Since 2019, AMain Silver Dollar R/C Raceway has been letting us tear up the 1/8th scale track and turn it into a monster truck playground with all-dirt obstacles and a huge freestyle track and it has grown to become one of the largest solid axle monster truck events on the entire west coast. 70 entries featuring drivers from all over California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and even as far away as Missouri and Illinois came out to compete in three classes for trophies and awesome prizes for the 2023 edition of the Nor Cal R/C Monster Truck Showdown.
This was also an opportunity for many drivers to debut new looks or unique paint schemes and there were plenty of those including Jacob Smallwood’s “Wolverine” and “Airborne Ranger”, Sam Elliott’s “Redeemer”, Marc Detka’s “USA-1”, Bob Tarvin’s “Tarvin Racing”, David Heimbigner’s incredible tube frame “Son Uva Digger” plus a new “Bigfoot”, and Jeremy Bunting’s “Snake Bite” 2009 edition among others.
Things kicked off with the Losi LMT Spec Class in which all trucks were close to box stock with only minor modifications allowed. Elliott would set the fastest time in qualifying followed by Mike Bufka’s “Mr. BilL-M-T”, Detka’s “Snap On” and Travis Letcher’s “Aftershock”. These four drivers would make it to the semi-finals where Elliott and Detka would advance to meet in the finals. In the end, Detka would take home the first trophy of the day piloting his red “Snap On” LMT to the win after Elliott went too deep into the final turn.
Next up was the Brass Ring Fab Challenger Class featuring the same rules as the RC Monster Truck Challenge and Showtime Ultra Mod class where the goal is to have the trucks be scale in looks and speed, motor limits and trucks running a full cage chassis with shocks on axle. It was only fitting that the man behind Brass Ring Fab who came out from Missouri would set the fast time of the night with his gorgeous “Monster Patrol” with fellow Midwesterner Isaac Ankrom qualifying second with his “Rock Star” and Heimbigner and Elliott would round out the top 4 and also make it to the semi-finals. Heimbigner would score the upset with his “Flyin’ Hawaiian” and take out Bufka while Ankrom eliminated Elliott’s “Ragnarok”.
The finals would be a back and forth race as first Ankrom would get up on two wheels going over the first set of cars, then Heimbigner went deep into the second lap and had to pour on the speed making for an exciting finish. Ankrom and “Rock Star” would prevail by a truck length at the line taking home the trophy and a Brass Ring Fab custom driver’s seat.
With 48 trucks in the Pro Mod class, the top 31 qualifiers would advance to the main field while the remaining 17 would get their shot to make the final spot and pure chaos would ensue! Tires came off and trucks collided. Top-seeded trucks would crash. The two Taylor’s in the field would end up matched up and had to race twice because neither truck crossed the finish line the first time. Father and son raced each other back-to-back. A truck named “Agent Orange” was matched against “Saigon Shaker”. Significant others had battles of who would sleep on the couch. It had it all! Sam Olson entered this event for the first time driving a monster truck in a year and made an incredible run with her 43rd seeded “Deep Blue” making it all the way to the finals where she would face Sam Elliott and “Saigon Shaker”. Her luck would run out and Elliott would make the final spot in the main field where he would face the number 1 seeded Ankrom and his “Red Rocket”.
Ankrom set the pace for the night with a blistering 11.64 with last year’s 3rd place finisher Michael Letcher and his “Max D 20th Anniversary” truck qualifying second, Isaac Soria made his return to monster truck racing and turned in the third fastest pass with “Ice Pop Prime”, Brian Romo in 4th with a sub 12 second run of his own with “Da Beast”, then Zac Soares seeded 5th and 6th with “Excaliber” and “Prospector” finishing .02 seconds apart.
The first round would see all kinds of upsets, none bigger than Trevor Jonen who was the 31st fastest qualifier pulling off a stunner eliminating Letcher and “Max D”. After two solid qualifying passes, Brian Romo would have both trucks eliminated by lower seeds with Heimbigner’s 22nd ranked Bigfoot eliminating “Hater Maker” while Bunting would take the 29th ranked “Snake Bite” and knock out “Da Beast”. Travis Letcher was seeded 23rd and took out fellow So Cal racer Jessica Dahl and her 10th seeded “Boobie Bouncer”. Smallwood advanced 21st seeded “Wolverine” in a wild race eliminating Heimbigner’s 12th ranked “Flyin’ Hawaiian” and Letcher’s 28th ranked “Soldier Fortune Black Ops” took out “Excaliber. And this was just the first round!
Jordan Jensen would kick off round 2 and get the win over the top-seeded Ankrom after “Red Rocket” did not get both tires up the first obstacle resulting in a DQ. Jonen’s Cinderella run was short-lived as Bufka’s “Careless Whisper” would move on along with Detka, Soria, Letcher, and Soares.
The quarter finals would start off with the closest race of the night as Jensen looked to keep his hot streak alive with his 16th seed “Son Uva Digger” going against Soria’s 9th ranked “Lemon Lime Prime” with both trucks finishing too close to call. After video review, it was determined Jensen won by less than a tire and would move on to the semi finals to take on Letcher whose improbable run from 28th continued eliminating Ankrom’s “Rock Star”. On the bottom half of the bracket, Soria and “Ice Pop Prime” got the best of Soares and “Prospector” while Bufka’s “Careless Whisper” would end the night for Detka and “Snap On” setting up a final four of the 16th, 28th, 3rd, and 15th seeded trucks.
Letcher would keep the run alive powering “Soldier Fortune Black Ops” to the finals where he would meet Bufka and “Careless Whisper” fittingly setting up a Michael vs. Michael final. In the finals, the trucks were even into the final lap, but Bufka carried too much speed into the last turn and ended up rolling over and Letcher would take home his first ever Pro Mod racing bracket win. Not only did he get a trophy, but he also took home an FMS Models 1/24 scale Smasher with a Blackmarket RC chassis.
Finally, it was time to cut loose and start the 45-truck freestyle competition. Runs would go until 100 seconds were up or the truck rolled over and would be judged on a scale of 1-10 on four aspects: time used, track usage, momentum, and tricks/air. Early on, the track was winning the battle until Ankrom came out with his “Rock Star” and put up an early high score of 31 while filling about 70 seconds of time. The high score would stand for 13 trucks when it was matched by the other Isaac in the field as Soria laid down a fast paced run with big air and almost filled the clock. Five trucks later Soares would take the lead with a chaotic run with the “Prospector” filling the clock and scoring a 32. Another 7 trucks would try, but none came close until Elliott brought out the all-new “Redeemer” and threw down a classic run that he has become known for as he filled the clock and earned a 33. However 14 trucks remained including some heavy hitters.
After winning back-to-back freestyles at the last two Showdowns, Bunting would not make it three in a row with a short-lived early rollover guaranteeing a new champion would take home the hardware this year. Dahl and Letcher both would turn in solid runs, but would not be enough. Elliott then put the exclamation point on the night by one-upping “Redeemer” with a barn burner from his “Saigon Shaker” truck that has been dominating freestyle all season in the Nor Cal Points Series and tonight would leave no doubt who was going home with the trophy.
The night was capped off with a fantastic raffle that included a Losi LMT Son Uva Digger, a complete Blackmarket RC Fighter chassis kit, FMS Models 1/24 scale Smasher V2, JConcepts bodies, wheels, tires, and, gift certificates and lots of other swag, EcoPower tools, Protek RC mat, Treal LMT upgrades, 3D printed truck accessories from Wine Country RC Monster Trucks, and AMain t-shirts. All of our event winners received coupons for Dahled Up Cookies and the first 15 to pre-register received FMS Model hats.
A huge thank you to AMain Hobbies Silver Dollar RC Raceway for their hospitality. The event would not have been possible without all of the support from the sponsors listed above and all of the help from Sam Elliott, Jacob Smallwood, David Heimbigner, Mike Bufka, Isaac Ankrom, and Marc Detka for helping build and maintain the track so it would be good to go on Saturday night and to Bob Tarvin for capturing and sharing all of the photos in this recap. A full gallery can be found here. And last but certainly not least, to all of the racers that came out and made this such a fun evening, many of which travelled hundreds of miles to attend. We look forward to seeing you all again and putting on an even better event in 2024!