Monster Jam World Finals VII (also written as Monster Jam World Finals 7) was the seventh annual Monster Jam World Finals, held on March 25th, 2006 at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada. Contrary to the previous World Finals, which featured a 20-truck lineup, 4 additional slots were added to the field, expanding the lineup to 24 trucks. Meanwhile, the event would be broadcasted on the Speed Channel sometime after the event was held. Dennis Anderson in Grave Digger earned his second world racing championship, defeating the defending freestyle champion Jimmy Creten in Bounty Hunter. Meanwhile, Tom Meents in Maximum Destruction earned his seventh world championship by winning freestyle after successfully jumping over a second Maximum Destruction (which was parked on one of the obstacles) before delivering an amazing freestyle performance with a score of 37.
The track for that year's World Finals featured two buses parked lengthwise as the center jump. The left side featured a fountain (Also dubbed the "volcano" by announcers Scott Douglas and Ken Stout) and a bus stack. Meanwhile, the right side of the track featured a 30 ft. tall trailer, with a trailer behind placed on a flatbed. Behind that was a jump consisting of cars surrounding a garbage truck with a crushed cab.
Special paint schemes[]
For the third year straight, Avenger featured a special paint scheme for the World Finals. This year, the truck would feature a chrome paint scheme. Meanwhile, other special paint schemes included an updated knight design for King Krunch, a new GMC Raptor body for U.S. Air Force Afterburner and an exclusive pearl white body for An Escalade used only for this event.
Results[]
Qualifying times[]
Grave Digger - 16.19
Bounty Hunter - 16.46
Iron Outlaw - 16.72
Pastrana 199 - 16.85
Hot Wheels - 16.88
Blacksmith - 16.93
Blue Thunder - 17.18
Safe Auto Minimizer - 17.19
An Escalade - 17.41
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle - 17.50
Del Scorcho - 17.53
Superman - 17.75
El Toro Loco - 17.96
Batman - 18.07
The Destroyer - 18.16
Brutus - 18.50
King Krunch - 18.57
Taz - 18.61
Team Suzuki - 18.69
U.S. Air Force Afterburner - 18.75
Avenger - 19.10
Monster Mutt - 21.78
Predator - 23.22
Maximum Destruction - 25.69
Racing[]
Round 1[]
Del Scorcho defeating Team Suzuki in round 1.
Brutus vs. Maximum Destruction
An Escalade vs. King Krunch
Superman vs. U.S. Air Force Afterburner
El Toro Loco vs. Avenger
Batman vs. Monster Mutt
Del Scorcho vs. Team Suzuki
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle vs. Taz
The Destroyer vs. Predator
Round 2[]
Blacksmith advancing to the semi-finals.
El Toro Loco defeating Avenger.
Grave Digger vs. Maximum Destruction
Safe Auto Minimizer vs. An Escalade
Hot Wheels vs. U.S. Air Force Afterburner
Pastrana 199 vs. El Toro Loco
Iron Outlaw vs. Monster Mutt
Blacksmith vs. Del Scorcho
Blue Thunder vs. Taz
Bounty Hunter vs. Predator
Round 3[]
Hot Wheels' semi-final crash vs Grave Digger.
Grave Digger vs. Safe Auto Minimizer
Hot Wheels vs. Pastrana 199
Iron Outlaw vs. Blacksmith
Taz vs. Bounty Hunter
Semi-finals[]
Championship race.
Grave Digger vs. Hot Wheels (crashes)
Blacksmith vs. Bounty Hunter
Championship race[]
Grave Digger vs. Bounty Hunter
Freestyle order[]
Batman
Del Scorcho
Pastrana 199
Team Suzuki
Predator
Safe Auto Minimizer
Taz
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle
Brutus
Iron Outlaw
U.S. Air Force Afterburner
Monster Mutt
Superman
King Krunch
The Destroyer
Avenger
Blacksmith
An Escalade
Blue Thunder
El Toro Loco
Grave Digger
Maximum Destruction
Bounty Hunter
Freestyle[]
Tom Meents jumping over his own truck on volcano.
Maximum Destruction - 37
Grave Digger - 33
Monster Mutt - 32
Del Scorcho - 29
King Krunch - 26
Blue Thunder - 24
Superman - 23
Grave Digger freestyle.
Taz - 22
Pastrana 199 freestyle.
Avenger's leap over the volcano.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle - 22
The Destroyer - 22
Batman - 21
U.S. Air Force Afterburner - 20
An Escalade - 20
Del Scorcho's debut freestyle.
Safe Auto Minimizer - 18
An Escalade (white) freestyle.
Predator - 17
Pastrana 199 - 16
Avenger - 16
Team Suzuki - 15
Iron Outlaw - 14
Blacksmith - 13
Bounty Hunter - 12
El Toro Loco - 11
Brutus - 10
Hot Wheels - DNC
Grave Digger 19 at the encore.
Encore[]
The encore performance featured Charlie Pauken in Grave Digger 19 and Neil Elliott in Maximum Destruction, perform a tandem freestyle.
Awards[]
Driver of the Year (racing): Dennis Anderson, Grave Digger
Driver of the Year (freestyle): Tom Meents, Maximum Destruction
This event marked the first of the following occurrences:
The first World Finals in which Hot Wheels consecutively did not compete in freestyle (despite having a new paint job featured), which was due to the truck breaking a CV joint when it crashed in racing that was unable to be repaired in time for freestyle.
The first World Finals in which only one truck would receive a score greater than 35 for freestyle. Other performances beforehand either had multiple or none scoring above that mark.
The first World Finals to not have a defending champion (Debra "Madusa" Miceli) return to compete.
The first World Finals to have a Canadian monster truck driver (Linsey Weenk) in the field.
The first World Finals where the starting lines of the racing track would be surrounded by a metal hanger.
The first World Finals where the same truck breaks off a wheel 2 years in a row, ironically enough, Pastrana 199 broke a wheel off 2 years in a row since World Finals 6 under Paul Cohen. He was the only truck to break a wheel off at that event.
This event marked the only occurrences of the following:
The only World Finals to not feature any trucks that hit the inflatable dice obstacles, as they were obstructed by concrete walls.
The only World Finals to not feature the inflatable slot machine obstacles between 2005 and 2009.
This event marked the last of the following occurrences:
The last World Finals to be hosted by Live Nation.
The last World Finals to feature an American flag-themed seat protection tarp.
The last World Finals to feature drivers in the commentary booth.
Air Force Afterburner with the Chevrolet grille during qualifying.
U.S. Air Force Afterburner ran the previous Chevrolet hood during qualifying, despite running the Escalade body at the actual event.
This particular World Finals was plagued by strong winds. The wind was so strong on Saturday that the fireworks were cancelled, the dice had to be put behind concrete barriers and the pit party FMX riders had to cancel performances. This would explain why all body parts of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle and Monster Mutt flew off during freestyle.
Bounty Hunter would make the final round of racing for the third time, only to come up short again.
This World Finals was unique in that all the freestyle scores put up by the trucks from 14th-23rd place would gradually go down by one point, starting from 18 and going all the way down to 10, although two trucks would score a 16.
This was the second World Finals event where the two eventual champions (Grave Digger and Maximum Destruction) faced against each other in racing.
Pastrana 199 was brought into the field to replace Madusa following Debra "Madusa" Miceli's leave from Monster Jam a few weeks before the event. Pastrana 199 ran on Madusa's chassis and utilized the leftover Dodge Ram body from 2005.
This was the first World Finals in which a truck did not become stuck in the semi-trailer obstacle during freestyle.
Dennis Anderson and Tom Meents became co-champions for a second time following World Finals I in 2000, though this time they won the opposite title (Dennis won freestyle in 2000 and racing here while Tom won racing in 2000 and freestyle here).
They were also co-champions for the second time in World Finals 5 in 2004, alongside Debra "Madusa" Miceli and Lupe Soza, thus winning the opposite title for the first time in the said World Finals and the third in total.
Jan Van den Bossche, the host for the Belgian episodes of Monster Jam aired on the JIM channel, was present for this event. He conducted interviews with various drivers before the event and would film some segments during the racing competition.
This World Finals marked the longest instance of a truck being left out on the track after its freestyle run. Batman would come out first and break the front tierod, leaving it unable to be steered back to the pits. The truck was subsequently left in the corner of the stadium for the entire freestyle competition.
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