Holiday Events Wrap Up

With the Holiday Season finally coming to a head the Past Present Racing League has just finished off a one month spread of holiday festivities that being Fall Madness and Christmas Mayhem! When all was said and done top players for the fourth seasons championship chase came out on top of the field week after week yet again! With the third Modern Division Event in the record books lets recap what we saw at Fall Madness and Christmas Mayhem!

Rewind to one month ago. The place Fresno, California. The event Fall Madness. Five years of tradition came to a head inside Fresno Municipal Stadium when racer of the year Tim Smith took on his good friend and teammate in other leagues Jordan Robson for the racing crown. The 360 Round-About course was to much for Bigfoot when Tapout Caged and Robson cemented his name in the history books as a winner at Fall Madness! "It's another feather in my cap and another accomplishment in the record books for me" exclaimed a jubilant Robson in victory lane. "This is the big one everyone wanted to win and I'm proud to say that my truck had the power and maneuverability to win Fall Madness!"

Freestyle at Fall Madness featured trouble for many with scores being low and rollovers abound. Two drivers came from the depths of despair to tie for the lead however. Sean Kozak whose always been a solid Freestyler put on the run of his career in Can-Am Extreme taking his truck to the limit with the ultimate in saves including one roll over save! However not to be outdone and avenging his racing loss Timothy Smith piloted Bigfoot at a frantic pace with big moves to tie! We needed a freestyle-off to determine a winner. When Can-Am rolled over early it left the door wide open for Timmy as he took the freestyle crown at Fall Madness! "A win's a win and I'm happy to have done it at the grandest stage of them all today Fall Madness" said Tim Smith.

One holiday event down and one to go fast forward to December 19th and I-95 Speedway for Christmas Mayhem 3! The third installment of Monster Trucks only version of snow racing saw the biggest snowfall of the season land ontop of PPRL Drivers and Teams right as event time was set to begin! A blizzard was upon Bangor and the action on the track was as frantic as the weather. Austin Grams in Adrenalizer goes 2-1 on the season after he dominated racing in his Dodge. Grams who was nearly ten seconds faster then the field for most of the night put down Half Breed and Josh Rhodes who was his only legitimate competition all night. "To pull this off is pretty sweet. We're going to need to cherish this one as its probably the hardest surface to race on all season" said Grams in victory lane. His win vaulted him back into title contention when Timmy Smith, Dave Collard and Mark Iron all had early round losses on the tricky head-to-head St. Louis Style course.

Freestyle was much the same to Fall Madness except this time we had two surprises vying for gold. Curtis Wagner driving Wrecker is definitely a fan of the first "P" in PPRL as he's one of the longest racers in MTM2 today came to I-95 Speedway just looking to have fun and he had more then that when he tied for the lead with a incredible nose slide pirouette off the bus stack. Mark Iron whose been the pleasant surprise on the season was highly disappointed in his racing effort and vowed to go all the way in freestyle. He did just that filling the clock with a solid performance for the first 90 seconds but then he got crazy. Mark put the big Corvette through some intense maneuvers when he sideways hit the bus stack bicycling on two tires right as time expires. Mark then proceeded to do his own pirouette on the bus stack for the fans. Again a 24 tie and a freestyle-off was required.

A coin toss saw Mark go out first and the XFA driver put on a 60 second clinic picking up where his last run left off. For 60 seconds in a blizzard condition Mark rode Iron Man more on two wheels then four and managed to get a high score. Wagner's no stranger to pressure cooker situations and his Wrecker machine started off big but the snow bit the real life tow truck driver pitching him over. Mark Iron took down a impressive freestyle win and solidifies himself as one of the new top contenders on the PPRL tour with a win in two different divisions! "I'm in physical shock right now" exclaimed Mark. "I'm going to need a new set of lungs, a stomach and a heart after that run. I told myself to not get psyched out and I managed to follow that lead with a really incredible performance. Probably my best ever. This one will live on for a long time!"

So what did we learn from these Holiday events? We learned a few things. One Austin Grams and Mark Iron are big players in the championship chase for PPRL. Austin is a dominant Modern racer and Mark is settling into the jack of all trades role. Two Timmy Smith can be beat after having a bad night at I-95 when he flipped in racing and freestyle taking a big point loss. Three Dave Collard continues to fade away with his performances over the past month. What started out as a possible championship bid looks to be souring unless he can turn it around in the new year! We've learned that new-comers to the game can race and compete with the veterans of the past on some of the toughest tracks in the world. Finally we've learned that the excitement and prestige of the PPRL still lives on in the hearts of many as attendance at holiday events has grown from years past!

With that we've concluded the 2009 portion of the Past Present Racing League's season. We've crossed the One-Third distance marker and things are still wide open. What will 2010 bring? Who will be champion? January 2nd we'll find out as the Classic Monster Trucks decend upon St.Paul, Minnesota for a drag racing extravaganza! Have a Safe and Happy Holiday Season and a spectacular New Year!