SOUTHERN MONSTER TRUCK SHOWDOWN
Brooksville, FL - Hernando County Fairgrounds
3-days of action were about to take place at the first ever Southern Monster Truck Showdown! This event was ment to be monster truck racing the way it ought to be. No fancy freestyle objects, no flashy lights and intro music, just monster trucks on a small floor in front a few thousands fans in old bleechers at a backwoods county fairground.
Promoters Gale and Orville Hill of the "Monkey'n Around" monster truck team were in charge of the event, and they brought some of the big names to the show:
SUDDEN IMPACT
Brandon Legarde - Jefferson, LA.
This is the old Bad Influence/Wild Child truck that is now owned by the "Ragin Cajun" Brandon Legarde. This was Brandon's first even with the truck so the butterflies were going to be intense for him.
GUN SLINGER
Scott Hartsock - Bushnell, FL.
The truck that needs to introduction. Scott was fired up and ready to go to see what he could unleash in this small arena floor.
GOD, GUTS, & GLORY
Melissa Stathas - Citra, FL.
The most energetic and all around entertaining driver I've been around in a long time, Melissa and husband Joey Stathas brought out the God, Guts, & Glory camo monster to take on the big boys.
BAD NEWS TRAVELS FAST
Bruce Haney - Bronson, FL.
After blowing a motor at the TMS show in Tampa two weeks ago and a hard thrash at Joey & Melissa's shop, Bruce was able to make it to a show in Ocala last weekend and now to this show in Brooksville this weekend thanks lots of hard work.
"84 LUMBER"
John Seasock - Frackville, PA.
84 Lumber was the main event sponsor for the Southern Monster Truck Showdown, and when John Seasock rolled in with his brand new unpainted truck, he was kind enough to slap a few stickers on the truck and be known as the "84 Lumber" truck for the weekend. This truck and chasis will be the new Traxxas T-Maxx truck and will be painted and ready for its first CCE show in Houston.
MONKEY'N AROUND
Orville Hill - Dunneidon, FL.
The truck lived up to its name. Orville Hill came to the event early to unload the truck and then prepare to promote the event. Orville was standing on his semi-trailer ramp as it was being lowered when the cables snapped and the ramp came crashing down, and in the process Orville shattered his right ankle. So unfortunatly Orville was out of comission as far as driving was concerned for the weekend and spent the weekend confined to his golf cart on the head set making sure everything went smooth and everyone was happy.
MONKEY'N AROUND (RIDE TRUCK)
Steven Hill - Dunneidon, FL.
The ride truck however was in full force and son Steven Hill was the pilot for most of the weekend.
The track was pretty basic. 4 cars on each side setup for Chicago Style racing. The arena floor was tight and surrounded by concrete barricades with rodeo fences behind that. The track surface was rodeo dirt that was loose and sandy.
Unfortunatly for me the arena has minimal lighting, and the light poles are only about 15 to 20 feet high, so all the night shots I had to take into weird lighting, which made for poor pictures. Add the dust that got kicked up periodically and it was a disaster for the camera. I did the best I could to enhance the photos but there is only so much I can do, so pardon Day #1 poor photos.
WHEELIE CONTEST
Each event started off with a wheelie contest. Each truck was allowed to go over each set of cars and see who could get the best iron wall.
These pictures were a complete disaster and a total loss, so I can tell you that Melissa Stathas had the first crack at the cars and got big time vertical and probably should of won the whole thing, but in the end it was a popularity contest and Gun Slinger won by applause.
A tough break for Brandon Legarde in Sudden Impact, who broke the front yoke and took out the front drive shaft. The team didn't have the right parts to fix it so Brandon went in 2WD for the rest of the weekend.
CHICAGO STYLE RACING
Bad News Travels Fast Vs. God, Guts, & Glory
Running around like a chicken with no head I went up into the stands to try to get better shots. First matchup was Bruce in Bad News and Melissa in camo. The track was setup with a two trash barrels setup at an angle from each other on each end of the arena, and with the right arena floor, manuevering was going to be a challenge. Even tough horsepower didn't play a major role, Bruce was able to fly around the arena and defeat Melissa easily...or so he thought. Bruce clipped a barrel and got a DQ giving Melissa the win! Melissa would not return though as she bent the left front rim and the tire went down on the truck.
Winner: God, Guts, & Glory
84 Lumber Vs. Gun Slinger
The two heavy hitters for the weekend came to the line to face off. This was John's first ever race in the new truck, and on a tight course, it was going to be a challenge learning how the truck handles. Off the line they were even. Through the first corner and over the cars, even. Around the final corner heading back towards the cars...its Seasock by a nose! The first ever run on the truck was a sucsess!
Winner: 84 Lumber
84 Lumber Vs. Bad News Travels Fast
The other CCE vetern Bruce Haney came to the line to try to knock off the new truck. Off the line the trucks were even, through the first turn and over the cars its Seasock with a small lead, in the final corner Seasock bobbles with the steering giving Bruce just enough of an edge to squeak past for a come from behind win!
Winner: Bad News Travels Fast
FREESTYLE
A car/van/car pyramid was brought out to the middle of the track for freestyle. The cars will still in pretty good shape so it promised to be a wild freestyle. As you can see by the final round shots, I had moved over to the corner of the arena where the ride truck platform was and climbed up there to grab some better shots track side.
God, Guts, & Glory
The Monkey'n Around truck became the community truck for the night as crews were running over and pulling parts off of Monkey'n Around to fix their own trucks, most notably, Joey and Melissa Stathas borrowed a left front wheel as they blew a tire by bending a rim in racing. Melissa got some decent sky wheelies out of the truck, and did her trademark sideways crawl across the cars. Melissa then attacked the pyramid before shutting down and popping out the roof.
Sudden Impact
Without front wheel drive Brandon decided to sit out both racing and freestyle for the evening.
84 Lumber
As with all the other first for the evening, this was the first freestyle for the new T-Maxx truck so I knew it would be interesting to see what John could unleash on the floor. John came out and roared around the arena floor with a few good sky wheelies, then went after the pyramid and got great height off of it. He went back and attacked it one more time before ripping into an insane donut that covered me and the camera in a cloud of dust! John didn't stop there as he went one more time for the pyramid and attacked it hard getting sideways in the air and coming down hard! A great freestyle performance!
Bad News Travels Fast
Bruce came out to back up his racing win with a freestyle victory as well. Bruce got decent air over the cars, then made a few passes over the cars on the ramp side before going after the van pyramid. Bruce then snapped the truck into a donut and just as he got going, POW! Somethine lets go and Bruce is dead on the track. After being towed back to the pits and removing the oil pan, the #7 rod was found to be in pieces. So that makes TWO $15,000+ motors gone in 3 weeks. Bruce was done for the event and loaded up to head up to Atlanta, GA. where he gets his motors built to get ANOTHER engine put in so he can make his CCE bookings.
Gun Slinger
Last truck out for the event was Scott Hartsock's Gun Slinger. Scott came out and smashed the loud pedal as he roared around the arena with great speed catching big air off of the ramps. Scott then went after the pryamid a few times, then back to the cars where he concluded his run. Scott did a great job and it was close between him and John Seasock for the win, but in the end the crowd gave it to Scott and Gun Slinger for the overall Freestyle victory.
DAY #2 SOUTHERN MONSTER TRUCK SHOWDOWN