FIREBAUGH – Following the successful April event held at HobbyTown Fresno, Tony Gabriel wanted to do something special: an invitation event at his own place. So, he decided to build a replica track of Sam Boyd Stadium…in his driveway! Just like in Vegas, the race track started outside of the main stadium floor area and the trucks would have to execute a J-hook turn before jumping across the finish line.
The event featured a hand selected main field of 14 trucks and an additional 8 competitors of younger, more inexperienced drivers that would compete to become the 8th and 9th seeds in the main field bracket. That race would crown the Outlaw Challenge Champion. Both the Outlaws and Main Field of trucks got two qualifying passes on the track using the fastest time to seed the brackets. From there, the Outlaw Shootout was underway and in the end, it would be Ty Jackson in Rampage taking the Outlaw Challenge win over John Delatorre in Jester.
Round one saw plenty of action as the sandy track proved to be tricky as the dirt started to get worn down to the concrete in the turns and trucks struggled for traction. Round 1 saw a couple of upsets with 13th seed Jessica King driving Plum Crazy knocked out 4th seeded Gary Melton’s Terminator and Jeremy Jackson’s 10th seeded Avenger knocking out 7th seeded Jeremy Bunting’s Bad Company in a wild come from behind race that ended with Bad Company cartwheeling over the middle jump and Avenger going for a tumble after crossing the finish line.
Round 2 saw the higher seeded trucks move on as the final 4 trucks qualified 1, 2, 3, and 5. Top qualifier Michael Letcher’s Knucklehead was looking fast, and was matched up with Eric Myers piloting Backwards Bob on loan from Tony and had been consistently fast all day despite the truck sounding like the driveline was having issues. Eric pulled off the upset and awaited the winner of the race between Isaac Soria’s Crusader and Kris Ribali’s Hooligan. Isaac looked dominant going into the race while Kris won his way in after winning the re-race with Travis Letcher and his FS1 Cleatus that was too close to call in the quarter finals. Isaac would pull off a win setting up an intriguing final round.
In the finals, both trucks were even down the straightaway, but Isaac nailed the turn while Eric over-rotated giving Isaac the victory.
The already sandy and slippery track made for a challenging Two Wheel Skills competition that led to some carnage prior to Freestyle. However, Jeremy Jackson was able to launch his Avenger into two big wheelies and a slap wheelie that made him the consensus choice for the win.
For Freestyle, drivers were given 90 seconds to fill with the caveat that once the truck rolls over, the run is over. This proved to be a challenge as trucks would take to the track with drivers going big and rolling over early. Midway through the pack, Jeremy Bunting put on a fast paced run in Bad Company with constant momentum, combos, a slap wheelie and capped off with a backflip that put him in the hot seat. Valiant efforts were made by Jeremy Jackson in Avenger, Michael in Knucklehead and Isaac in Crusader that only had front wheel drive, but none could fill the clock on the beaten down track and Bad Company took the freestyle win.
At the conclusion of Freestyle, the Outlaw Challenge trucks each got to do a freestyle encore of their own with last minute fill-in driver Allie Grant taking the win. From there, the trucks that were still running took to the track for a solid 10 minutes of carnage and destruction! Big thanks to Tony Gabriel for putting this event on and the amount of effort put into making this a great, fun event for everyone. Congratulations to the event winners!
Outlaws Challenge Winners
- Top Qualifier: Hunter Jackson-Bear Foot
- Racing: Ty Jackson-Rampage
- Encore Freestyle: Allie Grant-Full Boar
Main Field Winners
- Top Qualifier: Michael Letcher-Knucklehead
- Racing: Isaac Soria-Lucas Oil Crusader
- Two Wheel Skills: Jeremy Jackson-Avenger
- Freestyle: Jeremy Bunting-Bad Company
- Show and Shine: Jeremy Bunting-Bad Company
- Best Slap Wheelie: Michael Letcher-Knucklehead
- Best Donut: Isaac Soria-Lucas Oil Crusader
- Best Save: Adrian Gabriel-Overkill Evolution
- Best Sky Wheelie: Jeremy Jackson-Avenger
- Biggest Air: David Vasquez-Bigfoot
- Biggest Crash: Jeremy Bunting-Bad Company
