MonsterArmy.com News

The 11th Episode Of The Winter Of Wells Online!

Here it is folks, the eleventh episode of the Winter of Wells is now online, containing exclusive content from the third round of the Dew Tour at Mt Snow, in Vermont. Join Jossi Wells, Byron Wells, Andreas Hatveit, Elias Ambuhl and many other riders as they compete in Big Air, Slopestyle and Halfpipe. Check it out!

Monster Energy Weekend Wrap Up, Feb. 6-7

Monster Energy athletes kick off the Vancouver Winter Olympics this week; Weimer’s back in the winning track with Monster/Pro Circuit/Kawi; AX guys sweep Tulsa, Okla.; Hibbert finishes his snocross season with a win.

THIS JUST IN … Monster’s athletes wrap up final Dew Tour stop in Vermont – Horgmo nails Snowboard Slopestyle & Wells locks down o/a Ski Superpipe win!

The world’s top winter sport athletes – including four representatives backed by Monster – gather this week for a near month-long competition in a wide range of events known as the Winter Olympics.

American’s Nate Holland, Louie Vito and Elena Hight, along with Norwegian Kjersti Østgaard Buaas – all snowboarders – will boot up for halfpipe (Vito, Hight & Østgaard Buaas) and boardercross (Holland) competitions in hopes of capturing one of three precious medals in their respective events. And though to many Monster drinkers the Olympic Games play second fiddle to last week’s X Games, Monster’s only recent involvement in the Olympics is paramount in spreading the Monster brand globally.

Holland competed in his first Olympics at the inaugural boardercross event in the Turin (Italy) Games. Placing a disappointing 14th, Holland would go on a tear after that and win arguably the world’s biggest boardercross event – Winter X in Aspen, Colo. – four more times (five straight if you include 2006) and is one of the favorites to mine gold in Vancouver.

“I’d like to think I’ve got the momentum going for me after winning the World Cup stop in Austria, then coming home and winning a fifth-straight Winter X,” said Holland. “Heading up to Vancouver for a good time, take in as much as I can and when it comes time to run our event I’m just gonna pin it.”

On the women’s side both Hight and Østgaard Buaas bring Olympic experience with Hight placing a respectable 6th at the Turin Games and Østgaard Buaas scoring a bronze medal in Turin and a 4th at the previous Winter Games in Salt Lake City (’02).

Vancouver Winter Olympics TV schedule for Monster’s athletes (consult local listings for time and channel)

Boardercross

Feb. 15 – Qualifiers, 1/8th, quarter, semi and finals

Halfpipe

Feb. 17 – Men’s qualification, semi and finals

Feb. 18 – Women’s qualification, semi and finals

Monster Energy AMA Supercross, Qualcomm Stadium, San Diego

Monster’s Jake Weimer (Pro Circuit/Kawasaki) won his fourth Monster Energy AMA Supercross Lites race of the season this past Saturday night in a rainy San Diego - building a 26-point advantage in the championship standings. Monster-backed teammate Josh Hansen fought back from an early collision to finish 11th.

With rain showers threatening all day, practice was shortened to just one 12-minute session. As has been the case all season, the team’s riders sat atop the leader board with Weimer setting the fastest lap and Hansen finishing third fastest.

Both riders lined up in the second heat and Weimer blasted to the holeshot, leading wire-to wire. With the heat win – his fifth-straight heat race of the season – Weimer laid claim to the all-important first gate pick for the main event. Also in the second Lites heat Hansen came out of the first turn mid pack and quickly moved up to third in the heat to transfer to the main.

In the main event Weimer got a good jump off the gate and took advantage to grab the lead on the first lap. Hansen again got a mid-pack start, and then he collided with Trey Canard’s bike sending him to the back of the field. While Weimer continued to pace the race, Hansen started working his way through the field getting up to 11th by the checkered flag. Weimer led from start-to-finish to earn his fourth main event win in five races.

“The track was slippery and muddy,” said Weimer. “It seemed to get better from practice to the heat and then from the heat to the main, but it was still tricky all night. San Diego is always a technical track and when you add in the weather, tonight was difficult. It always feels better to bring a trophy back to the truck and I’m glad I got the win.”

Added Hansen: “San Diego was a tough race,” said Hansen. “It just wasn’t my night. I know we can get better results and I’m working to get that first win next week at Anaheim.”

In the SX class main event Monster/Kawasaki’s Ryan Villopoto just missed out on a podium, placing 4th. RV’s new Monster/Kawasaki teammate, Nick Wey, would be on it as well, placing 9th.

AMA Supercross Class Results: San Diego

4th - Ryan Villopoto, Poulsbo, Wash., Kawasaki
8th - Nick Wey, Murrieta, Calif., Kawasaki

AMA Supercross Class Season Standings

3rd - Ryan Villopoto, Poulsbo, Wash., Kawasaki, 95

Western Regional AMA Supercross Lites Class Results: San Diego

1st - Jake Weimer, Rupert, Idaho, Kawasaki

Western Regional AMA Supercross Lites Class Season Standings

1st - Jake Weimer, Rupert, Idaho, Kawasaki, 122
8th - Josh Hansen, Elbert Colo., Kawasaki, 56


Take a lap of this weekend’s Anaheim 3 SX track right here:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoAx0Aq9QAU


Monster’s Ash Hodges serves up Rd. 2 of his “Dirt Shark” SX video blog

Monster's Ash Hodges, the 2-Wheel Motor Sports Coordinator, continues his behind-the-scenes documentation of Monster’s athletes on the 17-stop tour with Monster Supercross. Check out our guys at San Diego.

http://motocross.transworld.net/1000090295/news/monster-energy-supercross-video-blog-san-diego/

Finally … the weekend totals are in from the Monster Energy/Road 2 Recovery fund raising effort:

Monster Raffle- $665
Rider Number & Ticket Holder Lanyards $703
Rider Wristbands $5
VIP eBay Auction $1,300
Regular Ticket Auction $500
Total: $3,173!

2010 AMA Arenacross, Tulsa, Okla.

After making a stellar debut one year ago, the AMA Arenacross Series’ sophomore outing at Tulsa’s state-of-the-art BOK Center returned and kept the thousands of Oklahoma fans on their feet as Babbitt’s Monster Energy/Ti Lube Kawasaki’s Tyler Bowers, of Danville, Ky., bounced back from a tough outing last week to win his sixth race of the 2010 season.

The Tuf Honda duo of Brock Sellards, of Sherrodsville, Ohio, and reigning series champion Jeff Gibson, of Thornville, Ohio, were the first riders through turn one in the 25-lap AMA Arenacross main event and looked strong through the early portion of the race, but the Babbitt’s Monster Energy/TiLube Kawasaki trio of Bowers and teammates Josh Demuth, of North Richland Hills, Texas, and Chad Johnson, of Rhinelander, Wis., kept the pressure applied and eventually worked their way by. The top three riders in the premier AMA Arenacross class championship went on to sweep the podium – Bowers, Demuth, Johnson. It marks the second time in 2010 that the Babbitt’s squad swept the overall podium.

The AMA Arenacross Series continues next weekend from Youngstown, Ohio at the Coveli Center this Friday and Saturday (Feb. 12-13) at 7:30 p.m. ET.

2010 AMA Arenacross, round eight of 19, Tulsa, Okla.

Saturday

1st – Tyler Bowers
2nd – Josh Demuth
3rd – Chad Johnson

Overall Points

1st – Tyler Bowers, 181
2nd – Chad Johnson, 161
3rd – Josh Demuth, 147

AMSOIL Championship Snocross Series (ACSS), Farmington, N.Y.

Monster Energy’s Tucker Hibbert (Arctic Cat) rolled into his sixth and final snocross event of the season with one goal - to win. Cold temperatures along with snow showers didn’t stop thousands fans from pouring into Finger Lakes Racetrack to watch Hibbert sweep the AMSOIL Championship Snocross Series (ACSS) Eastern National in Farmington, New York.

It had been three years since Hibbert last raced on the East Coast. That year, he swept a national event for the first time - winning all rounds of qualifying and both pro finals. He set a goal to repeat his 2007 performance this year but a tight, rough course made it a challenge. He had a couple intense battles in his qualifying rounds after getting poor starts but ultimately won both pro finals without a challenge. He took the earlier lead in both finals and checked out to take home his 54th and 55th career wins.

Hibbert’s 09/10 season was a season to remember. He lost his first final event in two years but captured milestone victories, re-writing history in the process. At the season opener in Duluth, Minn., he became the first rider in history to sweep the event two years in a row. The next weekend, at the historic Milwaukee Mile, he took his 100th career start and went on to win his 50th career pro final. Mid-January, in Salt Lake City, he lost his first final in nearly two years. That lose sparked a fire inside him that fueled an unforgettable charge in Pro Open final at Canterbury Park. The following week, in his eleventh appearance at ESPN Winter X Games, he made history by winning his fourth consecutive gold medal, becoming the most decorated snowmobile athlete with nine overall medals.

The multi-sport athlete will now turn his focus to motocross and cross-country mountain bike racing. He’s looking forward to taking a couple weeks off to rest then will dive into preparing for a summer packed with racing. Stay posted to www.tucker-hibbert.com
for details on his summer racing plans.

ACSS, Farmington, N.Y.

Pro Open

1st - Tucker Hibbert

Pro Super Stock

1st – Tucker Hibbert

AST Winter Dew Tour, Mount Snow, Vermont

Monster athletes wrapped up the 2009-’10 AST Winter Dew Tour series this past weekend at Mount Snow, Vermont, capturing one overall Dew Tour Cup and 1st place in an individual event at the final stop of the popular three round series.

Capturing the overall title – the Dew Cup - in men’s Ski SuperPipe was Monster’s New Zealand-born ripper, Jossi Wells. The Kiwi overcame a first run fall and put up a solid, stylish ride on his second and final run to secure the overall Dew Cup – topping Red Bull athlete Simon Dumont by five points for the title!

“I fell on my first pipe run so I was really nervous on the second one. Just had to stay on my feet for the Dew Cup—I got fifth—so stoked,” said Wells.

Keeping it on skis Wells’ Monster teammate, Justin Dorey, locked down a podium finish in the Mount Snow SuperPipe (3rd). An encore performance to his silver medal at last weekend’s X Games SuperPipe High Air, Dorey qualified in first place (which he’s done often this year) and managed to hold on to a podium finish despite the burly icy conditions. “The pipe wasn’t very steep, so we all had to change our runs and really float everything down the wall,” said Dorey. “Less hits, but it worked out.”

Also on skis, Monster’s Tom Wallisch would finish 7th in Ski Slopestyle at Mount Snow, but held on for an overall podium spot (3rd) in the Dew Cup chase. And Monster’s Xavier Bertoni would place 3rd overall (behind Wells) in the Ski SuperPipe Dew Cup.

On snowboards it was all Torstein Horgmo as the Norwegian cult hero backed up his X Games Big Air silver medal with a Slopestyle win at Mount Snow. According to reports from out guys on point in Vermont, Horgmo wisely put down a safe opening run on the East Coast ice, then threw hammers on his second run with a lethal switch backside 12 to backside ten-cork combination to seal the win easily.

“I am really pumped to survive the final Dew slopestyle event and win too—it was so icy and sketchy out there! It feels real good to back up that second place Big Air last week at Winter X,” said Horgmo.

Monster’s soon-to-be Olympian, Kjersti Østgaard Buaas, threw caution to the wind and – at risk of wadding up and jeopardizing her health for the upcoming Vancouver Games – sent it in true Viking spirit on the icy 18-foot Mount Snow halfpipe. Highlighted by a 540 corked and huge air on the opening hit, Buass closed her run with a stylish air-to-fakie to lock down 3rd in women’s SuperPipe.

Said Buass: "The pipe was so hard and scary at night—I'm really happy I didn't fall!”

AST Winter Dew Tour Mount Snow, Vermont, results:

Men’s Snowboard Slopestyle

1st – Torstein Horgmo

Women’s Snowboard SuperPipe

3rd - Kjersti Østgaard Buaas

Men’s Ski SuperPipe

3rd – Justin Dorey

Overall Dew Cup standings

Men’s Ski SuperPipe

1st – Jossi Wells
3rd – Xavier Bertoni

Men’s Ski Slopestyle

3rd – Tom Wallisch

Men’s Snowboard Slopestyle


2nd – Torstein Horgmo

Women’s Snowboard SuperPipe

3rd - Kjersti Østgaard Buaas

Monster’s Gordon and Carmichael suit up for NASCAR/Daytona opener

At risk of getting lost in today’s snow sports and dirt bike headlines, arguably the biggest event in U.S. auto racing kicks off this weekend with two Monster-backed athletes competing in both the Sprint Cup and Camping World Series contests this weekend at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla.

Robby Gordon will open his Cup season in the No. 7 Monster-livery Toyota on Sunday, Feb. 14, at 1 p.m. EST, while Ricky Carmichael gets things going in his Turner Motorsports/Chevrolet this Friday, Feb. 11th, in the Camping World’s season opener set for 7:30 p.m. EST.

Last year Gordon, who won the SCORE International Trophy Truck championship, placed 34th overall while Carmichael placed 22nd in the NASCAR Truck series – the fourth-highest rookie and was elected as NASCAR Trucks’ most popular new driver.

In an effort to maximize seat time, Carmichael will also compete in ten ARCA Re/Max Series races in 2010. This past weekend he placed 6th at the ARCA season opener at Daytona.

For loads of info on this weekend’s race, check out www.nascar.com

Monster’s Valentino Rossi dominates MotoGP testing season opener in Sepang

Monster Energy’s road racing star Valentino Rossi (Fiat/Yamaha), the defending MotoGP champions, opened the 2010 MotoGP testing season with a strong statement as he topped a field of 17 participants running practice laps yesterday and today at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia.

Rossi, running a new chassis and engine on his Yamaha YZR-M1, uncorked a session-best time of 2:01.411 before rains delayed the testing round until this morning. Then today Rossi knocked a half second off his time on Friday, clocking a Day Two best time of 2:00.925.

“Today (Thursday) was very important because this year we have just six days of testing in which to set the bike, so we cannot waste any time,” said Rossi. “This first day was very positive. We tried the new bike for 2010 with a different chassis and new engine and it is quite fast. Now we need to spend time on setting some electronics and other things. This is only the start but it seems we’re already in good shape.”

Rossi then commented on Friday’s even better results: “After yesterday this second day has been very good as well, even though we lost a few hours to the rain. And the end we were still able to finish all our work. We worked on the new bike to find a better setting and I was happy to be the fastest overall - even though this is just testing this is important for me. At the next test we will have a few more new things, but we're already happy because we're fast and strong. There is room to improve of course; Sepang is always a good track for the Yamaha so we will have to wait until Qatar to get a better understanding of our level, but we have made a great start."

Monster Energy/Yamaha/Tech 3’s Colin Edwards also participated and ran well, posting the third-fastest time on Friday (2:01.932), seventh-fastest time on Friday (2:02.479). Edwards’ Monster Energy-backed teammate, Ben Spies, was 12th fastest on the day on Thursday, then wicked things up on Friday with a fifth-best time of 2:02.266.

Said Spies: “I rode as good and as hard as I could considering how I've been feeling. I'm not wanting to make any excuses but I didn't feel really good with the jetlag. It was still a good test because I learned a lot about improving my riding and adapting my style to suit the Yamaha MotoGP bike. It is hard to break some of my old superbike habits at the moment, but I made some big improvements in a couple of places on the track where I was really struggling, particularly in the braking.”

For more information link to www.motogp.com

A teaser video of Rossi is at: www.yamaha-racing.com

Monster’s BMXer/Mic man Rick Thorne checked in with this update …

“Hello to all hope your doing great I am excited to announce that my band Good Guys In Black is now having it's third single spun on Sirius/XM's "Faction" Channel the track is "Moving On" I have attached the song take a listen and take care!!!!”

To check out Thorne’s latest track, link to: www.rickthorne.tv

As Seen Online …

Ken Block’s got his new Monster/Ford rally car over in Paris:

http://www.monsterworldrallyteam.com/blogs/mwrt-wrc-2010-season-launch-monster-girls

Ricky Carmichael on last Saturday’s ARCA race and this Friday night’s NASCAR Truck race:

http://www.racerxonline.com/article/between-the-motos-ricky-carmichael-2-10-10.aspx

Monster wakeboarder Harley Clifford wins Aussie Pro/Am:

http://www.theliquidcircus.com/index.php?page=blog&post=harley-clifford-takes-out-the-australian-pro-am

Good interview with Nick Wey by Eric Johnson:

http://www.racerxonline.com/article/5-minutes-with-nick-wey-2-3-10.aspx

Check out a few shots of the Monster/Rinaldi/Yamaha team over in Europe on both MXLarge.com and VitalMX.com:

http://www.mxlarge.com/news/3316-monster-energy-yamaha-black-is-beautiful

http://www.vitalmx.com/photos/features/2010-Yamaha-Monster-Energy-Motocross-Teams,3944/David-Phillipaerts-and-Gautier-Paulin,22560/GuyB,64

Here’s some shots from Daytona of Ricky Carmichael’s ARCA effort:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jhleale/DaytonaARCAWeekend2010?authkey=Gv1sRgCPHelICT5LCxAg&feat=email#

Monster’s David Philippaerts talks about the recent Mantova Starcross International:

http://www.mxlarge.com/news/3303-philippaerts-and-de-dycker-talk-about-mantova

Upcoming: Monster Energy AMA Supercross, Feb. 13, Anaheim, Calif.; AMA Arenacross Series, Youngstown, Ohio, Feb. 12-13; Vancouver Winter Olympics, Feb. 12-28; NASCAR at Daytona International Speedway, Feb. 12-14, Daytona Beach, Fla.

One more reminder…

Monster Energy’s multi-talented four-wheel competitor Robby Gordon will take on the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway this Sunday, February 14, 2010, as part of the 52nd Annual Daytona 500. The race will be televised live on the Fox Network at 1 P.M. (EST) and 10 A.M. (PST).

Sled Necks Invasion Tour


The Monster Energy Slednecks Invasion Tour makes it return to New Hampshire this weekend at the New England Nationals at Rockingham Park. It has been over two and a half years since our last NH Invasion Tour stop, and this weekend’s show is not soon to be forgotten. This marks the sixth stop on the tour and the guys are more dialed than ever!


In you’re in the area come out and watch the Slednecks freestyle team as they perform their high flying stunts on Friday and Saturday night as well as witness the top snocross racers in the world battle it out during the AMSOIL Championship Snocross Series.

There will also be a special Slednecks autograph signing at the HK Powersports booth at the event, Saturday Feb 13th, at Noon, featuring Paul Thacker, Jeff Mullin, Matt Tingstad, Dylan Harju, and Eric St. John.