Josh Rhodes and Ed Hoormann were both in attendance at the all new Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana for the opening night of the Monster Jam season, and it was a great start to the year. Morgan Kane in Stone Crusher was struggling all night with a steering issue, but that didn’t deter him from putting on a solid performance in the wheelie contest. Jocelyn Perrin and Lil’ Miss Dangerous began her 2012 with a nice wheelie, and Darren Migues stood his new CRD chassis Bounty Hunter up and down in intros and once again in the wheelie competition, earning a big cheer from the crowd. 2011 World Finals competitor Jon Zimmer walked Amsoil Shock Therapy over the cars with two fantastic efforts, but it was Charles Benns in Monster Mutt Rottweiler winning the wheelie contest with a solid wheelie that stopped the truck just short of the dasher boards.

Racing had a couple of great photo finishes, first in the semifinals between teammate trucks Iron Outlaw (Ben Winslow) and Bounty Hunter with Migues getting the best of Winslow. The finals came down to another close race between Monster Mutt Rottweiler and Migues with Bounty Hunter, and Migues would take the racing championship in Evansville.

Freestyle brought a bit of carnage and several solid runs. Scott Buetow rolled over on a donut in Iron Man after a few hits. Zimmer ran Amsoil Shock Therapy until a broken axle and being shut off stopped his run following some big air, cross threads, and a three-wheeled donut. Jocelyn Perrin had a great reverse wheelie, and Ben Winslow caught some nice air off the van stack. The freestyle winner on this night, however, would be  Darren Migues and Bounty Hunter, who kept great momentum and launched Bounty Hunter all over the place for the win. That brought Migues two wins out of the three competitions, but there is another night of competition tomorrow. Look or Ed and Josh’s photos to be online soon, and stay tuned to monsterjam.com for more upates from tomorrow’s show! Thanks go out to the Stone Crusher team and Susie Sullivan for their great hospitality.

Be sure to check out the full Amsoil Shock Therapy writeup at the Sudden Impact Racing site as well.