Torgeson Motorsports Rolling Thunder Monster Truck Challenge

Dekalb 2004

The monsters rolled into Dekalb for the second straight year to the fairly new NIU Convocation Center.  A very nice building indeed but the quality of the show was sub par from the start. Jason Twite from Midwest Monsters was tagging along with my dad and I for the half an hour or so trip to Dekalb. First off I have to say thanks to Kevin Selover who provided us with access to the pit party and tickets. As you may know last years event was very good and the audience was looking for a repeat performance, that wasn't going to happen just by looking at the lineup. They didn't bring in dirt or even new cars. The sad thing was there were more people then last year. Another note, they had shows Friday and Saturday at 8 P.M. each night, on Saturday afternoon, they had a basketball game and had to lift everything out of the building, crazy. During the pit party I was just standing around looking at the jumbotron and right there in front of me was Jason Twite's pictures from last year promoting the event. Enough talk, let's go racing!

Freestyle Round 1

American Thunder-- The freestyle portion of the show would break down like this, the trucks would face each other and then the two winners would come back out. Miller came right out in the short wheelbase truck and hit the cars and got a pretty decent wheel stand. About 4 more hits on the cars and then some donuts, reverse donuts that is. The crowd got a bit excited but not much. Good solid run for Robert Miller  in American Thunder.

Rattlesnake 3:16-- From the go this truck looked like it could put on a pretty good wheel stand, and it did some good wheel stands. I'm not for sure about the drivers name, but he stood it straight up a couple of times, a pretty good run and it would be interesting to see what the crowd thought of it.  Winner: American Thunder

American Dream-- Dave Turpen would not be driving this weekend instead it would be teammate Jeremy Ward from the Pony Express machine driving. We all know the American Dream isn't much of a truck that can get air but we all know what it can do, Donuts! In the words of Homer Simpson, "Ummmm, Donuts" That's exactly what Jeremy did. The crowd was pretty enthusiastic after the donuts but I thought they were going to be into it more. You would think awesome donuts at a show of this caliber would get you into the freestyle finals? Would it?

Goldberg-- Another one of Calvin Carrington machines was ready to attack the track, both of the wrestle trucks could be out in the first round if he doesn't step it up. Unless there would have been a very, very good run he wasn't going to catch Ward. Very good air from underneath the truck on this run. All kinds of pretty good air but I don't think he should have got the win. Crowd wanted to see a wrestle truck in the finals and they got it, there missing out on some more great donuts. Winner: Goldberg (what a joke)

Freestyle Finals

American Thunder-- Robert Miller was out to get the Wrestle truck, and it seemed like his truck just wasn't running 100%. A couple of jumps and he was done. Goldberg has the finals pretty much rapped up.

Goldberg-- Goldberg looked like he had it all rapped up and he did, He hit the cars a couple of times and took the win in Dekalb. Winner: Goldberg

Racing

Racing was not very good, many people walked out in the middle. I'm not even going to give a run down of every race, no reason to. Goldberg defeated American Thunder. American Dream defeated 3:16. Goldberg beat American Dream for the win.

A very big drop off from last year's show. I really do think it can rebound for next year. As long as Chicago Outlaw is there. Overall a very non professional show but I can't complain because it was free. Thanks goes out to Kevin Selover for tickets and pit passes. Be sure to check out Jason Twite's Dekalb coverage at Midwest Monsters

Thanks for reading - Andrew Pellegrine