Maximum Destruction during a freestyle performance.
Freestyle is a competition that takes place during every monster truck show, usually as the last competition of the show. During freestyle, trucks are given a time period, usually of 90-120 seconds, on the arena floor or stadium, where they can hit any of the obstacles, including crush cars, vans, buses, and dirt ramps. This gives the trucks opportunities to perform special tricks, such as slap wheelies and donuts, which are typically not part of the rest of the show (although some smaller events do hold wheelie and/or donut competitions).
Carolina Crusher performing a freestyle in Anaheim, circa 1996.
Grave Digger performing a freestyle in Miami, circa 2005.
History[]
Freestyle's origins come from the act of crushing cars, part of the origin of monster trucks, and slowly evolved from an exhibition to a high-intensity performance. One of the earliest documented freestyles was from Mike Welch in Super Pete in 1989, who would crush cars at high speeds and hit them at odd angles, often rolling over his truck and flipping it back over to continue freestyling. The earliest widely-known freestyle Welch performed was a freestyle exhibition at the Seattle Kingdome in 1991 with the goal of rolling his truck over for the fans, which he did. The credit for the creation of freestyle as a competition is usually given by Monster Jam to Dennis Anderson, the driver of Grave Digger, who came up with the idea of bringing the truck out as an encore for the audiences, especially for trucks that were eliminated in early rounds of racing and could return for their fans one more time. In early shows, such as the 1999 Motor Madness World Finals, for example, freestyle was merely considered an "encore" performance, meaning none of the drivers would be scored for their performances and would just be performing for themselves and the audience. However, as the idea of freestyle became more and more popular, it eventually became accepted to include freestyle as a legitimate competition for all monster truck shows.
Scoring methods[]
Early on, most shows incorporated the use of the "cheer off" method, where the crowd will cheer when a certain truck is listed off that has freestyled. The truck that has the loudest cheer would be the winner of freestyle. This was the most commonly used method before freestyle was adopted into the competition itself, since it was meant to be for the fans in attendance only. This method, however, has some inherent flaws in the sport, as some fans claimed that often times more popular trucks, like Grave Digger for example, were given victories much more often than other trucks due to biased or inexperienced fans. Since freestyle became a part of the competition, larger shows, including previous World Finals events, use a number of judges to determine the winner of the event. This is the most commonly used method for judging freestyle performances. Each judge gives the freestyle a score of 1-10 (which included 0.5 decimals beginning with World Finals 15), with 1 being the lowest and 10 the highest. Then the numbers were added up, determining the driver's score. The driver with the highest score at the end of the event is the winner. Often times, usually when six or more judges are involved, the announcers will eliminate the highest number and the lowest number, then add up the remaining numbers, to make sure the score is consistent across all judges. Some drivers, crew members, and celebrities have participated as judges, while others are spectators picked during the pit party to participate in scoring freestyles. A more modern and democratic method for judging was first used at Monster Jam World Finals 18 and is currently used in all Monster Jam events. The method includes the participation of the crowd as they score freestyles through their mobile phones. They simply go to the website "JudgesZone.com" where they can score a particular run in a scale of 1 to 10. The crowd is given a code for the show that they type in before they score the run. Each show has a different code based on its venue. After a freestyle run is finished, the crowd is given twenty seconds to score the said freestyle. After the time is expired, the scores are tabulated and averaged, which will be the score of the freestyle run. This leads to scores that are not whole numbers but have a decimal point that goes to the thousandth, almost guaranteeing no scores will be the same.
Criteria for points given for a freestyle include the following[]
- Using the full allotted time: The more time that was used by the driver, the higher the score.
- Maintaining speed and momentum throughout the run.
- Aggression in hitting obstacles.
- Height, length, and verticality of jumps.
- Use of specific tricks, such as slap wheelies, donuts, etc.
- Avoid putting the truck in reverse, unless it is to gain momentum for a spectacular jump or to actually go over an obstacle backwards (a stunt that drivers like Michael Vaters, driver of Black Stallion and Dan Evans, driver of Destroyer, are well known for).
- Getting the truck out of situations which would otherwise result in a crash (commonly referred to as "saves" or "recoveries").
- Spectacular moments (can often add significantly to the score of an otherwise unimpressive run).
Criticisms[]
The aftermath of Monster Jam World Finals 2 in 2001, an event that generated a large amount of controversy among some fans and industry members at the tjme it occured due to its excessive destruction during freestyle and the subsequent encores.
Freestyle is not universally popular among those in the industry, notably old-school veterans like Everett Jasmer (creator of USA-1) who left the sport due to it becoming more entertainment-focused. There are several criticisms of the competition. Among them is that, as a judged competition, freestyle is not a legitimate motorsport because it is not technical racing, and that it adds to the reputation of the sport being more of a show than a competition, similar to professional wrestling just without the predetermined results. Many also feel that pressure from both fans and promoters has forced drivers to push their trucks beyond their limits and too often is a breeding ground for crashes and excessively risky maneuvers. Branching from this is the criticism that freestyle is exclusively to create the crashes and roll-overs that casual fans enjoy, and events like the World Finals tend to reinforce the argument with multiple roll-overs and even trucks driving over each other. However, recent emphasis on using the full allotted time and scoring bonuses for making saves rather than crashing are reducing the trend. In 2020, Monster Jam added the stipulation that a truck must complete a designated amount of time, or they will not receive a score.