(Coverage By Christopher Allen, Photos By Jim Allen)
Weekend Recap
This time on “The Allen Report”, we go up north to the Cowlitz County Fairgrounds in Longview, Washington to watch six monster trucks do battle in three rounds of freestyle. Promoter and Monster Truck Hall of Famer Mike Welch and his “Freaks of Freestyle” tour brought in Monroe, Washington’s Seth Fisher driving Tow Monster. Also there was veteran Jeff Bainter behind the wheel of Captain USA. Selma, California’s Randy Hoegh had the keys to the brand new, old school built, farming inspired identity Raging Raisin appearing for the very first time. Roger Stidell was in the house with Destroyer. Rounding out the battleground were Tyler Groth in Double Trouble and twin brother Travis Groth piloting Survivor.
The real heroes of the weekend were the “Freaks of Freestyle” track crew. Rain over the past day and a half threatened to make the venue a rodeo arena sized mud pit. But the crew smoothed out the track surface, making both mudslinging cyclones and good traction for sky high jumps equally possible. With two dirt-ramp-to-row-of-tires obstacles to hit and no shortage of room go into the spin, all signs pointed to hot and heavy, fast paced freestyle action.
As usual, the most popular competition in monster trucks today was a heated affair. Seth Fisher managed a few good hits on the tire-row obstacles and some fine donuts even with a broken steering pump. Roger Stidell had the crowd cheering with super-fast cyclones and great jumps in Destroyer before a broken transmission ended his day. Jeff Bainter showed no signs of slowing down with high speed and a jump onto the center landing ramp that brought the crowd to its feet. In the third and final round, Captain USA threw down with superb cyclones, lots of speed and big air. But the crowd cheered loudest of all for the show-ending pair freestyle starring Double Trouble and Survivor. Starting as a game of Follow the Leader, the two gradually went their own ways to entertain the huge crowd. Travis succeeded in bringing Survivor into dizzying donuts while Tyler jumped higher and higher over the tire rows every hit. The crowd went wild, clearly choosing the twins as the co-winners.
Also on the card was a mixture of classic and current filler acts as mud bog drag racing had the crowd making noise as did the burnout contest. We at “The Allen Report” sincerely urge fairground owners to contact Mike Welch to bring this great quality show to their venue. Next on the calendar for us at “The Allen Report” is monster truck figure-8 racing at the Rocky Mountain Raceways in West Valley City, Utah. Until that day, thank you for reading, a heartfelt thanks to all the Freaks of Freestyle staff for their hospitality, please don’t forget to “Like” the Freaks of Freestyle tour on Facebook, enjoy the photos and cheer on!
