They say three is the charm, and that would best describe how the third season of the Nor Cal RC Monster Trucks Points Series finished off with attendance and competition at the highest levels to date. With a number of competitors still in the running going into the final event, a fast but technical J-Hook course along with an obstacle-laden freestyle track would be the deciding factor on who would take home the trophies.
In the 2.2 Mini Monster Class, Jeremy Bunting took the first round event win and had not relinquished the lead going into the final round. He kicked off qualifying on a mission laying down the fastest times of the day in the class with a 6.18 second pass putting “Hooligan” on the pole. Series new-comer Casey Elliott came in second piloting the “Black Out” LMT with a 6.45 and Zac Soares was right behind all earning byes into the second round with “Excaliber”.
Sam Elliott came into the final round 17 points behind and would finish 7th in qualifying and ended up matched up with Kirk Noakes in the first round. In that race, Elliott would miss the final jump and tried to backtrack and go over the jump correctly, however video review determined he had already cleared the finish line, therefore was disqualified and Noakes would advance to the second round with the major upset. Haidyen Steinert got an upset as well taking out Jacob Smallwood and “Outta Control” to advance his “Samson” to the second round.
In the second round, Bunting advanced to take on David Heimbigner’s “Son Uva Digger” who eliminated Jack Meredith’s 4th seeded “Boogey Van” while Soares and Casey Elliott would advance to the semi-finals. Bunting continued to march through the bracket taking advantage of Heimbigner going deep into the turn where he would meet “Black Out” once again, this time in the final round. Unlike Round 4’s photo finish, against Sam, Bunting got the easy win as Casey jumped the light and was disqualified.
In the Monster Truck Class, Zac Soares came into the final event in second place and was gunning for more and laid down the two fastest qualifying passes of the day with a 5.61. Wes Harriger’s “Taurus” would lay down a 5.88 for the second fastest pass with Bunting’s “Sinistar” and “Bad Company” the other two trucks to be sub-6 seconds and Sam Elliott’s “Ragnarok” rounded out the top 5
With 22 trucks, there would only be 6 matchups in the first round with 10 trucks receiving byes into the second round. Jay Henderson’s “Black Widow”, Kirk Noakes’s “Fat N Nasty”, Rich Steinert’s “Escalade”, Sam Elliott’s “Hell Raiser”, Ryler Powell’s “Shadow Hunter”, and Casey Elliott’s “Grave Digger” would advance to the 16 truck second round to square off with the top 10-seeded trucks.
As has been tradition this season, Zac Soares would advance both of his trucks to the next round only to have them meet in the next round, so his “Excaliber” would automatically advance over his new-look “Prospector”. Elliott’s “Ragnarok” and Bunting’s “Bad Company” would advance to the next round while their other entries met in the bottom part of the bracket where the 14th seeded “Hell Raiser” knocked out “Sinistar” opening the door for Soares and Elliott to gain some ground in the season standings.
Heimbigner would advance to take on “Hell Raiser” with his “V8 Bomber”, but would not be as lucky with “Flyin Hawaiian” falling to “Bigfoot” and Harriger. In the final race of the round, the 15th seeded “Grave Digger” would get the upset over Harriger’s #2 seeded “Taurus”.
With “Excaliber” automatically advanced, Bunting would get some payback and eliminate Elliott’s “Ragnarok”. However, Elliott’s run with “Hell Raiser” would continue as he knocked out “V8 Bomber”. Meanwhile, Harriger would advance to the semi-finals with his “Bigfoot” knocking out “Grave Digger”.
In the final four, Bunting was looking to help his cause by taking out Soares and minimize the points gained in the standings while Soares was looking to make it back to the final round for the first time since Round 1 in the MT Class. Bunting would pull out the win and send “Bad Company” to the finals where he would meet the winner of “Hell Raiser” and “Bigfoot”. Prior to Round 5, the farthest Elliott had ever gotten with his “Hell Raiser” was to the third round of racing, but now faced a chance to get to the finals, while Harriger had “Bigfoot” in the semi-finals in Round 3 and was looking at another shot at a racing win. Elliott would make it to the finals tumbling across the finish in an exciting finish to once again face Bunting for the third time in the bracket.
After an afternoon of both drivers eliminating the others’ higher-seeded trucks, it was time for the rubber match. Bunting was not going to be denied in this one and pulled out the win crashing into the starting ramp.
In the Retro Class, after a brief practice session, the random draw would see first round matchups of Heimbigner’s “Bigfoot” and Soares’ “Excaliber” and Jack Meredith’s “Super Clod” facing Elliott’s “Beast”. “Excaliber” and “Super Clod” would advance to take on “Coors Extra Gold” and “Shotgun” that drew byes into the second round.
In the semi-finals, “Excaliber” would get by Harriger while the “Super Clod” outran “Shotgun” to the finish line setting up the final race of the season. The race would go down to the wire with “Excaliber” pulling out the win by a tire and Zac Soares would be the only Retro driver to get repeat victories in the exhibition class. With how close the competition was, we are excited to announce that next season the Retro Class will be joining the Points Series with qualifying and seeded brackets in what is becoming one of the most fun classes of the series.
Finally, it was time to freestyle with the 2.2 class up first. Connor Anapol would set a high mark early on filling the clock and scoring a 22 that would stay on top of the leaderboard through the first 6 trucks. Kirk Noakes and Jack Meredith would fill most of the clock, but rollovers prevented them from a higher score early on.
Sam Elliott came into the event looking to “Get Er Done” with the lead for the “Fat Cat Customz” Freestyle championship and put an exclamation point on the year with his run midway through the pack scoring a 25 filling the clock and all but sealing the win. Valiant efforts were made by Meredith and Heimbigner, but early rollovers and breakage would cost them. Finally Bunting took to the track and an early hang-up on the bus stack would cost him time and momentum scores and would ultimately fall a point shy. Elliott dominated the 2.2 Class Freestyle competition this season taking 4 of the 5 wins including the final 3 in a row.
The Monster Truck Class promised even more carnage and destruction as the standings were still up for grabs. Early on, the track was winning as the highest score was an 11 after the first 6 competitors. There was some catastrophic damage early on to “Over Bored” that made just one hit, “Toxic Peach” had two early rolls, Jacob Smallwood demolished the “Turd Wrassler” losing a wheel and then losing the steering link on “Dragon Slayer” and “Black Widow” broke an axle housing in two after a huge leap landing directly on a metal ramp.
Kirk Noakes piloting “Rebel Racer” would blow into the lead as he was able to fill the clock with donuts and good momentum and a score of 21. He would follow that up with a 20 a couple runs later from his “Fat N Nasty” LMT for a solid finish to the year having back-to-back runs fill the clock. Wes Harriger would then take to the track with his “Taurus” which had one of the most incredible saves of the year in September at the “North vs. South Showdown” and continued to make the truck almost breakdance with saves that kept the truck from certain disaster a few times. He would fill the clock without any rollovers and put up a 26 that would be tough to beat.
After rollovers from “Flyin’ Hawaiian” kept his score in the teens, Haidyen Steinert would throw down a run we have become accustomed to seeing with big air and great momentum from the “Monster Energy” LMT with a run that filled the clock and scored a 22. Bunting then literally drove the wheels off “Sinistar” to take away any hope that Soares might have of catching up in the points standing scoring a 23 capped off with a backflip that snapped the rear wheel off.
Soares would give it his all with his new-look “Prospector” scoring a 20 but only filling a minute of clock. Heimbigner’s disappointing day continued as his “V8 Bomber” filled only a third of the time getting just an 11. Much like the 2.2 class, Sam Elliott had a lead of 8 points going into the final round on Bunting and would only need a 14 or better in order to secure the “Fat Cat Customz” Freestyle win for the season with his “Ragnarok”. Elliott uncharacteristically broke early on, but was able to score an 18 with a broken truck filling enough time and not taking a rollover deduction.
A hard hit early on would be the end for Soares as he broke the steering and rod end and then tumbled on the other end of the track losing a drive shaft and scoring just a 5 with his “Excaliber”. Harriger finished the year on a high note with his “Bigfoot” getting a score of 21 and having both of his trucks tie for second overall on the day. Elliott’s “Hell Raiser” would have two early rollovers scoring a 13 and Bunting’s “Bad Company” would finish the day off scoring a 14 which would be enough to secure the overall event win.
At the conclusion of freestyle, the awards for Round 5 were presented followed by the season podiums. The full final season standings can be found here.
The 2.2 class would finish with Jeremy Bunting on top with the “Hooligan” (Black Market RC “BRD”) taking first with 232 points followed by Sam Elliott in second with the “Get Er Done” (SMT10) finishing with 194 and Zac Soares beating out David Heimbigner by 4 to take third overall with his “Excaliber” (Black Market RC).
For the Monster Truck Class, the podium would have the same three but a different order with Bunting taking the overall win with the “Sinistar” (SCMT Warpath) scoring 277, Soares coming in second with “Excaliber” (SCMT Warpath) at 249 and Elliott in third with 244 for the “Ragnarok” (custom chassis).
Finally, some special awards were given out to the following recipients:
2021 Rookie of the Year- Ryler Powell
2021 Young Gun Award- Haidyen Steinert
Most Improved- Zac Soares and Sam Elliott
Crash Madness Moment of the Year- David Heimbigner’s destruction of “Flyin’ Hawaiian” from Round 3
Wow Moment of the Year- Rich Steinert’s slap wheelie into a front flip with “Escalade” from Round 1
Thank you to all of the racers who came out this season and helped the Points Series double in size and made this the best season yet! This would not have been possible without you and the awesome people and sponsors behind the scenes that deserve a great deal of thanks as well: Kevin Jelich at AMain Silver Dollar RC Raceway, Chuck Smith at Rescue Community Center R/C Track for letting us put on our events at their facilities, JConcepts for once again being the title sponsor and providing support and swag for raffle giveaways, Jacob Smallwood of Insano Industries and Black Market RC for the graphic design, printing, and video recording and editing, BC O’Neill for the contributions to make our video coverage possible and support, AMain Hobbies for the venue use and raffle prize donations, Horizon Hobby for their support of the “North vs South Showdown” and providing an LMT roller and trophy for the event, RC Country Hobbies in Rancho Cordova providing gift certificates for raffles, Sam Elliott and Becki Noakes for the contributions on behalf of Bee Line Trucking and Nor Cal Performance Diesel, Taylor Underhill of Wrench Head RC for the freestyle obstacles and lane barriers, Brandon Tomy for allowing us to put on the Monster Truck Showdown as part of the ASD Autism Awareness Crawl, Michael Letcher and Jessica Dahl for coming up from So Cal twice to compete, Zac Soares, David Heimbigner and Wes Harriger for all of their help and laughs behind the scenes, and finally the photographers Eric Myers and Jamie Cabrera for capturing some amazing shots this season!