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 twenty-truck lineup, four additional slots were added to the field, expanding the lineup to twenty-four 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 thirty-foot tall trailer, with a trailer behind placed on a flatbed. Behind that was a garbage truck jump 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 scheme for King Krunch, a new GMC Raptor body for Air Force Afterburner and an exclusive pearl white body for An Escalade used only for this event.
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 - 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
Destroyer - 18.16
Brutus - 18.50
King Krunch - 18.57
Taz - 18.61
Team Suzuki - 18.69
Air Force Afterburner - 18.75
Avenger - 19.10
Monster Mutt - 21.78
Predator - 23.22
Maximum Destruction - 25.69
Racing[]
Round 1[]
Brutus vs. Maximum Destruction
An Escalade vs. King Krunch
Superman vs. Air Force Afterburner
Del Scorcho defeating Team Suzuki in round 1.
El Toro Loco vs. Avenger
Batman vs. Monster Mutt
Del Scorcho vs. Team Suzuki
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle vs. Taz
Destroyer vs. Predator
Round 2[]
Grave Digger vs. Maximum Destruction
Blacksmith advancing to the semi-finals.
El Toro Loco defeating Avenger.
Safe Auto vs. An Escalade
Hot Wheels vs. 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
Quarter-finals[]
Hot Wheels' semi-final crash vs Grave Digger.
Grave Digger vs. Safe Auto
Hot Wheels vs. Pastrana 199
Iron Outlaw vs. Blacksmith
Taz vs. Bounty Hunter
Semi-finals[]
Championship race.
Grave Digger vs. Hot Wheels
Blacksmith vs. Bounty Hunter
Championship race[]
Grave Digger vs. Bounty Hunter
Freestyle order[]
Batman
Del Scorcho
Pastrana 199
Team Suzuki
Predator
Safe Auto
Taz
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle
Brutus
Iron Outlaw
Air Force Afterburner
Monster Mutt
Superman
King Krunch
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
Destroyer - 22
Batman - 21
Air Force Afterburner - 20
An Escalade - 20
Del Scorcho's debut freestyle.
Safe Auto - 18
Pearl white Escalade 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 - DNR
Grave Digger XIX at the encore.
Encore[]
This year's encore performance featured a second Grave Digger (XIX) driven by Charlie Pauken and a second Maximum Destruction driven by Neil Elliott. Both drivers would perform a tandem freestyle performance.
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 (Madusa) 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 feature Jason Childress as a competitor.
The only World Finals to not feature any trucks 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 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.
Air Force Afterburner ran the previous Chevrolet grille during qualifying, despite running the Escalade body at the actual event.
Both commentaries for the freestyle runs of Air Force Afterburner and Monster Mutt would be the same for the SPEED broadcast and the DVD release.
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.
This World Finals was unique in that all the scores put up by the trucks from fourteenth to twenty-third 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 after World Finals 4 where the two eventual champions (Grave Digger and Maximum Destruction) raced against each other.
Pastrana 199 was brought into the field to replace Madusa following Debra 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.
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