Driving in relief for his famous father, who was nursing a shoulder injury, 23-year-old Adam Anderson won the Freestyle title with a smoke-filled performance at Atlanta’s Monster Jam. Essentially, the freestyle portion of the event is a stunt-driving exhibition in which a monster
truck is just as likely to end up on its lid as make it back to the pits. There seems to be a distinct pecking order in the proceedings, too, as the first to go are the field-filling trucks that are less likely to attempt body- and wallet-bashing tricks and seem prohibited from even using all the obstacles on the field in their routines. As the competition wears on, more and more cars are crushed and suspensions broken until finally the superstar entries of “Grave Digger” and “Maximum Destruction,” with 2006 Freestyle champ Tom Meents at the wheel, make their final appearances. A three-person panel of audience members grades each truck’s performance on a 1-10 scale, which left Anderson and Meents tied at 29 at the Atlanta event, but Anderson got the well-deserved nod based on crowd response. And a good time was had by all!
After just one round of qualifying, Tony Farrell and his ’07 Ford F-250 took the number-one spot and “Blue Thunder” eventually made it as far as the semi finals.
