Ryan Anderson built up a 3-race winning streak between March and April, and his pair of stadium wins last month helped him take the top spot for April 2019. With the Monster Jam season beginning to wind down, we also see a number of independent drivers making our top spots. Here’s a recap of the monster truck racing action from this past month.
THANK YOU’S
Thank you to all of the promoters, drivers, and fans who have helped us compile racing results for the month of April: Phil Vicinanza, Bryan Wagner, Dallas Glenn-Rogers, Scott Shay, Preston Perez, Nick Davis, Kyle Coryea, Mikeal Christensen, Tyler Wicklander, Stephen Mayfield, Jeff Bursey, TheMonsterBlog.com, Monster Truckin' with Jim and Chris, and the staffs at MonsterJam.com and the Monster X Tour.
BEST MONSTER TRUCK RACERS IN APRIL 2019
Ryan Anderson – Son Uva Digger - 980 / 326.67
Greg Winchenbach – Crushstation - 1168 / 194.67
Larry Swim – Bigfoot - 920 / 230.00
Mark List – El Toro Loco – 788 / 262.67
Morgan Kane – Grave Digger – 900 / 180.00
Camden Murphy – Bakugan Dragonoid – 994 / 165.67
Blake Granger – Maximum Destruction – 736 / 184.00
Justin Sipes – Megalodon – 992 / 165.33
Bill Payne – Rock Star – 700 / 175.00
Dwight Mathews – High Voltage – 700 / 175.00
Ryan Anderson drove Grave Digger for the first time this past month and picked up the racing win in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania over Neil Elliot. He also won the Stadium event in Santa Clara, California the week before and was a semi-finalists in Denver. He was 10-1 in heat races last month and won against 10 different drivers. His only loss was in Denver to Camden Murphy.
Greg Winchenbach won 4 of the 6 Traxxas Tour events in Maine last month. After a runner-up effort in Bangor and a first round loss the next event, the Crushstation driver then won the next four events in a row, including all three in Portland.
Larry Swim won the Toughest Monster Truck Tour in Grand Forks, North Dakota and moved himself into the Top 5 in the world rankings. His consistent performance was also the third best of the month.
Mark List won 2 of 3 events in Columbus, Ohio. His only loss was to Matt Cody in the Saturday night finals. He beat Cody the following afternoon in the finals and then knocked off Brandon Vinson in the championship race for the 2nd time that weekend.
Morgan Kane took Grave Digger to the winner’s circle twice in Colorado Springs, Colorado and also had a runner-up finish. He may have ranked a bit higher were it not for a first round loss in Santa Clara, California to Bryan Wright. It was his second loss to Wright in the month.
Camden Murphy had two wins in Colorado Springs, but also a first round loss in Colorado Springs and Santa Clara. Blake Granger had two wins in three finals racing Max-D in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Justin Sipes was runner-up twice in Colorado Springs and scored points in 4 of his 5 events. Last but not least, Straight-Up Racing driver Bill Payne had 3 wins in 4 finals while teammate Dwight Mathews had 2 wins in 4 finals. Both drivers advanced to the finals in every event in which they competed.
MOST POINTS IN APRIL 2019
1168 – Greg Winchenbach – Crushstation
1100 – Mat Dishman – Rammunition
994 – Camden Murphy – Bakugan Dragonoid
992 – Justin Sipes – Megalodon
980 – Ryan Anderson – Son Uva Digger
With 4 wins in 6 events, Greg Winchenbach takes the top honors for most points. Mat Dishman had more events than Winchenbach and advanced to the finals 4 times, but only picked up 1 win and had 3 first round loses. Dishman was able to move up 9 spots in the world rankings, however, while Winchenbach has not yet competed in the minimum number of events required to be ranked.
This past month also saw 22 events which could not be scored for points, either because they did not include racing or because the racing was contested against a clock rather than side-by-side, so many drivers missed out on opportunities to gain more points.
BEST AVERAGE IN APRIL 2019 (Minimum 2 races)
326.67 – Ryan Anderson – Son Uva Digger
262.67 – Mark List – El Toro Loco
250.00 – Chad Tingler – Megalodon
245.00 – Neil Elliot – Maximum Destruction
230.00 – Larry Swim - Bigfoot
Monster Jam Stadium events are worth a lot of points and Ryan Anderson’s wins on that tour easily gave him the best average for the month. Mark List was a 3-time finalist States-side while Chad Tingler was a 2-time finalist on the African tour, which enabled both of them to maintain high averages, as well.
MOST RACES IN APRIL 2019
9 – Mat Dishman – Rammunition
9 – Myranda Cozad – Scooby-Doo!
9 – Mark Hall – Raminator
8 – Brandon Vinson – Grave Digger
8 – Matt Cody – Iron Warrior
8 – Kristen Hope – Wolf’s Head
Hall Brothers Racing had plenty of chances to pick up points as they competed in the most number of scored events alongside Myranda Cozad. Their Monster Jam tour took them from Little Rock, Arkansas to Austin, Texas, then to Des Moines, Iowa, and finally to Moline, Illinois.
MOST WINS IN APRIL 2019
4 – Greg Winchenbach – Crushstation
3 – Larry Swim – Bigfoot
3 – Bill Payne – Rock Star
2 – (14 drivers)
Greg Winchenbach was the top win-getting for this month thanks to his 4-race winning streak on the Traxxas Tour. He has 6 wins in 8 races this season. Larry Swim won three times on his way to the Toughest Monster Truck championship and Bill Payne had 3 wins on the Malicious Tour. Over a-dozen other drivers picked up 2 wins this past month and there were 38 event winners overall.
MOST FINALS IN APRIL 2019
5 – Greg Winchenbach – Crushstation
4 – Bill Payne – Rock Star
4 – Dwight Mathews – High Voltage
4 – Mat Dishman – Rammunition
4 – Brandon Vinson – Grave Digger
Dwight Mathews, Mat Dishman, and Brandon Vinson all had several final-round appearances this month to help themselves move up in the standings.
BIGGEST MOVERS IN APRIL 2019
+27 – Tyler Cornelius Jr – General Hazzard (59th to 32nd)
+17 – Brandon Budd – Buckshot (60th to 43rd)
+10 – Larry Swim – Bigfoot (15th to 5th)
+9 – Mat Dishman – Rammunition (24th to 15th)
+7 – Blake Granger – Maximum Destruction (27th to 20th)
+5 – Justin Sipes – Megalodon (30th to 25th)
+3 – Paul Jensen – Kamikaze (17th to 14th)
+3 – Morgan Kane – Grave Digger (29th to 26th)
+3 – Mark List – El Toro Loco (26th to 23rd)
+3 – Cole Venard – Black Pearl (25th to 22nd)
Tyler Cornelius, Junior picked up a win and 2 runner-ups on the Maine mini tour for the Traxxas Monster Truck series. His performance in racing, as well as in the freestyle portions of the tour, enabled him to win the Traxxas Series Championship for 2019. It also moved him up 27 spots in the standings into the Top 50.
Brandon Budd broke Larry Swim’s winning streak when he knocked off the Bigfoot driver in the semi-finals in Loveland. Budd finished the month with a win and 3 semi-final round appearances and also moved up into the Top 50.
Larry Swim finished off the Toughest Monster Truck Tour as strong as he started and jumped up 10 spots into the Top 5.
RIVALRIES
There were 10 pairs of drivers who faced each other 4 times in the month of April. Two series results in 4-0 sweeps, two series were split, and the remaining six finished with 3-1 advantages. Eight of the series all occurred in the same weekend, but Larry Swim / Brandon Budd met in the final two stops of the Toughest Monster Truck Tour, and Myranda Cozad and Mark Hall met once each weekend in four different cities.
Justin Sipes (4) over John Gordon (0) in Colorado Springs, CO
Morgan Kane (4) over Shane England (0) in Colorado Springs, CO
Cole Venard (3) over Krysten Anderson (1) in Baton Rouge, LA
Jack Brown (3) over Blake Granger (1) in Baton Rouge, LA
Larry Swim (3) over Brandon Budd (1) in Loveland, CO and Grand Forks, ND
Myranda Cozad (3) over Mark Hall (1) in Little Rock, AR; Moline, IL; Des Moines, IA; and Austin, TX
Camden Murphy (3) over Buddy Tompkins (1) in Colorado Springs, CO
Kristen Hope (2) and Jamey Garner (2) in Baton Rouge, LA
Cynthia Gauthier (2) and Bryan Wright (2) in Colorado Springs, CO
EVENT STATISTICS
Finally, here is a look at some general event statistics from March. There were 85 total events of which 81 were reported and only 4 (4%) were not reported. That means we have reports for 96% of the events from this past month! Thank you to everyone who had helped us make every race count!
85 TOTAL EVENTS IN APRIL 2019
United States of America = 79
Canada = 4
South Africa = 2
24 of 50 States had monster truck racing this month. The states with the most events were:
9 in Arizona
8 in Colorado
7 in California
6 in Maine
5 in Pennsylvania
4 in Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas
There were 17 promoters in action this month:
Monster Jam = 38 events (45%)
Malicious Monster Truck Tour = 9 events (11%)
Traxxas Monster Truck Tour = 8 events (9%)
Grand Canyon State Promotions = 5 events (6%)
Hot Wheels Live = 4 events (5%)
Toughest Monster Truck Tour = 4 events (5%)
Once again, Fridays (19% to 22%) and Sundays (18% to 20%) saw a small increase in their share of the events but Saturday (58%) continues to be the day with the most events:
19 – Friday Night (22%)
14 – Saturday Afternoon (17%)
35 – Saturday Night (41%)
16 – Sunday Afternoon (19%)
1 – Sunday Night (1%)
The average field size for racing brackets was 6.3 trucks, which is down nearly half-a-truck from March and a full truck from February.