On a very hot and sunny evening, Redding RC & Hobby was home to the largest solid-axle monster truck event on the west coast to date. Featuring a field of 33 monster trucks from every part of the state of California as well as a pair from Washington, it was apparent early on that it was going to be a long, exciting night of action. Things were kicked off with the first ever recorded solid-axle monster truck long jump. Trever Adamo brought a race-prepped Warpath chassis geared to the moon and then promptly sent it almost as high launching 60 feet over the entire field of trucks that were lined up after a parade lap to set what will now become the benchmark to beat.
The sun was settling behind the mountains as practice began with all of the entries getting two laps on the technical track which resulted in two trucks being taken out before the race bracket even started. Qualifying would see additional carnage as Kris Ribali rolled his “Mohawk Warrior” and was unable to complete a lap due to breakage. When the sun and dust had settled, 5 of the top 10 qualifiers were from the So Cal series with Adamo’s “Launch Control” setting the fastest lap at 12.20 seconds followed by Michael Iacono’s “Falken Tire Express” with a 12.71 and only .01 second separated third fastest qualifier Torey Heath’s “Joker” entry (13.50) from Zach Mackenzie’s “BroCamino” (13.51).
With qualifying over, it was finally time to get to elimination racing under the lights. Round 1 would see two upsets as Micaiah Holt’s all new “Slimer” (20) knocked out “Crash Test Dummy” and Tiffany Heath’s “Mrs. Rockstar” (30) would speed by the “Joker” (3) to move on to the second round. In match-ups featuring heads up match-ups between trucks from the North vs. South, the South won all 5 of the first round races.
Round 2 would be chalk across the board with all of the higher seeded trucks advancing to the final 8 which would consist of 6 trucks from the So Cal Series, one truck from the Nor Cal series and Chris Olson who came all the way from Puyallup, Washington after finishing his new truck build less than a week prior. After suffering transmission damage in practice, racers were able to give him the parts needed to make it back to competition and he was now into the final 8 after taking out Chris Prestwood’s “Ride or Die” who would be one of many racers that took out the turning cone obstacle trying to keep a tight line.
In the final 8, Adamo and Iacono would take care of business setting up a final four consisting of their 4 entries. The first race would end up being the race of the night with Iacono knocking out the #1 seeded “Launch Control” in a wild finish that saw the “Roush Performance” truck hit the ramp at the end of the track breaking a steering rod end off. Adamo would get his revenge and put “Hang Time” into the finals knocking out the #2 seeded “Falken Tire Express” raising the question of if Iacono would be able to go. However, during the race, in a true showing of camaraderie, Kris Ribali and Jessica Dahl swapped out the rod end and had the truck ready to go in between races!
The final race was dead even going into the final turn when Iacono bobbled going over the speed bump at the end of the straight-away which was all Adamo needed to send “Hang Time” across the finish line for the win.
Next up was taking care of unfinished business from Round 2 starting with the 2.2 class freestyle. Micaiah Holt got things going with his ASD 4 Runner getting big air and carrying lots of speed, but his run ended early scoring a 14 to set the tone. Connor Anapol would then hit the track with his “Mutant” SMT10 and had his best run to date keeping up great momentum and pulling off some incredible saves, he went on to fill the clock and would take the lead with a score of 20. The track would win the battle over the remaining trucks as the highest score after was only an 8 giving Anapol his first freestyle victory. Chris Prestwood’s racing win and freestyle score was enough to secure his second straight 2.2 Overall Championship and he has increased his lead to 17 points.
For the Monster Truck class, not only were there Round 2 points at stake for the Points Series, but also for the North Vs. South Summer Showdown trophy. Kris Ribali would kick things off putting up a score of 19 to set the tone. The track proved to be a challenge as trucks were barely getting to the halfway point of the allotted time until Jessica Dahl hit the track with her “Black Stallion” entry and shot into the lead with a run that nearly filled the clock until a rollover with 12 seconds left setting a new high score of 25.
Despite valiant efforts from Jim Prestwood’s “Blood Thirsty” (23) , Ribali’s “Zombie” (23), and Heath’s “Live Wire” (24) Dahl remained in the hot seat for over 15 runs!
With some heavy hitters still remaining, Zach MacKenzie hit the track with his “BroCamino” Warpath wow-ing the judges with high speed and big air while filling the clock without a rollover deduction and scoring the first perfect score of 30 in the Monster Truck class. With the only options left being to tie, last year’s winner Michael Letcher and Iacono would lay down a pair of monster scores of 25 before Trever Adamo would take to the track with “Launch Control”. It became apparent early on that we may be in store for a tie-breaker as Adamo attacked the track with reckless abandon and kept the truck on all 4’s filling the clock as well earning a second perfect score from the judges. Iacono would follow that up with a near perfect scoring run of his own that would win most competitions getting a 29. Adamo would put a cap on the night with a run from “Hang Time” that ended with the truck losing a wheel early on. With all tie-breakers used up due to both runs being perfect scores, it came down to good ol’ democracy and MacKenzie was voted the winner by his fellow drivers.
To cap off Round 2 of the Monster Truck class, Heath’s “Live Wire” had the highest freestyle score of 24 points and Chris Prestwood edged out Jeremy Bunting for the overall championship by 2 points. You can see the updated points standings here.
A huge thank you goes out to all who traveled from way out of town to attend this event. It was hot and went long and we appreciate everyone who stuck it out and made this a fun time. Special thanks goes out to Chris Prestwood, Michael Letcher, Michael Iacono, Chris Olson, and Zach Mackenzie for helping get the track back to race condition in the heat on Friday evening, Tina Prestwood for taking the photos (more to come soon) and to Torey Heath for bringing out the lights so we could race under the stars. And of course, a huge thank you to JConcepts and Fat Cat Customz for the awesome raffle prizes we were able to give away. Our next event will be a “normal” format with just one round of racing and freestyle for the 2.2 and Monster Truck classes on August 8th in Redding.
Here’s a breakdown of the qualifying times as well as freestyle scores for the North vs. South Summer Showdown:
| Truck | Qualifying time | Freestyle Score |
| Launch Control | 12.20 | 30 |
| Falken Tire Express | 12.71 | 25 |
| Joker | 13.50 | 18 |
| Brocamino | 13.51 | 30 |
| Roush Performance | 13.91 | 29 |
| Hang Time | 13.95 | 15 |
| Storm Damage | 14.45 | 18 |
| Live Wire | 14.47 | 24 |
| Bad Company | 15.42 | 11 |
| Ride or Die | 15.58 | 17 |
| Zombie | 15.70 | 23 |
| McGruff | 15.71 | 25 |
| Crash Test Dummy | 15.97 | 17 |
| Bounty Hunter | 16.16 | 9 |
| Invader | 16.68 | 20 |
| Mutant | 17.03 | 21 |
| Son Uva Digger | 17.07 | 17 |
| Blood Thirsty | 17.21 | 23 |
| Hell Raiser | 17.60 | 4 |
| Slimer | 17.66 | 20 |
| Black Stallion | 17.91 | 25 |
| Grave Digger | 18.00 | 12 |
| Dragon Slayer | 18.01 | 5 |
| Snappy Tee | 18.06 | 0 |
| Hulk | 18.51 | 8 |
| Grave Digger Levi | 18.66 | 9 |
| Turd Wrassler | 18.71 | 12 |
| Scarlet Bandit | 18.78 | 12 |
| Fat & Nasty | 23.25 | 7 |
| Miss Rockstar | 30.11 | 16 |
| Mohawk Warrior | DNQ | 19 |
| Eqaulizer | DNQ | 0 |
| Awesome Kong | DNQ | 0 |