start and the big air was again the downfall to a 1/2 truck length loss. Winner: Bigfoot.
Consolation Race
Project X vs. Devastator-- Another first time ever match up I do believe and it looked to be a good one. Both trucks were very strong in Round 1 but fell just short. The hole shot went to Schroeder this time around and jumped out to a quick lead over the first car. But Devastator's momentum seemed to die out in mid-air and Project X pulled even and then ahead of Devastator, nose-diving the finish line to take the win. Devastator did not show signs of any mechanical problems, just a bad launch and Poore passed him in the air. Winner: Project X.
Racing Finals
Bigfoot vs. Raminator-- Certainly a match up that does not fit into the first-time meeting category by any means. Bigfoot verse Raminator is one of the most heated back and forth rivalries in monster trucks today and it was time to add yet another page. Dishman in the far lane, Runte in the near lane. Runte has not lost in this building yet and the strong hole shots in addition to staying low over the cars have been the key to victory. Dishman has relied on big air and big power to mow down opponents but only one tactic is going to come out on top tonight. Danny Torgerson dropped the flag and Runte was GONE! Massive hole shot which should be labeld a WHOLE shot because it decided the race right away. Runte pulled his biggest wheel standing launch of the weekend and slammed into the cars with the rear wheels first, kicking them way up and sending the nose down pointed right at the finish line. Runte made Dishman look bad on that start but hopefully it was just a case of a starting line nap for Dishman. Winner and 4-for-4 on the weekend: Bigfoot.
Freestyle Round 1
Freestyle would be the same format as last night with the 2 winners moving to the Finals and the big van coming into play. Project X would have to sit out freestyle, as after several attempts to get it fired it would not go. But something told me he wasn't finished just quite yet...
Monster Patrol-- Tweedy led off Freestyle with a solid run but not a real change of pace over his run Friday night. He took the most hits out of anyone with nearly 10 passes over the cars. With no big moves and nothing of really stand out quality, the crowd started to get bored and was ready for more. Decent run but should've been kept shorter or taken to a higher level. Score: 5.
Raminator-- Dishman was out to capture another freestyle victory and started this run much the same way as his others with some smaller jumps then building towards the bigger speed and air. After three decent jumps across the cars, he launched over the near set and went for what got him the victory on Friday night: donuts. Dishman laid down an awesome set of donuts, ripping up the hard clay surface and shot it everywhere including into the first few rows by us! No one was hit besides with some dust and continued to cheer Geremie on. He hit two more jumps over the cars and finished the run. The people love donuts and he was rewarded by moving into the Freestyle Finals again. Score: 7.
Freestyle Round 2
Devastator-- Schroeder ran very strong in his preliminary freestyle run on Friday, making it to the Finals against Dishman in Raminator only to fall short to Ram's big air and donuts. Schroeder wanted another shot at Dishman and would need another strong run to get past him but first he had to out-dual Bigfoot. Schroeder blasted Devastator over the far set and was not wasting any time or speed in setting up his next jump, getting good air on the near set. Schroeder made a fast and nearly too tight U-turn to head back the other way on the near set and rocked Devastator up on two wheels and did a balancing act to bring the truck back down. That did not slow him down and only pumped him up as he spiked the truck off the third car and pogo'd off the set. He followed up with two more high speed hits on both sets and capped the run with an attempt at a slap wheelie off the tuff truck hill. No wheelie but aired it out pretty well. Great momentum, maybe lacking some big air, but a fast paced exciting run. Score: 7.
Bigfoot-- Runte has already cleaned up the racing portion of Milwaukee but has been out voted in Freestyle but not for a lack of effort inside of Bigfoot. Runte got everyone's attention quickly with the biggest air of freestyle so far over on the far set and then came to the near side with another great jump. He made another lap around the cars in the same fashion with more good air but needed to crank the speed up a bit. Runte turned the truck around and went for the near set from the back side but still could not get those giant wheel stands like we saw earlier and on Friday. Runte shot over the tuff truck hill with some good air and got out of shape on the landing but brought it around and nailed the cars two more times including a final long jump clearing the four cars. Runte achieved the greatest air in freestyle but being from Wisconsin and not Missouri seemed to be more important on this night. Score: 8. Yet, Devastator will advance to the Finals over Bigfoot again.
Freestyle Finals
Bring on the van! If you thought last night's van obstacle was a bit tough to conquer, it was about to get crazier. Danny Torgerson instructed the track crew to place the new van ONTOP of the near set crush cars! Geremie Dishman was over taking a closer look at it and definitely appeared a bit timid at that site and rightfully so. It would take some supreme power and timing to make it over that van without getting completely out of control especially in such a small area. Let's get smashin'!
Raminator-- Dishman took a jump across the far set of cars and then lined right up for the van! He did not waste any time nor show any of that timidness as he plowed into the first car sending the front wheels up and into the van, barely clearing the top as the rear end kicked off the van and nosed the truck down into the cars. Surprisingly that did not go as bad as I pictured. He breezed across the far set again and went right back to the van. Dishman mashed the big Hemi and blasted off the top of the van with a huge leap propelling the truck over the top just skimming the roof and landing flat on all fours off the cars. Crazy jump! Without hesitation he ripped into a wheel-lifting, dust-stirring, clay-throwing set of high powered donuts that sent the crowd wild. He spun right out of them and kept going with a huge leap over the far set, his best hit of the night easily. Back to the van for another airborne blast over the pyramid, thundering down to the ground. It was hard to hear the truck by this time as the people were loving this stuff and Dishman was set for more donuts! He blistered the track with several revolutions before spinning to stop in the middle of track and saluting the crowd. Awesome run and even before Devastator fired up, no offense to Mark, but there was no way he nor anyone was going to top that, period. Score: 10 and beyond.
Devastator-- Mark came out strong and was banking on that hometown favoritisim to pull him through the run. Good long jump on the far set then it was to the van because there would be no win if he passed it up even once. He did not hit it nearly as hard as Dishman did and it showed as Devastator nosed over HARD into ground on the landing, bouncing the truck right back up in the air in that position. He flew across the cars and tried to keep the good momentum going and attacked the van again but it was identical on the result with another violent nose dive into the ground. Big air over the far set then to the van for another jaw jarring hit. Schroeder was unable to clear the rear end cleanly over the van and the result was a third vicious looking and sounding nose dive. Whether Schroeder wanted to end the run there or not I do not know but for the sake of a headache it as probably a good choice. Nicely done over the cars but the van proved too much for Devastator. Score: 6.
Dishman takes home the Freestyle sweep over Devastator but there was one truck he did not get a chance to beat. Kevin Poore in Project X begged Danny Torgerson for a Freestyle Encore now that his truck was ready to go. Torgerson gave him the green light and Project X hit the track for an extra exhibition.
Project X-- Poore sped out of the pits leaving everyone in a cloud of dust and barreled towards the far set hitting the cars very hard and nearly clearing them with some good air. Of course Poore will show no fear up against any obstacle especially the van as he took Project X up into the air and over the van cleanly with a nice jump. Another good leap on the far side and back to the van he went. Poore did not get the same kind of speed he had on the first jump and he paid a heavy price for it. The rear end caught the van and did exactly what Devastator did as the truck nosed over very hard into the ground snapping pretty much everything that possibly could break in the front end. Parts snapped and fluid went flying as Project X was now in yet another pile of pieces. A very costly encore to freestyle but I admire Poore for wanting to get back out there and give the fans the complete show they came to see.
Back-to-back awesome nights of monster truck action from Milwaukee. We could not have asked for a better time. Fantastic lineup of trucks, great venue, great setup and very well run on all ends. The two show combo is definitely in the running for Best Indoor Event and Event of the Year in 2005 on Midwest Monsters. Big Thanks to Danny Torgerson, Andrew & Randy Pellegrine, my Dad, Vince, Robby Haught and everyone at TMS who put on this event. Many people want this show back in 2006 and you can bet we'll be there. Thanks for reading, comments welcome, come back soon!