The Insider: TMB Leaderboard – January 2011

The first edition of the TMB Leaderboard for 2011 is out following the completion of the first month of the new year. Based on all of the information gathered through the Results Tracker, we are able to statistically see who some of the top performing drivers have been in 2011. A total of 174 drivers have competed in monster truck events in the month of January with an incredible 102 different drivers scoring a competition win. See below for the top 5 drivers in each category:

Total Wheelie/Donut/Long Jump Wins

1)  Carl Van Horn – Grave Digger – 14
2)  Gary Porter – Grave Digger – 11
3)  Adam Anderson – Grave Digger The Legend – 9
—-Eric Tack – Bigfoot Bad Boy #14 – 9
—-Mac Plecker – Ballistic – 9

Total Racing Wins

1)  Gary Porter – Grave Digger – 10
2)  Carl Van Horn – Grave Digger – 8
—-Rodney Tweedy – Bigfoot #10 – 8
4)  Rick Long – E3 Spark Plugs Bigfoot #15 – 7
—-Derrick Anson – Heavy Hitter – 7

Racing Win Percentage

1)  Gary Porter – Grave Digger – 91%
2)  Carl Van Horn – Grave Digger – 80%
3)  Rick Long – E3 Spark Plugs Bigfoot #15 – 78%
4)  Rodney Tweedy – Bigfoot #10 – 73%
5)  Donald Epidendio – Titan – 67%
—-Marc MacDonald – El Toro Loco – 67%

Total Freestyle Wins

1)  Carl Van Horn – Grave Digger – 9
—-Mac Plecker – Ballistic – 9
3)  Adam Anderson – Grave Digger The Legend – 8
—-Jimmy Creten – Bounty Hunter – 8
—-Bill Payne – Rock Star – 8
—-Gary Porter – Grave Digger – 8

Freestyle Win Percentage

1)  Rob French – Twisted Dragon – 100%
2)  Carl Van Horn – Grave Digger – 90%
3)  Larry Quick – Ghost Ryder – 83%
4)  Adam Anderson – Grave Digger The Legend – 80%
—-Chad Tingler – Grave Digger – 80%

Combined Racing/Freestyle Wins

1)  Gary Porter – Grave Digger – 18
2)  Carl Van Horn – Grave Digger – 17
3)  Jimmy Creten – Bounty Hunter – 13
4)  Adam Anderson – Grave Digger The Legend – 12
—-Mac Plecker – Ballistic – 12
—-Rodney Tweedy – Bigfoot #10 – 12

Combined Racing/Freestyle Win Percentage

1)  Carl Van Horn – Grave Digger – 85%
2)  Rob French – Twisted Dragon – 83%
3)  Gary Porter – Grave Digger – 82%
4)  Eric Tack – Bigfoot Bad Boy #14 – 69%
5)  Rick Long – E3 Spark Plugs Bigfoot #15 – 61%

Several driver names pop up continuously on the above list, including Gary Porter who is once again dominating the Freestyle Mania tour for Monster Jam. Carl Van Horn and Adam Anderson have been nearly unstoppable in their respective events so far this year as well. The only non-Feld driver running Monster Jam full time to appear on this list is none other than Jimmy Creten in his amazing new Bounty Hunter machine, as he has been dominating in freestyle so far in 2011.

Branching out to the rest of the industry, Bigfoot drivers Rodney Tweedy, Rick Long and Eric Tack also appear several times on the above list. Tweedy and Long have been on fire in racing as Tweedy has spent time on the Monster X Tour and the AMP Tour while Long is defending his Monster Nationals Racing Championship. Tack has simply decimated the competition on the CFP tour but will now step out of the seat as 2-time champion Larry Swim returns to begin February.

Mac Plecker with Ballistic has once again had an incredible start to the season on the TBO tour but rookie driver Derrick Anson in Heavy Hitter has given him a run for his money and made the list with an impressive 7 racing victories. Rob French is the only driver running a full schedule to be unbeaten in freestyle as he has won all 7 events in which he and the Twisted Dragon have competed, running primarily for Outlaw Monster Trucks and the Road 2 Destruction Tour.

Championship Updates

Monster Nation – The championship battle for 2011 is wide open as the tour only has Beaumont, Texas left in the middle of this month. Devin Jones in Barbarian and Doug Noelke in Tail Gator have the most wins but with Barbarian not attending the finale Beaumont, Noelke would seem to have a slightest of edges over Mike Hawkins, Isaiah Morales and JR McNeal. Essentially it will come down to whichever driver has the best overall performance in the three show Beaumont weekend as they enter neck and neck.

Monster Nationals -2011 is all Rick Long versus Bobby Holman for both Monster Nationals titles. Long has taken a nearly insurmountable lead in the racing category with 6 wins to Bobby’s 1 so far. Freestyle however will be a tight battle as Holman has taken 4 wins in the Lucas Oil Stabilizer to 3 wins for Long and Bigfoot.

Checkered Flag Productions – Have yet to see any point standings posted out of the CFP camp, but that doesn’t much matter as Eric Tack has won nearly every competition he has run in Bigfoot Bad Boy #14. With points going to the truck rather than the driver this year, it’s all but a certainty that Eric Tack/Larry Swim will combine to give Bigfoot Bad Boy the best point total by a massive margin going into the finals in Pocatello.

AMP Tour – In the past couple years, AMP has awarded championships for both racing and freestyle. We have yet to hear their plans for this year, but if they do so once again, there will be quite the battle for those titles as the Monster Truck Thunder Drags has been very competitive this year. In racing, Rodney Tweedy in Bigfoot #10, Travis Sturges in Unnamed & Untamed and rookie driver Travis Petri in Toxic each have 2 wins a piece to lead that category. In freestyle, Larry Quick and Ghost Ryder and rookie driver Darron Schnell in Bigfoot #10 are tied with 3 wins each.

Rookie of the Year Update

After no surprise that Ryan Anderson ran away with Rookie of the Year honors in 2010, this season is different in that it is completely wide open. Monster Jam has many candidates for Rookie of the Year including:  off-road champion Todd Leduc, former rockcrawler Nicole Johnson, and long time crew chief Becky McDonough, along with Bari Mussawir, Joey Parnell and Scott Buetow. In addition to the new Monster Jam drivers, established teams are bringing new blood into the spot including: Darron Schnell with Bigfoot, Jaff Hatten with Team Beast, Morgan Kane for Steve Sims and Jimmy Tracey for Mike Vaters. Several new independent owner/drivers are in the race as well, including: Travis Petri in Toxic, JR McNeal in Razin Kane, Jeff Murphy in Fatal Attraction and Derrick Anson in Heavy Hitter. Take a look at some of each drivers’ accomplishments thus far in 2011:

– Todd Leduc, Blue Thunder – first ever major stadium racing win in Phoenix, Arizona this past weekend.
– Nicole Johnson, Tasmanian Devil – three arena racing victories
– Darron Schnell, Firestone Bigfoot #11 – three wheelie wins, 1 racing win and 3 freestyle wins along with being a candidate for save of the year after an incredible save in Fayetteville
– Derrick Anson, Heavy Hitter – seven racing victories on the TBO Tour
– Becky McDonough, Dragon’s Breath; Travis Petri, Toxic; Jimmy Tracey, Black Stallion; Morgan Kane, Mopar Magic; and JR McNeal, Razin Kane – each of these drivers have also found victory lane in at least one racing/freestyle competiton.

The new season is very young but the early leaders have to be Leduc, Schnell, Johnson and Anson as they are finding victory lane with regularity in just the first month of their first full season in monster trucks.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this look around the monster truck industry with January completed, stay tuned to the TMB Results Tracker to see what drivers are putting wins on the board each week. Watch for an updated TMB Leaderboard article following the completion of each month as we bring recognition to outstanding performance all throughout 2011!

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