After more than a month off, the show returned to one
of the Holy Grail sites for monster truck racing, Houston Texas. Reliant
Stadium hosted round five of the Ushra monster Jam series.
Field of trucks: Gravedigger driven by
Pablo
Huffaker, Blacksmith-
Norm Miller, Maximum Destruction driven by
Tom Meents, Hot wheels-Phil Foster, Avenger-
Jim Kholer, Bounty
Hunter-
Jimmy Cretan, Scarlet Bandit-
Dawn Cretan, King Krunch
driven by
David Smith, Gunslinger-
Scott Hartsock, Bulldozer
driven by
Guy Wood, Taz, Destroyer-
Dan Evans, Wild Thing, Eradicator-
Andy
Slifko, Jurassic Attack-
Lindsey Weensk, and Maniac-
Don Frankish.
The Fast Qualifier from St. Louis, Jimmy Cretan, had to settle for second
in Houston as Tom Meents spanked the field with a time of ....
Round 1
Maximum Destruction defeated Wild Thing, who had a five second penalty during
qualifying, in a close race.
Second, Blacksmith beat Destroyer.
Next, Bulldozer put away Taz.
And to round out the bracket, Pablo Huffaker spanked the
Eradicator dodge.
The second half of the first round saw King Krunch beat up on Jurassic attack.
Also, Scarlet Bandit defeated Avenger when Kholer clipped
a turning pole.
The seventh race saw Hot wheels defeat Gunslinger in a close battle, and
finally, Bounty Hunter battled Maniac who had electrical problems in qualifying,
but even having his problems fixed still did not have enough for Cretan.
Round 2
Opening out the round, Maximum Destruction faced Blacksmith. The two
were even off the second jump, but Meents then took a funny hop and ran into
the tuff truck mobiles, opening the door for an upset. However, Miller
tried to cut the final turn short, and clipped the edge of the freestyle
trash truck mountain, ultimately giving the win to Meents.
The second race did see an upset when Pablo in Gravedigger
missed the cars the second time around allowing Bulldozer to take the win.
Next, King Krunch beat Scarlet Bandit.
And in the last race of the second round, Hot wheels edged out Bounty Hunter
in an upset. Cretan hit the tuff truck hills off the second set giving
foster the edge coming for home.
Semi-finals
Maximum Destruction beat Bulldozer in a close race.
And King Krunch defeated Hot wheels in another close race.
Finals.
Maximum Destruction squared off against King Krunch. It was an even
race all the way to the final turn but Max D just seemed to get a better
bite off the corner and took the win.
Freestyle:
The obstacles included the normal car set, car set and van stack, an extra
van (lone half cube) and the "big" obstacle, a trash truck mountain.
Maniac-Perhaps still suffering some problems, Frankish
never mustered must momentum with the truck, but he hit some nice sky wheelie
and took out the starting line poles and signs. The ended with a shot
over the van stack.
Eradicator-Slikfo had had much more momentum and
backed it up with nearly perfect sky wheelies over the cars and van.
He also hit the Cube.
Scarlet Bandit-A typical freestyle with sky wheelies
on the cars, van, and cube.
Taz-Nice leaps over the cars and van. Went
into a slap wheelie over a tuff truck hill and set the truck down before
the next hill, but the it bounced strangely getting tripped on the hill,
sending the vehicle over on its side. Takes lead with a....
Jurassic Attack-Weenk came out strongly with several
great looking sky wheelies, the best yet, and backed them up with lots of
momentum. He even added in a couple of small wheelies, one off he cube
to end the run with.
Don’t know if it takes lead
Wild Thing-Good momentum with several high jumps
over the cars. He added a nice hook too when he got sideways off the
bus and kept going over the cars and over the tuff truck hills. The
run ended a little early though when the truck almost flipped in a tight
turn but saved it with some fancy footwork using the gas and brake.
Destroyer-Dan Evans put on a fantastic performance.
He slowed down a little to set up a couple of his early moves but Evans was
still able to air the truck out over the cars and van. He differentiated
himself when he hit the car stack from the opposite side and scored a wild
slap wheelie where the truck bounced from one wheel to the other. He
then came around to the other side and pulled out another wheelie.
The icing on the cake came in Evans trademark forward, reverse and forward
(
big air) over the bus stack.
Takes lead
Blacksmith-Miller had big momentum but his jumps
varied. He did get the most air to date over the van however.
Near the end of his time, he came around for a second shot but he didn't
get so much air that time, instead he went straight for the trash truck mountain,
but since he was on the side facing the wall of the arena, he took it over
slowly. Unfortunately, maybe too slowly as the truck slide off the
side and crashed to the dirt.
Don’t know if it takes lead.
Bulldozer-Guy got the big bull flying over almost everything.
As Dan Evans, Wood stuck the nose of the truck up in the air on a pair of
occasions, the fist off the cube, and the second off the van, when the truck
was tripped up on two by the cube and slammed into the side of the trash
truck mountain, sending it over.
Hot wheels-Medium momentum but sick air on the
jumps, especially over the van. The run consisted exclusively of these
leaps including one from the opposite side of a tuff truck ramp (1st car
set ramp) Foster then came around to the trash truck, gassed it, and long
darted to the ground, the truck gyrating on landing.
Gunslinger-After the spectacular ending by Phil
Foster, Hartsocks freestyle seemed mediocre. He utilized the only power
wheelie of the show, as well as using the tuff truck ramps more than anybody
else.
King Krunch-David Smith slipped in two shots, one
over the car stack and the second over the van which broke the rear, nearly
causing the truck to flip.
Bounty Hunter-Cretan kept up the momentum with
several up and down sky wheelies. He also had major air over the van
and cube.
Avenger-Kholer came out like a ball of fire getting
wild air over the cars and bouncing all over. He quickly came to the
van and skied it out with a huge jump but on landing, broke something in
the rear end. Not one to let the fans down however Kholer limped the
Chevy to other side of the stadium and plowed it through a freshly placed
RV to the roar of the fans.
Maximum Destruction-Nothing but air, and the best
air as usual. Another Rv bit the dust as well. The run ended
when Meents slammed into the side of the trash truck, sending the vehicle
up and down and over.
Takes lead
GraveDigger- Attempting to make up for a poor racing
performance, Huffaker came out full throttle, hitting the car stack, van,
(
weak hit) and cars. He then lined up for the trash truck, hit
the gas and shot the truck upward with the most air Houston has ever seen.
The truck landed on its front wheels and thence began breaking into pieces
as it rolled on its nose, finally coming to rest on its lid. Only used
45 seconds
Winner: Don't know
