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Monster Jam World Finals VIII

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Monster Jam World Finals VIII (also written as Monster Jam World Finals 8) was the eighth annual Monster Jam World Finals, held on March 24th, 2007 at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada. This event featured a twenty-four truck lineup, and was broadcasted on both the Speed Channel and CBS. John Seasock in Batman would win the world racing championship, defeating defending racing champion Dennis Anderson in Grave Digger 25th Anniversary. Meanwhile, Pablo Huffaker, driving the recently-introduced Captain's Curse, would win the world freestyle championship with, interestingly, a score of 34.

Field of trucks[]

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(Note: * indicates a truck/driver's first World Finals appearance).

(Note: ** indicates a truck/driver's only World Finals appearance).

(Note: *** indicates a truck/driver's last World Finals appearance).

  1. Team Suzuki - Bobby Parr (racing)*/Frank Krmel (freestyle)
  2. Monster Mutt Dalmatian* - Chad Tingler
  3. Destroyer - Dan Evans
  4. Scarlet Bandit - Dawn Creten
  5. Safe Auto - Marc McDonald
  6. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle - Randy Brown
  7. Pastrana 199 - Courtney Jolly**
  8. Brutus - Chris Bergeron
  9. Air Force Afterburner - Damon Bradshaw*
  10. King Krunch - David Smith
  11. Taz - Adam Anderson
  12. El Toro Loco - Lupe Soza
  13. An Escalade - George Balhan
  14. Monster Mutt - Charlie Pauken
  15. Superman - Chad Fortune
  16. Avenger - Jim Koehler
  17. Iron Outlaw - Linsey Weenk
  18. Batman - John Seasock
  19. Hot Wheels*** - Neil Elliott
  20. Captain's Curse* - Pablo Huffaker
  21. Bounty Hunter - Jimmy Creten
  22. Blue Thunder - Tony Farrell***
  23. Maximum Destruction - Tom Meents
  24. Grave Digger - Dennis Anderson

Track layout[]

The track used for this year's World Finals featured a dirt hill in the center, with a small ramp at the end, featuring a joker design on the ramp. The right side of the track featured a tanker obstacle painted in the colors of the American flag, a tire "jammer" stack, and a fountain obstacle with a bread van added sometime later in the show. Meanwhile, the back side of the track featured a van stacked painted blue and yellow. The left side of the track featured a double bus stack (The first time this obstacle was featured in the World Finals), with a cactus design painted on the front on a thunder design on the back. Two yellow cars and a dirt mound were added to the left lane for the freestyle competition; the cars in front of Thunder Alley and the dirt mound next to the double bus jump. A graffiti van was added near the start of the right lane midway through freestyle.

Special paint schemes[]

The paint scheme featured on Avenger this year featured a lighter shade of green, which was dubbed "toxic green" by the team. World Finals VIII also marked the official debut event for the recently-introduced Captain's Curse. Meanwhile, Grave Digger featured a special chrome, hand-painted paint scheme to commemorate its 25th anniversary, and King Krunch unveiled a brand-new "playing cards"-themed design.

Qualifying times[]

  1. Bounty Hunter - 15.84
  2. Safe Auto - 16.06
  3. Iron Outlaw - 16.19
  4. Maximum Destruction - 16.28
  5. Monster Mutt - 16.38
  6. Scarlet Bandit - 16.53
  7. Grave Digger - 16.56
  8. Batman - 16.59
  9. Taz - 16.62
  10. An Escalade - 16.65
  11. Captain's Curse - 16.75
  12. Blue Thunder - 16.90
  13. Brutus - 16.91
  14. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle - 17.00
  15. El Toro Loco - 17.13
  16. Pastrana 199 - 17.33
  17. Air Force Afterburner - 17.34
  18. King Krunch - 17.37
  19. Superman - 17.44
  20. Team Suzuki - 17.75
  21. Avenger - 17.91
  22. Destroyer - 18.00
  23. Monster Mutt Dalmatian - 22.05
  24. Hot Wheels - DNF

Racing[]

Round 1[]

Pastrana 199 vs. Hot Wheels

Taz vs. Air Force Afterburner

Blue Thunder vs. Team Suzuki

Wf807024

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' crash in round 1.

Brutus vs. Avenger

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle vs. Destroyer (Destroyer advances to round 2 after the Turtle crashes at the end of the race.)

Captain's Curse vs. Superman

An Escalade vs. King Krunch

El Toro Loco vs. Monster Mutt Dalmatian

Round 2[]

Screenshot 2018-10-19-14-46-40

Hot Wheels catching fire in round 2.

Bounty Hunter vs. Hot Wheels

Batman vs. Air Force Afterburner

Monster Mutt vs. Blue Thunder

Maximum Destruction vs. Brutus

Screenshot 2018-10-19-14-46-45

Hot Wheels catching fire in round 2

Iron Outlaw vs. Destroyer

Scarlet Bandit vs. Captain's Curse

Grave Digger vs. An Escalade

Safe Auto vs. Monster Mutt Dalmatian

Quarter-finals[]

Hot Wheels vs. Batman

Monster Mutt vs. Maximum Destruction

Iron Outlaw vs. Captain's Curse

Grave Digger vs. Safe Auto

Semi-finals[]

Batman vs. Monster Mutt

Wf807043

Batman winning its first racing championship.

Captain's Curse vs. Grave Digger

Championship race[]

Batman vs. Grave Digger

Halftime freestyle encore[]

183

2 Grave Digger trucks doing donuts during the unseen halftime encore.

Halfway through freestyle, two Grave Digger trucks raced out onto the track, and performed a donut competition. Dennis Anderson, who would win the competition, proceeded to perform victory donuts, only for George Balhan in An Escalade to race out onto the track and show off by performing donuts as well.

Freestyle order[]

  1. Monster Mutt Dalmatian
  2. Iron Outlaw
  3. Destroyer
  4. Pastrana 199
  5. Brutus
  6. Team Suzuki
  7. Superman
  8. Safe Auto
  9. Scarlet Bandit
  10. King Krunch
  11. Batman
  12. Air Force Afterburner
  13. An Escalade
  14. El Toro Loco
  15. Captain's Curse
  16. Blue Thunder
  17. Bounty Hunter
  18. Taz
  19. Avenger
  20. Monster Mutt
  21. Grave Digger 25th Anniversary
  22. Maximum Destruction
179-0

Grave Digger and An Escalade during the unseen halftime encore.

Freestyle[]

  1. Captain's Curse - 34
  2. Grave Digger - 30
  3. Iron Outlaw - 29
  4. Safe Auto - 29
  5. Air Force Afterburner - 29
  6. Maximum Destruction - 28
  7. Team Suzuki - 26
  8. Taz - 26
  9. Scarlet Bandit - 24
    Wf807088

    Superman sticking on its nose in freestyle.

  10. Destroyer - 23
    Wf807058

    Destroyer breaking a wheel off in freestyle. NOTE: This was Destroyer's last World Finals appearance in a Chevrolet body.

  11. Superman - 21
  12. Blue Thunder - 21
  13. Monster Mutt - 21
  14. Pastrana 199 - 20
  15. Avenger - 20
  16. King Krunch - 19
  17. El Toro Loco - 17
  18. An Escalade - 16
  19. Brutus - 12
    Wf807069

    Brutus crash after trying to clear bus double

    Wf807194

    Last 25th Anniversary Grave Digger

  20. Monster Mutt Dalmatian - 9
  21. Batman - 8
  22. Bounty Hunter - 8
  23. Hot Wheels - DNR
  24. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle - DNR

Encore[]

Wf807188

25th Anniversary Grave Digger first crash at encore

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In celebration of Grave Digger's 25th anniversary, five Grave Digger trucks performed a quintuple freestyle performance.

Awards[]

*Tom's save in St. Louis driving Maximum Destruction was during an encore for the fans.

Trivia[]

  • This event marked the first of the following occurrences:
    • The first World Finals in which Jimmy Creten would not make it to at least the semi-final round of racing.
    • The first World Finals event where a driver changes for freestyle.
    • The first World Finals where the fastest qualifier was eliminated in their first race. The only two other instances would later be Donkey Kong at World Finals X and Metal Mulisha at World Finals XIII.
    • The first World Finals in which a driver won the world racing championship, but would record the lowest score in freestyle.
    • The first World Finals to feature blue dice obstacles, which were knocked down by Marc McDonald in Safe Auto Minimizer.
    • The first World Finals to be broadcasted on CBS.
  • This event marked the last of the following occurrences:
  • World Finals VIII was originally planned to be the first World Finals event to feature a thirty-two truck lineup. The event would also take place over a two-day span, with each day dedicated to both racing and freestyle competitions. However, the idea was ultimately scrapped for unknown reasons, and would not be introduced until World Finals XV in 2014.
  • Ironically, a similar racing crash to TMNT's at this event would take place exactly ten years later at Monster Jam World Finals XVIII when Becky McDonough's El Toro Loco crashed in racing. However, since the World Finals format was changed three years before 2017, the team had enough time to fully repair El Toro Loco in order for it to compete in freestyle the next day.
  • This was the second and last World Finals where Hot Wheels failed to freestyle, due to mechanical damage from racing. The truck suffered a fire after round 2 which was repaired. But severed driveline damage during round 3 when the front driveshaft loop fell out in Thunder Alley and was unable to be repaired. Strangely, Frank Krmel's Hot Wheels that was used as a backup truck for practice and qualifying the night earlier, as well as the truck field photo was not reused as a replacement for freestyle. It is unknown why it never happened, considering the fact Frank Krmel drove Team Suzuki in freestyle.
    • The main truck had a similar issue in qualifying. Neil Elliot got on the brakes and the rear tires locked up. As it turned out, the driveshaft loop was installed backwards. They kept hammering the brakes and it was shearing off the driveshaft.
      • As a result, Hot Wheels became the first (and so far only) truck to miss freestyle in two consecutive World Finals, putting it behind Gunslinger for having missed the most freestyle competitions at the World Finals.
  • Bounty Hunter had an almost identical freestyle run to Avenger's freestyle run at World Finals 5 in 2004, despite involving completely different obstacles. The second hit was off the center jump and the transmission broke after the landing. The score was almost exactly the same, that being an 8, which is one-point short from Avenger's freestyle score in World Finals 5.
  • This and Monster Jam World Finals IX so far are the only World Finals that all three trucks from 2Xtreme Racing (Bounty Hunter, Scarlet Bandit, and Iron Outlaw) as competitors.
    • Ironically, all three trucks from said time all qualified in the top 8 which automatically seeded them into round 2.
  • Neither of the dice or slot machine contained balloons in this World Finals event.
  • Adam Anderson was intended to drive Grave Digger XX in the anniversary encore. However, due to the damage sustained in freestyle, it was unable to be reused.
  • Gary Porter was not in the Grave Digger anniversary encore due to being at a prior commitment.
  • The field of trucks was almost identical to the World Finals 7, except for three trucks that were absent (Blacksmith, Predator and Del Scorcho). Blacksmith was retired in favor of Captain's Curse, Predator was not invited as a competitor and Del Scorcho had been retired before the start of the season due to the end of the Del Taco promotion involved. The aforementioned Captain's Curse, Monster Mutt Dalmatian and Scarlet Bandit were the replacements. Technically, Captain's Curse and Monster Mutt Dalmatian were the only new trucks to the World Finals as Scarlet Bandit had previously competed at World Finals 6, though this was before the 24 truck lineup.
  • The double bus ramp seen at this event was later featured in the Monster Jam: Path of Destruction video game almost four years after the event took place.

Pit party (Non-competing trucks)[]

Monster Jam World Finals by Year
I (2000) • II (2001) • III (2002) • IV (2003) • V (2004) • VI (2005) • VII (2006) • VIII (2007) • IX (2008) • X (2009) • XI (2010) • XII (2011) • XIII (2012) • XIV (2013) • XV (2014) • XVI (2015) • XVII (2016) • XVIII (2017) • XIX (2018) • XX (2019) • XXI (2020/2022) • XXII (2023) • XXIII (2024)
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