Lima 4-Wheel Jamboree Saturday Results

The 22nd annual Lima 4-Wheel Jamboree took place this past weekend, bringing with it beautiful weather and the high-intensity monster truck action fans have come to expect from the event. This year, the folks at Special Events brought in a strong eight truck field headlined by the rare match up of the original monster truck, the brand new Bigfoot #16 powered by Dan Runte, versus the legendary fan favorite Grave Digger and Charlie Pauken, who brought fans to their feet last year as a sub driver for T-MAXX. Also in attendance were perennial Special Events powerhouses Halls Bros. Racing with Raminator and Rammunition driven by Mark Hall and Geremie Dishman respectively. Doug Noelke, who has seen his share of success at the Jamboree was back in Big Dawg. Andy Hoffman, another Jamboree regular was back, but in a new machine, this time in the beautiful War Wagon. Rounding out the field were two men relatively new two the sport, Joe Sylvester in the bright Bad Habit and Lionel Easler in Instigator.

The 12:30 show kicked off with racing on the S-shaped course, the trucks in predetermined brackets. The day started off in with a nail-biter when Bad Habit faced off against Rammunition. To much surprise, Joe Sylvester had the lead over the big black Dodge coming out of the second turn, but in the end could not hold off the giant Hemi down the final stretch, losing by a tire. However, the rest of the first round was not as close, as Bigfoot knocked down War Wagon, Raminator defeated Instigator, and Big Dawg was given a bye run. On his run, Runte suffered a back injury and was unable to return.

The second round started off with Rammuniton taking on War Wagon, who was called to replace the injured Runte, and once again Hoffman struggled in the turns, giving Dishman the spot in the finals. Raminator and Big Dawg capped the semi-final round, with a close race, but Mark Hall was able to negotiate the final turn slightly better, and won by a couple truck lengths.

The finals saw the two Halls Bros. trucks facing off. Mark Hall had the advantage coming down the first straightaway, but Dishman was able to pull ahead having the inside lane on the first turn. On the second turn, Hall nailed the corner and pulled out ahead of Dishman, soaring to victory.

Four trucks came out for freestyle, starting off with Joe Sylvester in Bad Habit. Joe kept up great momentum and drove quite aggressively showing no fear while attacking every obstacle on the course and capping up with dust-throwing donuts. Next out was another new face on the Special Events tour, Lionel Esler in Instigator. He made a couple of jumps over the cars and attempted a slap wheelie until the engine went up in smoke, cutting his run short. Brian Bertoletti, filling in for the injured Dan Runte, got some good air and pulled off a terrific slap wheelie. Brian got huge air over the car stack, but the truck came down hard on the rear end, sending Bigfoot into a rare, violent rollover. Bertoletti was alright, but the brand new Bigfoot 16 suffered heavy damage. Last up was Charlie Pauken in Grave Digger, who put on a spectacular show complete with huge air, long slap wheelies, and mind numbing cyclones.


The afternoon show started off with Grave Digger, now able to compete, narrowly defeating Big Dawg. Instigator was unable to keep up with Raminator, and Rammunition was able to hold off Bigfoot enough to take another first-round win. Finally, Bad Habit destroyed War Wagon for a shot to make it to the finals.

Kick-starting the second round was a rare match-up of powerhouses, Raminator and Grave Digger, with Hall getting a truck-length victory. In the second race, it was a rematch of Bad Habit and Rammunition, with Dishman once again out-powering the hard charging Sylvester.

The finals were once again a battle of the Dodges, and despite experiencing breakage on the last jump, Mark Hall once again proved to be unbeatable giving the Raminator another racing win.

Andy Hoffman in War Wagon started off freestyle with a strong run we have come to expect of him, complete with big air, donuts, and wheelies. Doug Noelke lit up the track in Big Dawg with huge jumps and several tailgate-dragging slap wheelies. Rammunition was next out and despite a short run, Dishman gave the fans a great show with some huge jumps. Once again, Chuckie Pauken headlined the show with a sick freestyle highlighted by some terrific slap wheelies and getting Grave Digger vertical over a van pyramid.

As it has been in recent years, the evening show was all freestyle. Unfortunately Raminator and Big Dawg were parked with mechanical problems. All of the trucks put on solid runs with some of the highlights included big air by Bad Habit and Rammunition, but once again Pauken stole the show with a terrific run featuring more slap wheelies and dust-throwing donuts. The tough luck for Bigfoot continued once again, when fuel was splashed in the face of Bertoletti after a hard landing. Brian would take a trip to the ambulance, but would be fine.

Once again, Lima proved to be one of the highlights of the circuit and was a great kickoff to the summer season!

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