Day Two at the Birmingham Monster Jam

(Photo By: Brian Rogers)

The BJCC Arena in Birmingham was already overstuffed with the stars of Monster Jam and still had two more events on tap after a stellar start to the weekend on Friday.

Following the action on Friday night (recap here), the teams got prepared for another two shows on Saturday. The day started off with the pit party, where fans go to check out the awesome Grave Digger 30th Anniversary setup as well as meet and greet with  all the drivers. Neil Elliott continued to shine in the all new Maximum Destruction, picking up his second straight wheelie competition victory, beating out several strong efforts throughout the field. Drive-line problems would sideline Dennis Anderson and Grave Digger for racing but they would return for freestyle. Racing saw a final round match up of racing aces between Lee O’Donnell in Ironman, and Scott Hartsock in the Gun Slinger, with O’Donnell taking the win. Freestyle was hotly contested with the top three finishers separated by one point. Rod Schmidt sporting a Grave Digger The Legend body put up a 24, and Elliott soared Maximum Destruction to a 25. Crew chief Dustin Brown and company were able to get the Grave Digger repaired and ready for freestyle and Dennis Anderson made up for missing the racing portion of the event. In typical Digger fashion, Anderson drove the truck into the ground, ripping off the right rear wheel before rolling over. Anderson would tie Elliott, but the bonus judge awarded the victory.

After the carnage from the first show of the day, Grave Digger was once again repaired and ready to roll for the 7pm start time. George Balhan and the Mohawk Warrior was able to snap Neil Elliott’s sweep of the wheelie competition, putting up a 29 and getting the win. After going winless in racing the prior two events, Dennis Anderson rectified the situation by putting the Grave Digger into the winners’ circle, defeating Damon Bradshaw and Monster Energy. Following the racing win, Anderson went for the weekend sweep of freestyle, going all out during his run. Anderson closed out his performance with a bang, pirhouetting the truck onto it’s nose and back onto all fours following a bad bounce. His efforts would be good enough for the sweep, scoring a 27 and the victory.

Special thanks to Brian Rogers for his great work this weekend. Check out the teasers below, and don’t forget to check back soon for full galleries from the entire weekend.