The 2012 Monster Jam regular season wrapped up this weekend with five arena shows around the country, bringing to a close TMB’s sixth edition of the “Road to the World Finals” unofficial standings. For the first time ever, a driver other than Dennis Anderson or Tom Meents has finished at #1, and that driver is none other than Ryan Anderson and Son Uva Digger!

Ryan Anderson’s incredible season featured 8 stadium event wins, 7 of those coming in freestyle competitions. Add to that an additional 12 racing and freestyle wins in arena shows, along with 5 wheelie contest victories and you have one of the best seasons by any driver in recent Monster Jam history. Many have been predicting Ryan to be the odds on favorite to win the World Freestyle Championship, and he would certainly be deserving of the title as his 7 stadium freestyle wins tower over his next closest competitors at only 4 wins. A big congratulations to Ryan Anderson from all of us here at TMB on such an incredible 2012 season.

While he wasn’t able to come out on top, Dennis Anderson finished at #2 overall by just over 20 points, the equivalence of only one stadium victory. While son Ryan may be the favorite for the freestyle title, there is no question that Dennis Anderson is the man to beat for the racing crown. With 5 stadium racing wins this year (his closest competitors were only able to win 3), and another 3 arena racing wins, Anderson has a great shot at celebrating Grave Digger’s 30th Anniversary with his 4th racing championship.

Anderson edged out Tom Meents by only 2 points for second, as the 9-time World Finals champ finished at #3 this year. Meents turned in another great season, picking up 7 stadium wins overall along with another 16 arena wins. While he may not have finished the year on top, Meents would be a worthy champion in either category and as always in Vegas, if you want to win a World Finals title, you’ll have to beat Tom Meents to do it.

The top 5 is rounded out by two Grave Digger drivers who perennially top the charts in total wins on the Monster Jam tour. Pablo Huffaker and Gary Porter were dominant once again in 2012, with Pablo racking up 67 wins across all competitions, to Gary’s 60. Pablo also mixed in some strong stadium performances to earn another invite to Vegas, while Porter’s accomplishments were once again overlooked as the best performing driver not to receive a World Finals invitation.

Skipping back to the all important cutoff at the 24th position, this is the line all drivers want to be above after the last week of competition on TMB’s “Road to the World Finals”. Being compared on the same scale as every other driver to compete in Monster Jam throughout the season, if you can finish in the top 24, you’ve proved you deserve consideration for a spot at the World Finals, whether you ultimately are lucky enough to get the call, or not.

The action was hot and heavy as it is every year, with drivers jockeying in and out of the top 24 each and every week. Less than 10 points separated 20th from 25th at the finish, with Jimmy Creten, Charles Benns, John Seasock, Morgan Kane and Bari Musawwir making the cut, and Chad Fortune just barely missing it. Cam McQueen, Jon Zimmer and Rod Schmidt all finished within 15 points of the cutoff as well. Of that group of drivers, only Creten, Seasock and McQueen received invites, while Kane and Musawwir were made part of the lineup for the new Young Guns Shootout instead.

Check out the Final 2012 Road to the World Finals unofficial rankings below:

For results from Normal Level events, check out the 2012 Results Tracker March 16th-17th Weekend Results page (drivers earn 5 points for a racing or freestyle win, 2 points for a wheelie or donut win).

We hope you’ve enjoyed following TMB’s “Road to the World Finals” for all the results and current standings every week this season. Keep in mind this is all unofficial and is just for fun, and enjoy the Monster Jam World Finals this weekend in Las Vegas!

About TMB’s Road to the World Finals:

For some time, fans across the country have wondered why the USHRA does not run a public points system of some kind for their Monster Jam series. We are included in the group that would love to be able to follow the standings of such a series each week. We are of the belief that a berth in the Monster Jam World Finals should be earned based on performance throughout the year in both racing and freestyle. Regardless of what portion of the monster truck industry you favor, there is no denying that the Monster Jam World Finals is the biggest and highest profile event our sport has to offer. A chance to compete at this event is a big deal for many drivers out there, and it is our opinion that they should be able to earn their way in. We’re not saying that Feld Motorsports doesn’t pick the World Finalists based on performance currently–we’re simply saying that we don’t know how they make up the field because the process isn’t made public.

So with that in mind, we have created an UNOFFICIAL points system that is simple (although it may seem complicated) and that rewards performance in all Monster Jam events across the country leading up to the World Finals. In our Standings, we will show the cut-off after the 24th truck, indicating that IF entry to the World Finals was based SOLELY on performance, these are the drivers that would be headed to Las Vegas. Keep in mind that this is just for fun and has no actual bearing on the selection of World Finals participants. See below for a breakdown of our points system and our rationale for the decisions we made in creating it.

Elite Level Events

What is an Elite Level event? We define an Elite Monster Jam event as any with a field of 12 of more trucks. We have chosen to award these events the highest amount of points, because these are the highest profile Monster Jam events. These events are the ones held in the major stadiums in front of the biggest crowds, some of which are even televised on SPEED. It is our belief that performance in the highest profile shows should be weighted most heavily toward a World Finals berth because these events are most similar to the World Finals itself. The most points any one driver can score in an Elite Level event (and thus in any event) is 40. If an event meeting all of this criteria holds 3 or more shows over the course of a single weekend, the points for each show are worth half of what is listed below.

Racing Finish – Points Awarded

1st – 20
2nd – 15
Semi-Finals – 7.5

Freestyle Finish – Points Awarded

1st – 20
2nd – 15
3rd – 10
4th – 5

Normal Level Events

What is a Normal Level show? The majority of Monster Jam events held around the country are Normal Level shows. These events are typically held in smaller arenas around the country, consisting of multiple shows held over the course of the weekend (anywhere from 2-5), with fields of anywhere from 5-10 trucks. Looking at the points awarded for these shows, you will notice they are much less than the upper levels. We equate the significance level of an entire 4 show weekend of Normal Level events with the significance of one Elite Level show–thus, the maximum points a driver can earn in racing/freestyle each weekend at a Normal Level event is 40 (this based on the usual maximum # of shows being 4–a couple events being the exception with 5–and an available 10 points per show (10×4=40)). Beginning in 2012, we are also awarding 2 points for wheelie/donut contest wins as that information has become more readily available than when the Road to the World Finals was first started.

Wheelie/Donut Finish – Points Awarded

1st – 2

Racing Finish – Points Awarded

1st – 5

Freestyle Finish – Points Awarded

1st – 5

(Photo courtesy Paul M. Harry)

Only one final weekend of competition remains before the Monster Jam World Finals and Ryan Anderson has all but locked up the #1 spot on the 2012 TMB “Road to the World Finals”! Anderson used a strong weekend in Reno to stay on top despite Dennis Anderson and Tom Meents racking up big points finishing 1-2 in both racing and freestyle in Syracuse. The elder Anderson’s second straight double down performance was enough to put Grave Digger over Maximum Destruction for 2nd place overall. With all three of these drivers taking the week before the World Finals off, the top three are essentially locked in.

Gary Porter and Neil Elliott combined to nearly sweep the weekend in Toledo to round out the top 5. Porter and Pablo Huffaker, in 6th position overall, are the only drivers currently ranked in the top 10 that are competing this upcoming weekend, so they will have one last chance to rack up some wins and improve their position.

While the final Monster Jam World Finals lineup was announced by Feld this week, the action is still incredibly hot and heavy back around the 24th and final spot on the TMB “Road to the World Finals” as drivers vie to see who will be able to say they earned a shot at the World Finals title, whether they ultimately ended up being selected or not.

Several of the drivers competing for that final spot had big weekends and while no drivers fell out or jumped in to the top 24, positions were exchanged leaving Chad Fortune on the hot seat and Bari Musawwir less than 5 points back in 25th. Musawwir, Cam McQueen, Rod Schmidt and Jon Zimmer are mathematically still in contention, while Chad Tingler, Charles Benns, John Seasock, Morgan Kane, and Fortune are just barely hanging on.

How will it all shake out? Only one weekend of competition remains on the TMB “Road to the World Finals”!

Check out the Road to the World Finals unofficial rankings after Week #10 below:

Here is how points were scored in this weekend’s Elite Level events:

3/10 – Syracuse, New York

Racing Finish – Driver – Truck – Points Earned

1st – Dennis Anderson – Grave Digger – 20
2nd – Tom Meents – Maximum Destruction – 15
Semi-Finals – Todd Leduc – Metal Mulisha – 7.5
Semi-Finals – Jon Zimmer – Amsoil Shock Therapy – 7.5

Freestyle Finish – Driver – Truck – Points Earned

1st – Dennis Anderson – Grave Digger – 20
2nd – Tom Meents – Maximum Destruction – 15
Tie 3rd – Todd Leduc – Metal Mulisha – 7.5
Tie 3rd – John Seasock – Grinder – 7.5

For results from Normal Level events, check out the 2012 Results Tracker March 9th-11th Weekend Results page (drivers earn 5 points for a racing or freestyle win, 2 points for a wheelie or donut win).

Keep following TMB’s “Road to the World Finals” for all the results and current standings each week. Keep in mind this is all unofficial and is just for fun, and enjoy as we track the Monster Jam series all the way to the World Finals in March!

About TMB’s Road to the World Finals:

For some time, fans across the country have wondered why the USHRA does not run a public points system of some kind for their Monster Jam series. We are included in the group that would love to be able to follow the standings of such a series each week. We are of the belief that a berth in the Monster Jam World Finals should be earned based on performance throughout the year in both racing and freestyle. Regardless of what portion of the monster truck industry you favor, there is no denying that the Monster Jam World Finals is the biggest and highest profile event our sport has to offer. A chance to compete at this event is a big deal for many drivers out there, and it is our opinion that they should be able to earn their way in. We’re not saying that Feld Motorsports doesn’t pick the World Finalists based on performance currently–we’re simply saying that we don’t know how they make up the field because the process isn’t made public.

So with that in mind, we have created an UNOFFICIAL points system that is simple (although it may seem complicated) and that rewards performance in all Monster Jam events across the country leading up to the World Finals. In our Standings, we will show the cut-off after the 24th truck, indicating that IF entry to the World Finals was based SOLELY on performance, these are the drivers that would be headed to Las Vegas. Keep in mind that this is just for fun and has no actual bearing on the selection of World Finals participants. See below for a breakdown of our points system and our rationale for the decisions we made in creating it.

Elite Level Events

What is an Elite Level event? We define an Elite Monster Jam event as any with a field of 12 of more trucks. We have chosen to award these events the highest amount of points, because these are the highest profile Monster Jam events. These events are the ones held in the major stadiums in front of the biggest crowds, some of which are even televised on SPEED. It is our belief that performance in the highest profile shows should be weighted most heavily toward a World Finals berth because these events are most similar to the World Finals itself. The most points any one driver can score in an Elite Level event (and thus in any event) is 40. If an event meeting all of this criteria holds 3 or more shows over the course of a single weekend, the points for each show are worth half of what is listed below.

Racing Finish – Points Awarded

1st – 20
2nd – 15
Semi-Finals – 7.5

Freestyle Finish – Points Awarded

1st – 20
2nd – 15
3rd – 10
4th – 5

Normal Level Events

What is a Normal Level show? The majority of Monster Jam events held around the country are Normal Level shows. These events are typically held in smaller arenas around the country, consisting of multiple shows held over the course of the weekend (anywhere from 2-5), with fields of anywhere from 5-10 trucks. Looking at the points awarded for these shows, you will notice they are much less than the upper levels. We equate the significance level of an entire 4 show weekend of Normal Level events with the significance of one Elite Level show–thus, the maximum points a driver can earn in racing/freestyle each weekend at a Normal Level event is 40 (this based on the usual maximum # of shows being 4–a couple events being the exception with 5–and an available 10 points per show (10×4=40)). Beginning in 2012, we are also awarding 2 points for wheelie/donut contest wins as that information has become more readily available than when the Road to the World Finals was first started.

Wheelie/Donut Finish – Points Awarded

1st – 2

Racing Finish – Points Awarded

1st – 5

Freestyle Finish – Points Awarded

1st – 5

(Photo courtesy Jim Allen)