Teammates Jamey Garner and Cole Venard dominated the podium for a second week in a row with a win each at the big race in Miami, Oklahoma. 11th-ranked Venard has won 5 of his past 8 events while 28th-ranked Garner has advanced to the finals in 5 consecutive events including 2 wins. Teammates Justin and Jeff Murphy also had a great week as Justin won 3 times and Jeff had 4 final-rounds and gained lots of ground in the standings. Chris Sawicki had his best weekend of the year in Lake Erie with a win and runner-up. Top-runners Adam Anderson and Jimmy Creten both added wins, as well.
Clarksville, Tennessee (Monster X Tour)
The Monster X crew got an early start to the week with a Tuesday night race at the Clarksville Speedway. Justin Murphy in Prime Time won his 9th event of the season by beating our brother Jeff Murphy in Fatal Attraction. The event on Wednesday night was rained out.
Kalispell, Montana (Mega Promotions)
Paul Breaud picked up his 4th win of the year at the Flathead County Fairgrounds with a win over Corey Clark in Wicked.
Lake Erie, Pennsylvania (All Star Motorsports)
Chris Sawicki had his best weekend of the season at the Lake Erie Speedway. After seven races without a point, he drove the Lumberjack truck to the final round both nights and capped the weekend with a final round win over Tim Missentzis on Sunday afternoon. It was his first win of the season. Aaron Cain was the winner on Saturday and moved up 6 spot in the standings.
Meridian, Idaho (Malicious Tour)
Straight-up Racing provided the bookends to a 3-event weekend at the Meridian Speedway, with monster truck competitions on Friday and Sunday and a short-track racing program on Saturday. The monster truck racing was contested against the clock, however, and so was not eligible for points.
Grand Junction, Colorado (Monster X)
No racing in Grand Junction so no points to award.
Miami, Oklahoma (Main Attraction Promotions)
The much-anticipated showdown at the Miami Fairgrounds had been delayed several weeks due to flooding at the fairgrounds. This caused lots of confusion with teams' schedules, but the staff at the Outlaw Nationals quickly reorganized a great line-up and the event lived up to the hype with a solid 14-truck line-up and exciting side-by-side drag racing. The big news came earlier in the week when another cancellation allowed the hard charging Over Bored/Black Pearl team to make the trip to Miami.
After their stellar weekend in Springfield the weekend prior, Cole Venard had his bid for a 3rd-consecutive tour victory dashed in the semi-finals on Friday as Darren Migues advanced in Nitro Menace. Jamey Garner drove Over Bored past Tim Jones in the other semi-finals to advance to his 4th consecutive final round. In the finals, Migues got squirrely in no-man’s land which gave Garner a healthy margin of victory. On Saturday night, these two tangled again but in the semi-finals and the result was the same which put Garner in his 5th consecutive final round. On the other side of the bracket, Venard advanced past Kaylyn Migues in Jailbird to join his teammate in the finals. For the third time in four races, Venard took the Black Pearl to victory circle. It was his 8th win of the season and moved him up into 11th place in the world. Garner for his part has gained 12 spots and now sits in 28th.
Hamburg, New York (Battlegrounds)
There were a couple firsts at the Mountain Springs Arena this weekend. John Fitzgerald debuted his new Turbulence truck and veteran Jeff Bursey picked up his first win of the season in Towasaurus Wrex. Tyler Leicht was runner-up.
Nashville, Tennessee (Monster Jam)
Adam Anderson inched closer to the top spot with another win on the Monster Jam Stadium tour. These big point events have him comfortable in the lead in Average Points with 288.11 points-per-race, which is a full 50-points ahead of his nearest rival. He defeated Steve Sims, Dave Sparks, and Scott Buetow before knocking off Bryan Wright in the final round. Wright picked up 4 spots with his final round appearance.
Muscle Shoals, Alabama (Monster X)
The Monster X crew ended a long, busy week with three events at the North Alabama State Fairgrounds. As was the case in Clarksville, Justin Murphy won in the finals over Jeff Murphy on Friday night and Saturday afternoon. The Saturday evening event broke that streak as a first-time winner took top honors. Polish driver Andrzej Frys learned a lot in the previous 3 events that weekend and put it all together with his first win of the season. Jeff Murphy was runner-up again and finished with 4 second place finishes this week. With so many points being awarded, it enabled Justin Murphy to move up 12 spots in 31st and Jeff Murphy is up 20 spots into 52nd.
Imperial, Pennsylvania (Monster Truck Showdown)
Clint Watson picked up the 3rd win for Bear Foot in its return season on a dusty J-turn track at the Pennsylvania Motor Speedway. Runner-up Rick Steffens has been a finalist in all 4 of his events this season.
Rushville, Indiana (Full Throttle)
This event was cancelled due to rain.
Toronto, Ontario (Monster Jam)
Four big events were held at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto but the racing was run solo against the clock and so points were not awarded.
Middlebourne, West Virginia (MTRL)
Kevin King in Fluffy won the side-by-side racing heats at the Tyler County Speedway but the field only had 3 trucks which is one too few and so points were not awarded.
Washington, Missouri (2Xtreme)
World Finals Champion Jimmy Creten added a 12th win for the 2019 season and inched up into the Top 3. Brandan Tulachka was runner-up.
LATE – Berlin, New Jersey (KSR Motorsports)
It took a bit longer than usual, but we were able to get results from Berlin! And that’s good news for fans of Bad News Travels Fast because Brandon Derrow swept the three-race weekend, earning 765 points and moving up 9 spots into 17th. Billy Braukmann was runner-up twice in Shockwave and Zach Adams was runner-up once.
THE WEEK AHEAD
The Fourth of July is next weekend but there’s lots of independents this weekend, too! It looks like Monster Jam has no events scheduled so there is a small chance for some of the non-Monster Jam teams to make up some ground. It will also be a busy time for us statistician because beginning Wednesday night there are monster truck events scheduled for 12 consecutive days beginning at the Land of Legends Raceway in Canandaigua, New York and ending on July 7th at the Jay County Fair Grounds in Portland, Indiana.
Jimmy Creten and Jacob Ladwig are scheduled for the San Diego County Fair in Del Mar, California and we count six events on the docket. If all of those include a racing program (and if we get the results), there could be as much as 1600 points available for teams.
Jamey Garner will try to keep his final round streak going at the Throwdown events in Medina, Ohio and South Bend, Indiana. The Groth Brothers will take on the Swanson Family in Pleasanton, California. The MTRL brings 8 trucks to the Motor Mile in Radford, Virginia including the hot-running Kevin King with Fluffy. Michael Vaters I and II have a couple small events in New York and Illinois but will have tough competition from Preston Perez and Matt Cody in New York and Christian Norman and the Hall Brothers in Illinois.
Monster Jam returns to the track in two weeks with the conclusion of the European tour in Rotterdam. Then the big names like Tyler Menninga, Jimmy Creten, Bryan Wright, Darren Migues, and Ryan Anderson will face off in the Alamodome.