Monster trucks made their long awaited return to Yorkton this past weekend as Performance Promotions brought back the Outlaws of Motorsports to the Yorkton Exhibition grounds on Friday, July 18 and Saturday, July 19 for two days of carnage and mayhem.
Day One
On Day One five monster trucks, each pushing around 1500 horsepower, took part in three competitions: Wheelie, Racing and Freestyle.
First up the crowd was treated to the Wheelie competition. All five trucks, MEGAMerc, California Kid, Western Renegade, Maniac and Rock Star entertained the crowd, however it was Bill Payne and Rock Star that came out victorious thanks to a cross thread move over the racing stack.
The five trucks then moved on to qualifying to see who would race who in the competition and who would get an automatic bye into the finals.
In the end it was Bill Payne with wife Lorna in the back seat that proved they aren't just a one trick pony, taking the top qualifying time and leaving the other four to battle it out for the last spot in the finals.
The first match up saw Melville's Trent Hickie bring his Maniac truck to the line against the American truck MEGAMerc.
Hickie did Canada proud by making quick work of the Monster Truck Mafia muscleman to move one step closer to the The Don of the Monster Truck Mafia, Bill Payne and Rock Star.
But he'd have to go through a fellow Canadian, Barry Parkin and Western Renegade, as he too knocked off his American competition in California Kid.
Alberta's Western Renegade won the Battle of Canada and advanced to the finals against Rock Star where he was knocked off in a close race by The Don of the Monster Truck Mafia.
The racing win gave Bill Payne and Rock Star the chance to 'triple down' and sweep the three events, however Hickie and Maniac had something to say about that, upsetting Rock Star in freestyle to win the event and bring back some Canadian pride.
However, Rock Star had a little bit of an issue with some parts, causing his front steering to malfunction. Many believe that, had the truck been 100% healthy, he would have swept Day One. "It broke the first jump but it didn't stop us. All it did was slow us down a little bit because I had to wait for my rear steering to catch up because I had no front steering to be able to line up," mentioned Payne following the freestyle event. "I had to plan my jumps a little bit more but once we got straight we hit everything with a lot of speed. We had to use the brakes a little bit in the air to try and level the truck out. The approach was slow but the attack was amazing."
Payne also mentioned that, even if his truck was 100% he still would have had a hard time beating Maniac's run. "He (Trent Hickie) put on a show for the fans," offered Payne. "It would have been tough to beat him in front of his home fans with my front steering working."
Also in Day One, Demetrius Terleski won the Tuff Truck competition in convincing fashion while Dustin Heddon took home the demolition derby title.
Day Two
Day One was dominated by the Americans, however Day Two was all about the Maple Leaf, however, as Western Renegade and Barry Parkin took home the Wheelie and Racing events while Maniac once again won freestyle with one of his best runs ever.
Bill Payne's Rock Star looked more like an American Idol castoff early on as he couldn't make it to qualifying due to a break in the truck, leaving MEGAMerc and California Kid to do the dirty work for the Americans.
However both Canadian trucks, Western Renegade and Maniac, would eliminate their American competition in the first round to set up an all-Canadian racing final.
Maniac took Western Renegade off the line and had the lead through the first turn, however Parkin nailed his second turn to take a half truck length lead on Maniac.
Hickie would lose a little bit of control head into the third turn while Parkin and Western Renegade nailed it meaning Western Renegade won the racing event on Day Two.
Rock Star made sure that everyone in attendance would never forget his name with a stellar freestyle that fell just short of Maniac's winning run, despite a beautiful save after he got a little cattywampus off of a jump.
Also on Day Two Demetrius Terleski won the Tuff Truck competition while Dustin and Kelly Heddon had a battle for the ages in the demolition derby before Kelly eventually bested his brother.
