With one round left in the 2023 season, things are far from settled on who will make the end of the year podium taking home the big hardware and more. While nobody has clinched, here is a rundown of where everyone currently stands in all three points paying classes and who still has a chance to work their way up to the podium or play spoiler.
In the Bee Line Trucking 2.6 Monster Truck Class, Sam Elliott’s consistency all year long in racing and dominance in freestyle with his “Saigon Shaker” Losi LMT has him headed into the championship round in the driver’s seat with a 19 point lead. After a hot start, David Heimbigner had some less than ideal results at the two events in Auburn; however we return to Rescue where he took both Overall Event titles in Rounds 1 and 2 with the proven “Flyin’ Hawaiian” BlackMarket RC Peacemaker chassis. Trailing Heimbigner by 20 points is Brian Romo and “Da Beast” SMT who had a huge boost with the Overall Event win in Round 3 and has proven to be sneaky fast and consistent. He’ll be feeling the heat as he has both of Jeremy Bunting’s entries, Elliott’s “Fenrir”, and Zac Soares all less than 20 points behind and looking to move into contention for a spot on the podium and get a shot at the Bee Line Trucking Podium Payout.
In the 2.2 Mini Monster Class, Bunting is going for the three-peat with his “Bad Company” SCMT Warpath leading the field by 18 points going into Rescue. Romo and Bunting have been battling all year taking all of the Overall Event titles this season and put a big gap between the rest of the field as Romo’s “Hater Maker” SMT leads the third place “Crash Test Dummy” BlackMarket RC BRD by 36 points. While the gap between 2nd and 3rd may be insurmountable, Dale Udell and Jacob Smallwood are both in contention to play spoiler and move up into the final spot on the podium.
Finally, everyone’s favorite class is the one with the most parody and the most wide open: the Blackmarket RC Retro class! Soares took the lead from the start and has not relinquished it with some help from Elliott filling in for Round 2 and getting the win with the legendary “Excaliber” JConcepts Regulator. Heimbigner is only 10 points back with his scaled out “Bigfoot II” Blackmarket RC chassis holding a 15 point lead on third place Bunting and “Shotgun”. The list of trucks still in contention consists of pretty much the rest of the field!
Heimbigner’s “Flyin’ Hawaiian” is just 7 points back and Marc Detka who joined the class midseason and picked up the win in Round 4 with his “USA-1” Regulator is very much still alive along with Soares’ “Samson” which has only competed in one event, but took the win in Round 3. Smallwood may be in 7th place, but is only 11 points out of 3rd! Needless to say, Round 5 will have huge implications on who makes it onto the podium with such big swings possible and new entries joining each round.
While points have not been kept for the Brass Ring Fab Scale Spec Class, next season it will be joining the Points Series. We will still hold a racing bracket for the Scale Spec Class with the winner taking home a set of BRF zoomie headers (rumor has it the guy who made them wants them back and is coming out to win them. Stay tuned…)
It’s been a great season and we can’t wait to see how it all pans out on October 7th at Rescue Community Center RC Track! In addition to event plaques and the end of the year trophies, we will also be awarding the 2023 Most Improved driver and the Rookie of the Year, plus awesome raffle prizes including tickets to the West Coast Monster Truck Nationals in Red Bluff. See you in Rescue!