All photos credited to MonsterJam.com
The beginning of the winter campaign for Monster Jam kicks off before the Christmas holiday. This year it kicked off at a familiar venue, but one that the promoter had not visited for over a year.
The HHH Metrodome in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has long been a popular venue for Monster Jam, but had to take a severe hiatus in 2011. As most remember, the harsh winter in late 2010 and early 2011 caused damage to the facility, actually causing the inflatable roof to collapse and tear because of the weight of the snow.
This caused not only cancellation in every Monster Jam event after the New year began, but caused havoc on the NFL with having to move games for the Vikings to other facilities.
But, with a fixed roof and a lot of anticipation, the winter season kicked off with 16 trucks, all major names competing on the circuit. The veterans of the tour made their presence felt the entire time on Saturday night, as one former champion got an invite no driver would pass up.
However, the big winners on the night were a pair of 22-year-old drivers that will surely take the sport into the next decade.
The night kicked off with veteran Lupe Soza, with team drivers Frank Krmel and John Seasock alongside him for the event, was awarded his World Finals qualifying flag, officially giving him the invite in the Advance Auto Parts Grinder. After winning a share of the freestyle title in 2004, and officially becoming the first driver to pilot the title sponsor truck in Monster Jam, you can be assured that Soza will take the "People's Truck" to the limit once the big event takes place.
After that moment, the night would be all about the young guns, and the racing bracket surely proved that.
In one of the biggest underdog wins of the year, it was Morgan Kane taking the major racing victory in the Metrodome, defeating one of his best friends in the final round, Ryan Anderson in Son-Uva Digger.
In fact, the racing bracket saw a lot of the top veterans go down early. Tom Meents and Dennis Anderson both lost in round 1. Linsey Weenk in the Lucas Oil Crusader and Soza were both eliminated by the final round, which came down to Anderson and Kane, two rising stars on the tour. When both trucks came by the finish line, mutiple videos had to be looked at to make sure who took the win.
When it was all said and done, it was Kane taking his first major stadium win in Monster Jam. It is also his final run in Monster Magic as he will be moving into the second Stone Crusher machine in January.
With freestyle left to go, every driver went for it all, and the man in the hot seat late was Marc McDonald in El Toro Loco. But, five drivers still remained, including three Andersons.
Adam Anderson took over the lead in Grave Digger The Legend following a major save, this after he rolled the truck in racing. But the run of the night soon came from his younger brother.
Son-Uva Digger would take over the lead by a single point with a run seeing major air, close saves, and ending after a twisting rollover in bonus time. His run earned a score of 30, which was one more than his older brother.
All that was left was Soza, Meents and the elder Anderson. Soza went big, but had no time to earn bonus points thanks to his rollover. Anderson went hard after a few hits, but the truck soon died and wouldn't continue, leaving him with a disappointing score of 19.
Finally, Meents did what he usually does best, drive hard despite broken parts. In all, Meents blew out a right-front tire, had a rear tire lock up thanks to a broken planetary, and also a blown out rear steering hose. But, true to the name of his truck, Meents still continued on performing in Maximum Destruction, not caring at that point the parts needing repaired, but wanted to put on a show for the fans.
It wasn't enough as he came up just short in the scoring, handing Ryan Anderson his second major stadium win in 2011, as he will add that to the trophy he won in Cincinnati over the summer.
To end the night, team Grinder came back out to encore for the fans, as Krmel and Seasock put on a great show for the fans.
Now, Monster Jam gets to take a break and get prepared for the beginning of a three-month winter campaign that kicks off the first weekend in January, then ends with the World Finals in late March.
For information on truck line-ups, and where to get your tickets, visit MonsterJam.com. Also, be sure to catch Monster Jam on SPEED every weekend, as new episodes are already out from summer events.
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