Report from the World Finals in Vegas

AllMonster has received the first report from Las Vegas, with updated information on qualifying and much more! Jimmy Creten and Bounty Hunter was the fast qualifier as the only truck to break the 16-second barrier Friday night, while many drivers suffered mechanical troubles or errors in their official qualifying runs after stellar practice runs. Tom Meents in Maximum Destruction fell to the bottom of the bracket after getting on two wheels in the final turn, and teammate Phil Foster had drive train problems that only allowed him to drive the broken truck to register a time instead of going all out. The team was up until about 2:30 this morning making repairs, among them changing planetaries in Maximum Destruction. Jim Koehler rolled after tapping the breaks on his landing to avoid a date with the rock pile, and Team Avenger/Brutus pulled an all-nighter, making repairs until 5:00 this morning. The pit party is now underway, and the drivers’ meeting had some interesting events. The left lane will be moved up five feet to combat the advantage of trucks usually winning in the right lane, although the lanes seemed even in qualifying yesterday. It was a near unanimous vote by the drivers to do such a thing. In freestyle, if a truck is stopped on top of an obstacle, the track crew will be given three minutes to remove it, and if it cannot be removed, it becomes “fair game” as was the case last year. The weather is cold, windy, and a slight possibility of rain today, making for an interesting day of excitement as we near the big show. We wish all the trucks and drivers in Vegas good luck, and hope to have reports and photos by later tonight or earlier tomorrow!