Monster Jam World Finals V

Monster Jam World Finals V
Promotional logo.
Host	Clear Channel Entertainment - Motorsports
League	USHRA Monster Jam
Date	March 20th, 2004
City	Las Vegas, Nevada
Venue	Sam Boyd Stadium

The competitors posing for a picture. Notice the 2002-early 04 Hot Wheels design not used during the actual competition.

Monster Jam World Finals V (also written as Monster Jam World Finals 5) was the fifth annual Monster Jam World Finals, held on March 20th, 2004 at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada. This event utilized a sixteen-truck lineup and was broadcasted on the Speed Channel after the actual event. Dennis Anderson in Grave Digger won his first world racing championship against teammate Pablo Huffaker in Blacksmith. Meanwhile, this event would become most notable for being the only World Finals in history to feature a three-way tie in freestyle, with Madusa, Tom Meents and Lupe Soza all winning the world freestyle championship, each with a score of 31.

Lineup

(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* - Kathy Winston
2. Power Forward - Carl Van Horn

   

   

   Bounty Hunter clips Blue Thunder in qualifying.

3. Monster Mutt - Bobby Zee

   

   

   The track layout featured for World Finals V.

4. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle* - Paul Cohen*
5. King Krunch - David Smith*
6. Bulldozer*** - Guy Wood***
7. Hot Wheels - Neil Elliott*
8. El Toro Loco - Lupe Soza
9. Madusa - Debra 'Madusa' Miceli
10. Blacksmith - Pablo Huffaker
11. Blue Thunder - Tony Farrell
12. Bounty Hunter - Jimmy Creten

    

    Little Tiger spinning out in Thunder Alley during qualifying.

13. Maximum Destruction - Tom Meents
14. Grave Digger - Dennis Anderson
15. Little Tiger** - Brian Barthel***
16. Avenger - Jim Koehler

Track layout

The freestyle layout included a rock pile and bus stack on the left, a rail-car jump on the center, and a box van stack and 30 foot tall trailer on the right with a camper added towards the far end and the trailer/flatbed combo in the right lane.

Special paint schemes

(Note: * indicates a non-competing truck)

• Advance Auto Parts Metal Monster debuts*.
• Ameriquest Freedom debuts*.
• Avenger ran an orange body.
• Blacksmith debuted a new sparks body.
• Hot Wheels debuts a new orange body.
• King Krunch debuts a new cartoon body.
• Little Tiger ran a special hood which read "2003 World Finals Racing Champion".

Results

Qualifying times

1. Maximum Destruction - 16.12
2. Grave Digger - 16.91
3. Bounty Hunter - 16.94
4. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - 17.24
5. Power Forward - 17.38
6. Madusa - 17.81
7. El Toro Loco - 17.81
8. Monster Mutt - 17.98
9. Bulldozer - 18.09
10. King Krunch - 18.29
11. Little Tiger - 19.78
12. Blacksmith - 20.28
13. Blue Thunder - 21.78
14. Avenger - 35.76
15. Team Suzuki - dnf
16. Hot Wheels - dnq

Round one

Maximum Destruction vs. Hot Wheels

Monster Mutt vs. Bulldozer

Power Forward vs. Blacksmith

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles vs. Blue Thunder

Bounty Hunter vs. Avenger

Little Tiger vs. Madusa (wins, but crashes and cannot return)

King Krunch vs. El Toro Loco (crashes)

Grave Digger vs. Team Suzuki

Round two

Maximum Destruction vs. Monster Mutt

El Toro Loco's crash.

Blacksmith vs. Blue Thunder

Bounty Hunter vs. Little Tiger (blew a tire)

King Krunch vs. Grave Digger

Semi finals

Maximum Destruction vs. Blacksmith

Bounty Hunter vs. Grave Digger

Championship race

Blacksmith vs. Grave Digger

Freestyle order

1. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
2. King Krunch
3. Team Suzuki
4. Little Tiger
5. Hot Wheels
6. Bounty Hunter
7. Bulldozer
8. Monster Mutt
9. Power Forward
10. Blacksmith
11. Blue Thunder
12. El Toro Loco
13. Madusa
14. Maximum Destruction
15. Grave Digger
16. Avenger

Freestyle scores

1. El Toro Loco - 31
2. Madusa - 31
3. Maximum Destruction - 31
4. Bounty Hunter - 30
5. Grave Digger - 30
6. King Krunch - 27
7. Blacksmith - 26
8. Hot Wheels - 25
9. Little Tiger - 23
10. Bulldozer - 20
11. Monster Mutt - 19
12. Power Forward - 14
13. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - 11
14. Team Suzuki - 9
15. Blue Thunder - 9
16. Avenger - 9
    

    Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles going over the buses, notably not on the DVD or recording.

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

Encore

Two Grave Diggers during the encore.

Two Blue Thunders during the encore.

Three tandem freestyle performances were performed, one at a time. The first performance featured two Blue Thunder trucks, being driven by Tony Farrell and George Balhan. This was followed by two Maximum Destruction trucks, being driven by Tom Meents and Neil Elliott. The final performance featured two Grave Digger trucks, being driven by Charlie Pauken and Dennis Anderson.

• Blue Thunder (Advance Auto Parts Metal Monster): George Balhan
• Blue Thunder: Tony Farrell
• Maximum Destruction: Tom Meents
• Maximum Destruction (Ameriquest Freedom/Demolition Man): Neil Elliott
• Grave Digger XIV: Charlie Pauken
• Grave Digger XV: Dennis Anderson

Trivia

• This event marked the first of the following occurrences:
  • The first World Finals in which the defending freestyle champion would end up recording the lowest score, being Jim Koehler in Avenger.
    • To add to that, Koehler was also the first (and so far only) driver to have recorded the lowest score at a World Finals and then went on the win the title the next year. All of this happening prior to this year's World Finals.
  • The first World Finals in which none of the trucks scored higher than 31 in freestyle. This would also be the case at the following World Finals, where 2 trucks tied with a score of 31 instead of three. A tie-breaker would be used the following year (2005) & there would be only one winner, which was Bounty Hunter.
  • The first World Finals to be commentated by Ken Stout.
  • The first World Finals in which Avenger featured a special paint scheme for the occasion, which has become a tradition ever since. World Finals III and IV were the only World Finals events that saw the regular green '57 Chevrolet Bel Air body design for Avenger.
  • The first World Finals in which the racing times for each winner were publicly released.
• This event marked the only occurrences of the following:
  • The only World Finals to utilize "The Thirty-Second Rule", in which a truck could resume if they had rolled the truck within 30 seconds of its freestyle performance.
    • On a related note, Blue Thunder was one of the trucks that rolled over in the first 30 seconds, but could not continue due to a broken four-link bar at the very start of his run.
  • The only World Finals event in which both Bulldozer and El Toro Loco competed.
  • The only World Finals event in which Little Tiger competed.
  • The only World Finals event where all sixteen trucks in the field competed for both racing and freestyle.
• All but one of the races in this World Finals (due to El Toro Loco crashing) were won by the driver in the right hand lane.
  • Madusa won against Little Tiger, due to Brian Barthel hitting a turning pole and getting a five-second penalty. However, Madusa crashed after the race and was unable to return, meaning Little Tiger was reinstated.
• This was the first year where Pablo Huffaker's freestyle run would end because of the middle ramp. Pablo would then have an unlucky streak of going over because of the middle, most of them from the left side of the ramp, before World Finals 10, where the streak finally ended for him.

Brutus before the show began.

• Brutus did an exhibition run down the track before the show began, despite not being invited as a competitor.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles actually had two crashes in freestyle, even though only one was shown on the DVD. It was implied that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crashed in the first 30 seconds, but did not continue, but actually did continue and crashed again (Remember: this World Finals had the rule where a truck could resume, if possible, if they rolled in the first 30 seconds of freestyle).
  • Team Suzuki as well had part of its run cut from its DVD and TV appearances. The run cuts off after Suzuki drives to the end of the track, when in actuality, the truck made third run at the van stack before shutting down.
• This event was also the debut of the new "spark-themed" Blacksmith design. Pablo Huffaker, reportedly did not care for the new paint job.

  

  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles World Finals 5 Freestyle

  The unaired section of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' freestyle run.

• The third Blue Thunder (the one that lost its hood) in the encore was run on the Advance Auto Parts Metal Monster chassis, and the third Maximum Destruction (rear-engined) was run on the Ameriquest Freedom/Demolition Man chassis.

• Lupe Soza's freestyle run was originally scored a 27. However, due to overwhelming displeasure from the crowd, the judges adjusted their scores for Lupe and awarded him 31 points, giving him his freestyle championship. This would be the first and currently only known occurrence of a score change for a World Finals freestyle run, let alone any freestyle competition.
• Only Tom Meents in Maximum Destruction filled the entire 90 seconds of freestyle in World Finals V.
• This event's pit party marked the debut of Ameriquest Freedom.
• The second Maximum Destruction in the encore (the rear-engine Ameriquest Freedom chassis) ran one of the 2003 Maximum Destruction bodies, characterized by its lighter color scheme.
• This World Finals has so far had the most trucks left on the field for freestyle with 9 out of the 16 trucks being left on the field after their freestyle runs.
• The SPEED broadcast of this event is the only remaining known footage of Belgium 2004 and Nokia N-GAGE.
• During the 2004 winter season, Tom Meents ran a special Maximum Destruction body that featured electricity instead of flames. However, the body was not placed on the truck until before racing began, instead sporting the regular body that Neil Elliott's truck would use for the group photo and the pit party.
• The commentators were confused on why Avenger shut down. It may have appeared to be an RII issue, but it was soon reported that Avenger bent the back right axle after hitting his first jump, which the officials discovered.
• Similar to the previous year, Brian Barthel would freestyle with different wheels than the ones used on the truck for racing. At World Finals 3, he did his freestyle with Little Tiger's wheels on the back of Wolverine. At this event, he switched the white wheels with black ones for freestyle on Little Tiger.

Pit party (Non-competing trucks)

• Advance Auto Parts Metal Monster (On High Roller)
• Airborne Ranger
• Ameriquest Freedom (On Demolition Man)
• Blue Thunder (Balhan)
• Blue Thunder (Ride Truck)
• Brutus
• Bulldozer (Rob Knell)
• Demolition Man (Only behind scenes. Ran as Ameriquest Freedom for the pit party)
• Dragon Slayer
• Equalizer
• Grave Digger 14
• Hot Shot
• Hummer Time
• Inferno
• Kool Bus
• Live Wire
• 2nd Maximum Destruction
• 2nd Monster Mutt
• Muscle Machines
• Obsession
• Ragin Steel
• Scarlet Bandit
• Skelator
• War Wizard
• War Wizard (Ride Truck)

Demolition Man behind the scenes.

Equalizer doing a practice pass despite not being invited as a competitor.