After a hard-fought battle all year, it comes down to Round 5 in Rescue on Saturday, October 16th. We’ll take a look at who’s in contention for the podium as well as the Fat Cat Freestyle and other special awards for the season.
Monster Truck Class
Going into Round 5, Jeremy Bunting and “Sinistar” currently leads the standings with 229 Points after regaining the lead in Round 4. Zac Soares is 22 points back in 2nd with “Excaliber” and Sam Elliott is hanging on to 3rd with “Ragnarok” just 9 points behind.
Despite missing Round 4, David Heimbigner has 196 points and is well within striking distance of any of the podium positions with his “V8 Bomber” that has been a force to reckon with all season long including being the first to get the event trifecta taking top qualifier, the racing win, and freestyle during Round 2. While the podium will likely consist of three of these drivers, crazy things can happen in racing and last year’s champion Wes Harriger is still lurking with his “Bigfoot” just behind Soares’ other entry “Prospector” 20 points out of 3rd.
For Fat Cat Customz Freestyle, Elliott has been strong all year with his “Ragnarok” winning Round 3 and tying for the win in Round 2 consistently filling the clock and is in control of first place with a 7 point lead on Bunting’s “Sinistar” who is looking to go back-to-back despite not having a freestyle victory so far this season in the Points Series. Soares and Heimbigner are mathematically still in the running but would need a lot to go right in order to overtake with only 30 total points available, but freestyle can often be unpredictable with one bad bounce or break ending runs early.
2.2 Mini Monster Class
Jeremy Bunting took the first overall event win and has not relinquished the lead in the standings all season long in the 2.2 class and will look to hold on for the entire duration going into the final round with 174 points. Sam Elliott is firmly in 2nd with 157 points, just 17 behind.
Meanwhile the battle for the final spot on the podium is separated by a mere 4 points as Zac Soares and “Excaliber” lead David Heimbigner and “Son Uva Digger” 124 to 120 with Jacob Smallwood and his “Outta Control” still in range with 111 points.
For Fat Cat Customz Freestyle, while mathematically still alive, Soares is a long shot to win and would need catastrophic failures from both Elliott and Bunting in addition to scoring high enough to overtake the top spot. Bunting trails Elliott by 6 points ensuring Round 5 should see some crazy runs and broken parts in the battle for a wrapped Fat Cat body.
Rookie of the Year
In order to be eligible for Rookie of the Year, this would have to be the first season competing. Additionally, attending a majority of the events is necessary as well, so while we had a few racers drop in here and there and do well or even win events, they are also not eligible. The 2021 Rookie of the Year Contenders are:
Brandon Stanley aka “RC Propaganda” has been solid in his debut season averaging close to 40 points an event and likely would be in the thick of things had it not been for missing Round 4. He’ll be looking to finish the year strong.
Ryler Powell had an impressive month of August coming in 2nd in freestyle for Round 4 and then winning freestyle at the exhibition event for the ASD Autism Crawl and is looking to finish the year on a high note with his “Shadow Hunter” SMT10.
Jack Meredith joined the series in Round 2 making the finals in racing his first time out and is poised to finish in the top 6 in the 2.2 class with his Boogey Van averaging over 37 points per event which would have put him among the podium contenders had he raced the full season. He’ll look to carry the momentum into the final round.
Young Gun Award
The Young Gun Award goes to the best driver under the age of 18 (just missed eligibility Ray). The nominees for the award are:
Kirk Noakes, driving in both the 2.2 and MT classes has had ups and downs this year but is improving and has put his LMT-based “Fat & Nasty” and “Rebel Racer” trucks to the test in freestyle this season in the MT class while debuting the radical “Soleyna” in 2.2 to match his “Old Skool” entry.
If you’ve been to one of our races, it’s hard to miss Haidyen Steinert and his all or nothing driving style. Racing in the 2.2 and MT classes, Steinert is currently 8th in the freestyle standings in the MT class even after missing Round 4 and has stepped up his racing game of late finishing second in the Losi LMT class at the North vs South Showdown.
Connor Anapol is currently the highest seeded Young Gun in the 2.2 class and joins Ryler Powell as the final two contenders for the Young Gun Award.
Most Improved
Three drivers have stood out with the amount of improvement made from last season to this year, however only 2 are eligible since you can’t be the “Most Improved” two years in a row, but shout out to David Heimbigner who despite missing Round 4 is still in contention to finish on the podium in both the 2.2 and MT classes.
Sam Elliott joined the series last year with his awesome custom “Hell Raiser” and has since expanded to having a team of 4 trucks. The extra track time has paid off as he is a force to reckon with in both racing and freestyle taking wins in all 3 classes while carrying the lead into the final round in freestyle scores.
Zac Soares joined the series halfway through last season with one truck and took some lumps early on as the guy with the “other Excaliber”. After an offseason of building an entire new fleet of trucks, practice has paid off and has Soares currently on pace to finish on the podium in both classes with a shot at winning the whole thing.
Crash Madness Moment of the Year
These were some of the wildest crashes of the season and we’re leaving this category open until the end of Round 5 as we’re sure there will be plenty more destruction to end the season:
Haidyen Steinert started the year off with one of the hardest hits of the season finishing his first freestyle run slamming the “Monster Energy” truck into the wooden ramp with a thud that made everyone groan. A few runs later, Zac Soares went out and broke a rod end on his first jump, followed by a second, then a third ending the run with the truck having a mind of its own but still filling the clock! Later at that event, David Heimbigner would go on to win freestyle after losing a wheel but continuing to throw down and fill the clock with his “V8 Bomber”. And we can’t bring up crashes without the absolute yard sale Heimbigner had from Round 3 when he destroyed his “Flyin’ Hawaiian” after a big leap in freestyle.
Wow Moment of the Year
While the Crash Madness award is for pure destruction, this award celebrates the runs and tricks that got big reactions out of everyone. As with the Crash Madness award, there’s room to add more after the final event. The current nominees are:
If you’ve watched any of our videos, one of the first things you see is Rich Steinert riding a slap wheelie into a perfect front flip that got everyone at AMain Silver Dollar RC Raceway to cheer. In Round 2, Brandon Stanley ended his run with an exclamation point throwing his truck in reverse and hitting the FreeDOOM bus and skying it into a double back flip. He wouldn’t be the only one to pull off a crazy move off the bus as Ryler Powell had an awesome backflip in which he landed it on top of the bus and kept going.
A lot is still at stake and we look forward to seeing everyone on October 16th for the final round of the 2021 JConcepts Points Series!