FREESTYLE
As if there wasn't enough metal for the monsters to mash, more was brought out and other obstacles were arranged to make the track ready. The red set of crush cars got two new cars stacked on top of it to make a double car pyramid but that would be minor compared to what eventually would get dragged to the floor. I slapped the doubler on my camera to give me twice the zoom length but that meant it would be twice as hard to focus the shot. So, my apologies for the fuzzy quality on most of the shots.
Destroyer-- Dan Evans was the first to get a crack at the fresh track and he had one thing on his mind: destroy! Evans didn't wait long to get the crowd pumping as he hit the cars first then went right for the car-van-van-car pyramid. Evans stood the truck up and smashed the backsides of the vans down and kept on going. A nice leap off the cars then it was to the big pyramid. Evans hit it strong then backed off a bit when he got over the bus as to not nosedive the truck hard into the other vehicles. A smooth jump and Destroyer was ready for more. Evans nailed the cars one more time then went back to the van pyramid and really attacked it hard, carrying the rear wheels up and across it. But the truck was crooked to begin with and came off the stack way out of shape. Dan hit the gas to try and bring the truck around but turned the truck at the wrong moment and Destroyer went for a tumble! A hard hit onto its side but Dan was ok and the damage was minimal. Good opening run and it scored well with the crowd judges too. Score: 6.
Bad News Travels Fast-- The track layout had to be a bit intimidating to Bruce Haney, considering what he's used to seeing is a Thunder Nationals setup and at most a car-van-car pyramid at other shows. Haney struggled in this freestyle run, never got the momentum going and spent a lot of the time just making laps on the cars. He did hit everything on the track though and did not pass up the chance at the big pyramids. If he's going to remain on the big shows, Bad News has to be able to handle the big jumps. Nothing big of note. Score: 3.
Scarlet Bandit-- Kind of surprised Dawn was so far down in the freestyle order but nonetheless, it wasn't going to slow her down at all. A good thing about her spot was that a new obstacle was brought out and that was the '76 Dodge ice cream van. A car was placed in front of it and positioned in the left corner of the arena. Dawn went for the small stuff first, hitting the cars and then the van pyramid and was progressing to bigger and bigger stuff. After another hit on the cars she lined up for the High Jump! The crowd instantly buzzed and Dawn mashed the gas for all she had and just barely made it to the landing ramp. Did not want to see a repeat of her nasty Houston wreck. Dawn kept the momentum up and went for the big pyramid. She handled it with ease and avoided a big nosedive off the end. She had one more thing on her mind and it was the untouched ice cream van. Dawn blasted right into the van and tore it to shreds and the crowd went nuts. Excellent run! Score: 8.
Wild Hair-- I wasn't even paying attention when I heard an engine fire up in the tunnel. I didn't have time to react when out bursts Jason Witte in Wild Hair! A possible record transmission switch was done in order to get Wild Hair ready to rock the home crowd in freestyle. Witte went for the cars first and got a sweet jump but he had big intentions already. He charged the bus pyramid harder than anyone had so far and it showed as the speed over the top kicked the rear wheels up and the truck nosed into the last car. Witte drove out of it and continued the run which was a plus considering he was already ahead of his run last year. Witte shot over the cars again and he must've not been happy with that first jump on the bus because he went right back for it. Witte attacked the stack even harder and nearly cleared it but the big bus reared its ugly roof and caught the rear wheels again and slammed the front of Wild Hair into the ground hard. Witte stabbed the gas and rocked the truck up on its back wheels in a huge wheelie. I thought he was going to keep control of it but the truck tilted to the left and down it went with a crunch on the dirt. Crowd went nuts and Witte burst out of the truck and was a ball of fire. Go big or go home for Wild Hair. Score: 5.
King Krunch-- I was really looking forward to Smith's freestyle as I did not get to see enough of the truck in racing and wanted to make the most of maybe this one time only appearance for me with King Krunch. Smith's pit stall was right in front of the demented ice cream van so he blasted out of his spot and right into the van, well what was left of it. Smith cleared a set of the cars and lined up for the High Jump right away. Smith was almost all the way against the back wall and got a ton of running room to the ramp and absolutely LAUNCHED off the Hot Wheels High Jump! A stellar jump but the landing had problems. Smith landed so far down the track that he was almost running out of room. He hit the brakes and cut the truck to the right at the same time which equaled disaster. Krunch barrel rolled hard into the floor and almost ended up right back where he started the run. A kick butt jump, and the way he was going, it would've been an awesome run. Score: 4.
Bulldozer-- Well seeing as how lots of stuff was getting smashed down, it was time for more junk! A very large camper was brought out by a tow truck and was suppose to be put in the middle of the track. But Mr. Tow Truck Driver got a little bit lost and dragged it on top of the Pro Quad rhythm section. But track crew wasn't going to let it stay there so they wanted it dragged off. Only problem was that the tow truck was now high centered on the hills, lovely. Finally after some yanking and pulling and a lil bobcat brought in, the camper was in the right spot. Guy Wood is never one to disappoint in freestyle and this run would be right in line with that. Wood stampeded out of the pits and cleared the cars and without hesitation bounced up a slap wheelie and rode it nearly into the wall. Wood hooked left and went after the double vans, cleared them and slapped another wheelie up. Wood knew what he wanted next and GORED the camper into an explosion of pieces. The dome erupted as Wood continued to put Bulldozer through its paces and hit the next set of cars getting a ridiculous amount of air, nosing the truck over mid jump. The nose of Dozer had some damage after that jump but it wasn't going to slow him down. Another great jump over the stacked cars then wood hit the remains of the ice cream van from the side and destroyed that some more. The hard landings on the previous jumps had broken the front tie-rod but Wood kept on going! Too bad I didn't as I ran out of film at this point. Wood slapped up another wheelie and two more jumps and called it good. The momentum never stopped for Bulldozer, excellent freestyle. Score: 9.
Bounty Hunter-- Well, Dawn had an interesting but possibly good spot for freestyle order. But Jimmy gets stuck with probably the worst spot and that's 3rd to last. Reason being that unless he does something mind blowing, never before seen, jaw dropping unforgettable, this run will be lost in the mist. Not only that, the judge's score like crazy at the start, then settle out and then start saving scores for Max and Digger. Creten started with a bang and went for the scrap heap that has become the car and ice cream van. Jimmy cleared it and landed perfectly and bounced up a great wheelie. Jimmy cleared the cars and went right for the high jump. Bounty Hunter barely got over it but no harm done to the truck. Creten continued to roll and went for the cars again with a great vertical leap. The bus was the next stop but Creten never stopped and blasted over the bus, never touching the top of the pyramid. The truck still nose-dived a bit and the result was a monster wheelie! Creten was working wonders with the steering to keep the truck from not rolling like Wild Hair did. Bounty Hunter was still in tact and onward they went. Another sick jump on the crush cars, digging the rear end into the set. Jimmy lined up for the vans a bit slowly but then mashed it at the right moment and stood the truck on end over the vans. He bounced up yet another wheelie and rode it down the stretch. Jimmy went for one last hurrah and lined up for the bus again. Creten unloaded a titanic jump over the pyramid that indeed had the jaws dropping. A beautiful landing to top it off and we have a helluva freestyle performance from Bounty Hunter. Score: 10!! But, like I said, he was in a bad spot. Judges screwed Creten with a 22 which was the same given to Destroyer. BOOs reigned down on the judges and they would not have wanted to meet up with me in the parking lot I know that.
Maximum Destruction-- The final big obstacle was brought out and it was the same shuttle bus from the pyramid here last year. It was put almost in the same spot as where the camper used to be. Meents didn't waste anytime in not going big as he blasted out of the pit and got some crazy air over the cars. Obviously wanting to go a bit higher, Meents took on the high jump with a ton of speed and shot into the air with the biggest jump off the ramp on the night. That shuttle bus was sittin' nice and pretty until Meents eyed it up and charged into it, knocking the bus over onto its side but the truck bounced right over it and kept on going. Meents made a great save off the next set of cars after he hit them way crooked. Meents cleared the car stack from the ramp and combo'd into a jump over the remains of the ice cream van. He roared down to the other end of the track and set his sights on the big bus and flew over the pyramid with ease. Meents combo'd from one bus to the other and absolutely annihilated the shuttle bus! Meents cut the turn to head back way to tight and the truck rocked up on two wheels but he gassed it hard and rode it out down by the entrance tunnel and pulled it back down with an impressive save. Too many people in the way for a picture, which sucked. Meents had run out of tricks so he went to end it as only he could. He lined Maximum Destruction up for the giant ProQuad hills, rolled the first one, then hit the gas slammed the truck into the hill and shot it straight up and down in the air, spiking the back end into the ground on the landing and tumbled over backwards! Total lack of sanity on that one. Score: 10.
Grave Digger-- Only one truck left and gee, who else. The Digger fans have been bummin' all night that their hero got knocked in the first round. I on the other hand was laughing all the way to my seat. Anderson started much like Meents did with some big air off the crush cars. Anderson followed up with a big leap off the junk heap where the ice cream van used to be but it still provided a good launch. Another big jump with a bigger nosedive off the car stack then Digger took to the bus pyramid. Anderson glided over it like it wasn't even there and had a perfect landing. The only thing he didn't get much air off of even at a good speed was the double van stack so to make up for that, Dennis took to the sky with a sick looking nose dive off the hot wheels high jump and pulled a slap wheelie on the off ramp. Anderson circled down the track and blasted off the crush car stack with a crazy looking sky wheelie that only got crazier on the landing, or lack there of. Grave Digger twisted and turned from the back wheels to the front wheels to only one front then onto the side then the other side, nearly rolling three different ways before Anderson could finally corral the truck and get it stopped. An incredible save but damage was done to the truck and he could not go on. Score: 7.
As soon as I saw the truck land on all 4s, it was a mad dash for the exits to try and beat out about 60,000 other people. I got out of there in a hurry and avoided much of the traffic. It was a very long day but well worth it in the end. This year's show blew the gate off last year's and hopefully the St. Louis show continues to grow and bring the best trucks as for the next couple of years it will be one of my main stops.
Big thanks to the Gateway R/C Demo Team, Dane Loch, Doug Welker, Scott Douglass, Jason Witte, Mike McFarlin and anyone else I've forgotten in the 3 months it's taken me to get this dang coverage done. Biggest thanks to you the reader for waiting it out and I hope you do not go away disappointed. Thanks again!