224 days. That’s how long it’s been since the Monster Bash was held on November 2, 2019. It’s been a long time coming, but we were finally able to kick off the JConcepts 2020 Points Series at Redding RC and Hobby this past weekend!
New for the season is a completely reconstructed track to add both scale realism and variety to the races on arguably the biggest, baddest R/C monster truck track on the planet at the moment. In a twist to how 2020 has gone so far, the weather gods were on our side providing a lovely thunderstorm on Friday and mild temperatures and clouds for much of the day on Saturday which made for ideal racing conditions.
After having to postpone the first two events, it was decided that the best way to accommodate a points series given the abbreviated schedule was to combine Rounds 1 and 2 racing brackets into a single afternoon and finish the day off with freestyle for Round 1. The first track configuration would be “Crazy 8’s” style, a style featured on the Monster Jam “Green” Stadium Tour this winter in which trucks go over a center jump before separating out to loop around dirt obstacles before accelerating back around the outside and finishing over the first jump.
In the 2.2 Class, Chris Prestwood laid down the fastest lap early on with a blistering sub 10 second pass with his “SBC Monster” entry, a full second and a half faster than second fastest qualifier Jacob Smallwood and his “New Age Outlaw”. Chris would end up beating his son Kaeson and his father Jim in the finals to take the first trophy of the season.
In the Monster Truck Class, there were 11 entries and a lot of new faces and new rides to go along with some returning competitors from last year. Jacob Smallwood brought out two new creations all the way from Turlock that were literally finished the night before the race: the stunning yellow “Dragon Slayer” and the crowd-favorite O’neill Plumbing “Turd Wrassler” box van which would set a fast time early in qualifying with a 10.30 second pass. That would stand until series new-comer Wes Harriger would lay down a smooth 10.15 second run with his beautiful Excaliber SMT10. The time would hold until Jordan Driskill made his return with his truck named “Kurt” who would put down the fastest recorded run of the day of 9.30 seconds.
Jeremy Bunting’s “Bad Company” (3) and “Crash Test Dummy” (5) Warpath trucks would join Driskill, Harriger, and Smallwood into the quarter-finals with byes. In the first round, the new “Hell Rzzr” piloted by Sam Elliott would overcome the rear-steering issues that plagued him in qualifying and took out “Dragon Slayer”. Last season’s Monster Truck Class champion Todd Henderson made it look easy cruising by Jim Prestwood’s “Blood Thirsty”, while Chris Prestwood took out the new blue “Fat & Nasty” SMT10.
In the quarter finals, Driskill showed the fast time was no fluke sending “Kurt” into the semi-finals over “Hell Rzzr”. Bunting would then go back to back and take out the “Turd Wrassler” and Henderson’s “Kamikaze” before Harriger put everyone on notice that he was not messing around eliminating Prestwood’s “Ride or Die”.
In the semi-finals, Driskill would put on a clinic with a picture perfect pass eliminating the “Crash Test Dummy” and earning him a spot in the finals. His opponent would be Harriger and “Excaliber” after Bunting clipped the freestyle obstacle causing “Bad Company” to roll.
This would set up the race of the day as both trucks were even to the final jump with Harriger accelerating past Driskill down the backside of the racing ramp and across the finish line as Driskill clipped the freestyle obstacle. Two angles of video were used to confirm that Harriger did indeed cross the finish line first to put a cap on the first racing bracket.
After throwing water on the track and a quick practice session, we would then go into Round 2 of racing! This time, the trucks would take on a J-Hook course similar to the Monster Jam World Finals tracks from Las Vegas where the trucks start from behind the stadium and enter through a chicane and are wide open down the straight before grabbing the brakes and making a U-turn and finishing over the center jump.
The brackets were seeded in the order of how the trucks finished Round 1. This would lead to the same match-ups as the prior race for the 2.2 class, however this go-around Smallwood’s “New Age Outlaw” would come out on top and face Chris Prestwood in the finals. Prestwood once again would claim victory and has yet to lose in the 2.2 class after two rounds of racing.
For the Monster Truck Class, the top 5 trucks from Round 1 would be seeded into the quarter-finals with a bye and the remaining trucks were paired up the same as the first round with similar results: “Hell Rzzr” would once again take out “Dragon Slayer”, “Kamikazi” beat “Blood Thirsty”, and “Ride or Die” advanced over “Fat & Nasty”.
In the Semi Finals, the #1 seeded “Excaliber” got a scare as Harriger went deep into the turn and nearly spun out, but recovered in time to secure a victory. Bunting’s “Crash Test Dummy” eliminated the “Turd Wrassler” and then put “Bad Company” into the semi-finals by again eliminating Henderson’s “Kamikazi”. The final match-up between the #2 seeded “Kurt” and #7 “Ride or Die” saw the lower seeded Prestwood pull off the win and round out the final 4.
As the day wore on and the sun came out, the track was drying out and it would come down to who could get the power to the ground and to the finish first. The first race between “Excaliber” and “Crash Test Dummy” was even to the turn, but Harriger would get the “Excaliber” straightened out first while Bunting pushed just enough to go over the racing lane into the freestyle obstacles and cartwheel across the line. Knowing Harriger would want to stick with the left lane, Bunting chose the right lane vs. Prestwood. The strategy that worked the prior round of leaving the starting gate and staying on the throttle coming as close to the chicane barrier as possible backfired and “Bad Company” clipped the obstacle upsetting the truck enough to allow “Prestwood to “Ride” into the finals.
Harriger had been on rails all day and was now in the lane he wanted to be with a chance to go undefeated for two straight rounds. The finals would be no different as both trucks were fairly even down the straightaway and Harriger nailed the turn while Prestwood slid just far enough to clip the big freestyle ramp in the middle. After two rounds of racing, we have two undefeated racers in each class.
With the conclusion of racing, it was finally time to take to the all new freestyle layout! The track proved challenging to the 2.2 class as early rollovers proved to be a common theme with none of the runs lasting longer than a minute. Kaeson Prestwood was first to attack the course after making the jump to the 2.2 class with his “SBC Grave Digger” and would set the bar with a score of 11 after deductions for early rollovers.
Connor Anapol also made the jump to the 2.2 class with his “Mutant” SMT10, but would take two unlucky bounces early into his run to end his day early.
Jacob Smallwood was unable to make the call as he was changing servos on the “Dragon Slayer” and did not receive a Round 1 freestyle score. This left the door open for Jim “Here to Freestyle” Prestwood and “The Twins” car/truck with a Mohawk. Carrying great momentum and lasting over 50 seconds on the treacherous track put him in the lead with only one truck to go: the reigning 2.2 class freestyle champion.
Early on, it looked like this would be another clean sweep for the “SBC Monster”, but an early roll followed by a hard landing that broke the truck led to a score of only 12 and gave “The Twins” the victory.
Finally, the Monster Truck Class would take to the track. Fresh off the 2.2 victory, Jim had the breakable body for “Blood Thirsty” ready to go and got things started with an epic donut. However, two early rollovers would limit the carnage and receive a score of 12. Elliott would hit the track next with his two entries and set the new high mark with “Fat & Nasty” getting a 16 from the judges. Smallwood brought out the “Turd Wrassler” and quickly discovered that the big box van will not be an easy one to roll back over after two bad bounces put the truck on its lid early.
With the high mark of the day still being at 16, Chris Prestwood hit the track with “Ride or Die” and had some of the best moves of the day getting huge air, combos, saves, and landing a backflip. However, an early rollover led to the negative 3 point deduction and a second rollover a little over a minute into the run would keep the score within striking distance at 22. The reigning Monster Truck Class Freestyle champion hit the track and Henderson had a signature run going with backflips and crazy saves. Unfortunately, his second rollover came after losing a wheel and getting stuck upside down in one of the “canyons” between obstacles for a score of 18. With 5 trucks remaining, nobody had come closer than 30 seconds away from a full run.
Bunting would take “Crash Test Dummy” to the track and like many would get an early rollover. Bunting then found a groove and kept up good momentum going from one side of the track to the other to cover as many of the new jumps as possible while still keeping the truck on all four JConcepts Renegade tires. After going off the big center jump, Bunting would get a lucky bounce and save the truck, however the front steering rod had popped off the hub which meant no more front steering and the truck had a mind of its own of where it may end up. Fortunately, it remained on all four and capped the run off with a wide open donut to fill the clock and score a 24.
Smallwood was up next and after a long day of fighting some new truck gremlins, he was ready to attack the new track and would put up a respectable score of 19 filling a majority of the clock and keeping up good momentum.
Bunting would send out his “Bad Company” truck, but two early rollovers would net a score of only 11 leaving the door open for Harriger and his “Excaliber”. Harriger would be the only truck of the day to both fill the clock and not use a rollover deduction. However, about halfway through his run, the drive-line broke leaving the truck in only front wheel drive which ended up costing him in momentum and the amount of air/tricks the truck could perform.
A relieved Bunting could exhale a little as the score was 23 with one truck to go. Jordan Driskill went big early and often, however the truck took some unfortunate bounces and breakage ended the run early giving Bunting the freestyle win.
After a full round of racing and freestyle, plus the second round of racing, Chris Prestwood is the current points leader in the 2.2 class with a 16 point lead going into freestyle in the still wide-open 2.2 class. Meanwhile, Wes Harriger has an impressive 26 point lead going into freestyle in the Monster Truck Class. You can see the full 2020 Points Series standings here.
The next event is a bit of an exhibition, however, the freestyle portion of the event will be counted towards Round 2. We look forward to hosting the North vs. South Showdown on July 11th for a battle under the lights in which racers from the So Cal RC Monster Truck Racing Series will be coming up to race and freestyle with us. More information on this huge event will be posted soon, but it is not one you want to miss!
A big thank you to everyone for coming out and special thanks to Todd Henderson for the photos and other media content and Chris Prestwood for bringing GoPros and a drone to capture and edit footage so quickly. Be sure to check out the event highlight video.