Morgan Kane and Grave Digger scooped overall honours for the third time this season as Monster Jam made its return to Cardiff.While there may have been the royal wedding taking place a few miles away from the capital of England, 40,000 people headed to the Principality Stadium in the Welsh capital to see 10 monster trucks do battle on the site of some of the country’s biggest sporting triumphs.
The opening Racing competition was won by Peter Nyman in Earth shaker, beating Neil Elliott and Max-D to claim his first racing competition win.
Max-D earned redemption in the two-wheel skills challenge, performing a pair of nose wheelies to score 9.405 in the crowd vote, beating Dragon by almost a full mark– a win that was attributed to a new shifter fitted to the truck prior to the event. It was Elliott and Max-D’s eighth Two Wheel Skills win this season.
In the Freestyle category, competition was much closer with three different trucks scoring more than nine.
Second to run, Earth Shaker laid down the gauntlet with an impressive run scoring 9.235. Nyman rolled the truck towards the end of his run, but recovered in fine form, although not much was left of the truck by the end of the two minutes.
El Toro Loco driven by Marc McDonald was the second highest scorer of the Freestyle competition, and successfully landed the first backflip and completed the first donut of the event.
Running last Grave Digger bettered the run of the bull, impressing with a series of drifts, wheelies, and jumps. Former Max-D driver Kane also successfully landed a backflip during the show-ending run.
Kane’s run in Grave Digger was enough to win the final competition of the day – the 10 point awarded putting them at the top of the event standings with 24 points following a fifth place finish in the racing competition and third in the Two Wheel Skills Challenge. Grave Digger and Dragon tied for top spot, but Grave Digger took the win by virtue of its winning Freestyle run – Kane’s fifth overall.
“That was tough but for you fans in Cardiff, we know what we have to do every time we come here because you expect the best,” said Kane following his victory. “We’ve got to run as hard as we can.”
“The best thing we can hope for is team chemistry,” he added, paying tribute to his crew chief. “Every time I’m with him he gives me a 100 percent truck, it’s magnificent.”
“Every time I jump I have no problem at all worrying about the shocks and I know that’s the best thing about me driving is I can drive as hard as I can because I’ve got this guy wrenching on my truck.”
Two Wheel Skills Challenge winner Max-D finished the event in third place, ahead of Racing winner Earth Shaker and El Toro Loco.
Monster Jam returns to Cardiff on May 18 2019.
For a full gallery of images from Monster Jam Cardiff 2018, click here
Image: Dominik Wilde
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