Monster Jam World Finals XX (Also written as Monster Jam World Finals 20) was the 20th Monster Jam World Finals, held on May 10-11th, 2019 It was notably held at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, FL, making it the first official World Finals to take place outside of Las Vegas[1].
It was also the first World Finals since World Finals VI to have rained during a World Finals, causing the competitions to be delayed. This World Finals was most notable for its many changes and additions to the annual event. The World Finals main field was notably reduced to only 24 trucks, as well as the Showdown being reduced to 8 trucks[2]. This World Finals also debuted five new world championships, those being the skills, high jump, ATV racing, speedster racing, and speedster obstacle course titles. The event also featured a unique Orlando version of Vegas-styled racing dubbed the "elevated start" where the chicanes and straightaways start on the top of the stadium with dirt roads leading onto the track. This World Finals would see Jimmy Creten in the Bounty Hunter breakthrough and finally win the racing title after eighteen years of trying and Linsey Read in Scooby-Doo! win the showdown, where she would earn the final spot in the main field & win the freestyle title. Tom Meents in Max-D Fire would win the inaugural skills championship and Cynthia Gauthier in Monster Mutt Dalmatian Ice would win the inaugural high jump championship. Finally, Blake Granger would win the ATV racing championship in the Maximum Destruction (Max-D) ATV, Armando Castro would win the Speedster racing championship in the El Toro Loco Speedster, and Matt Cody would win the Speedster Obstacle Course championship in the Blue Thunder Speedster.
Jester debuts a new diamond blue design. *Non competing
King Krunch debuts a new throwback scheme. *Non competing
Scarlet Bandit debuts a new black and pink paint scheme. *Non competing
Patriotic Avenger on Axe.
On Avenger.
Bounty Hunter's FFDP body design.
Wild Flower on Time Flys for the high jump competition.
Fire Grave Digger for the racing encore.
Ice Soldier Fortune for the racing encore.
The Monster Jam Stunt Truck.
Monster Jam Stunt Truck during the 7 truck jump encore driven by Colton Eichelberger.
Anger Management with a new body.
Blue Thunder on Axe.
Displayed with Avenger's wheels on Saturday.
Jester with a crystal blue body.
King Krunch with a retro lone star body.
Scarlet Bandit with a new black and pink body.
Qualifying[]
Grave Digger (Tyler): 13.103
Son-uva Digger: 13.129
Monster Energy: 13.135
Max-D Fire: 13.186
Max-D (Neil): 13.219
Grave Digger (Adam): 13.272
Earth Shaker: 13.292
Megalodon: 13.329
Zombie Fire: 13.390
BroDozer: 13.435
Great Clips Mohawk Warrior: 13.457
Grave Digger (Randy): 13.531
Scooby-Doo!: DNQ
Grave Digger (Morgan): 13.563
Lucas Oil Crusader: 13.606
Monster Mutt Dalmatian Ice: 13.629
Grave Digger (Brandon): 13.693
El Toro Loco: 13.833
Whiplash: 13.854
Dragon Ice: 13.856
Bakugan Dragonoid: 13.895
Avenger: 13.938
Bounty Hunter: 14.157
Wild Flower: 14.416
Showdown[]
Round 1[]
Soldier Fortune Black Ops vs. Monster Mutt Dalmatian
Kraken bye run1 (bye-run, Grave Digger could not race due to a broken starter)
El Toro Loco (List) vs. Scooby-Doo
Alien Invasion vs. Max-D
Semi-finals[]
Soldier Fortune Black Ops vs. Kraken (won, but crashed and could not return)
Scooby Doo vs Max-D
Championship race[]
Scooby Doo vs. Soldier Fortune Black Ops
Great Clips Two Wheel Skills Challenge[]
Max-D Fire: 9.548
Earth Shaker: 9.355
Grave Digger (Brandon): 9.113
Max-D (Neil): 8.911
El Toro Loco: 8.533
Son-uva Digger: 7.895
Grave Digger (Tyler): 6.644
Grave Digger (Adam): 5.624
Racing[]
Round 1[]
Monster Mutt Dalmatian Ice vs. Grave Digger (Brandon)
Zombie Fire vs. Wild Flower
Scooby-Doo!1 vs. Dragon Ice
Grave Digger (Randy) vs. Bakugan Dragonoid
Lucas Oil Crusader vs. El Toro Loco
BroDozer vs. Bounty Hunter
Grave Digger (Morgan) vs. Whiplash
Great Clips Mohawk Warrior vs. Avenger
Round 2[]
Grave Digger (Tyler) vs. Monster Mutt Dalmatian Ice
Megalodon vs. Zombie Fire
Max-D (Neil) vs. Bakugan Dragonoid
Max-D Fire vs. Dragon Ice
Son-uva Digger vs. Lucas Oil Crusader
Earth Shaker vs. Bounty Hunter
Monster Energy vs. Grave Digger (Morgan)
Grave Digger (Adam) vs. Great Clips Mohawk Warrior
Round 3[]
Grave Digger (Tyler) (Crash) vs. Zombie Fire (crash)
Bakugan Dragonoid vs. Dragon Ice (crash)
Son-uva Digger vs. Bounty Hunter
Grave Digger (Morgan) (crash) vs. Grave Digger (Adam)
Semi-Finals[]
Bounty Hunter (crash) vs. Grave Digger (Adam)
Zombie Fire (red-lighted, see trivia) vs. Bakugan Dragonoid (DQ)
Finals[]
Bounty Hunter vs. Zombie Fire (DQ)3
Notes[]
1Scooby-Doo! crossed the line first however broke and couldn’t return.
2Bakugan Dragonoid was disqualified for red-lighting.
3Zombie Fire crossed the line first however was disqualified for red-lighting (see trivia). Bari had red lighted in his semi-finals race.
Encore[]
All 6 of the Fire and Ice trucks that competed during first quarter, as well as an Ice Soldier Fortune and a Fire Grave Digger, came to do donuts. Then seven of the eight trucks performed backflips.
Crash Madness – Charlie Pauken (Grave Digger – Minneapolis)
Save of the Year – Bryce Kenny (Great Clips Mohawk Warrior – Houston)
WOW Factor – John Gordon (Bad Company – St. Louis)
Arena Freestyle – Tony Ochs (Soldier Fortune Black Ops – Jacksonville)
Stadium Freestyle – Ryan Anderson (Son-uva Digger – St. Louis)
Reception[]
World Finals 20 was also met with mixed to negative reviews. Some fans considered the first official Orlando World Finals a spectacular event, due to an independent (Jimmy Creten) winning racing, a woman (Linsey Read) winning the showdown and freestyle competitions, having five inaugural championship competitions at the World Finals, Colton Eichelberger setting a world record in the Saturday night encore, the elevated starting line, and several spectacular moments in all the competitions. However, some considered it to be a poor World Finals, due to several trucks breaking or crashing early in freestyle, having the additional competitions in the event (particularly the ATV and Speedster competitions), the World Finals being moved from Las Vegas, having the freestyle event delayed for about an hour due to storms, the judging in freestyle and 2-wheel skills to be rather controversial (similar to World Finals 16 and 17), the track having almost no cars (except for the fire truck stack buried in the dirt), and the Friday night Fire and Ice encore only consisting of big air and backflips. Some fans have also accused Monster Jam and Feld of fabricating the high jump numbers. This would not make sense since the jumps were calculated by a computer program.
Mock-up of the stadium from when MetLife was planned.
Originally, this event was planned to happen in East Rutherford, NJ, at MetLife Stadium in May 2019. This was changed due to scheduling conflicts.
This was the first Monster Jam World Finals to not be held in March.
This is the first (and only) World Finals to have 7 champions crowned. The following two would have only 4 champions crowned.
This is the first and only World Finals to have the Showdown winner win in the same World Finals event when Linsey Reed won the Showdown then won freestyle.
This is the first time the truck lineup is reduced from the previous year. Despite the reduced line-up, drivers are able to compete in multiple elements.
The Wild Flower body ran on two trucks. The normal chassis was used for racing and freestyle, while a second body was placed on the Time Flys chassis for the high jump competition.
Avenger's special paint scheme was put on the Axe chassis for a display before World Finals, and competed in racing, high jump, and freestyle with his current chassis.
This is the first time 5 Grave Diggers compete in freestyle and racing. This would break its World Finals 17, 18, and 19 record when those had 4 Grave Diggers in the competition.
Tyler Menninga in Grave Digger was the fastest qualifier with a time of 13.103 seconds.
Bounty Hunter became the first independent truck name to win a World Finals racing championship. This was Jimmy Creten's first racing title in six total final round appearances (World Finals 3, 4, 7,9, and 12).
Jimmy Creten qualified 21st out of 24, making him share the spot of slowest qualifier to win a world racing title with Adam Anderson, who had won it a year earlier, having qualified 21st as well.
This was the first World Finals since 2005 to have rained during the show. Ironically enough, Jimmy Creten in Bounty Hunter earned his 2 world championships at the 2 World Finals it rained.
The vast majority of the competitors ran 2nd Gen. BKTs. Jim Koehler ran 3rd Gen. BKTs for high jump and freestyle, and Rosalee Ramer was going to use her 3rd gen. BKTs for the high jump competition, but the truck broke during intros.
Linsey Read and Cynthia Gauthier join Madusa as the only 3 females to win a title. Linsey won freestyle and Cynthia won high jump.
There was a half hour delay in the show on Saturday during freestyle due to a thunderstorm.
The freestyle encore was originally cancelled during this delay. However, conditions improved, and the encore was performed.
This World Finals tied World Finals 3 and 11 with the most racing crashes (5): Grave Digger (Menninga) and Zombie Fire (the latter was repaired in time for the next round), Dragon Ice, Grave Digger (Kane), and the eventual racing champion Bounty Hunter (was repaired in time for the next round). 4 of these trucks crashed in round 3, making round 3 the round with the most racing crashes ever.
This was the first Double Crash in the World Finals. It happened in round 3 between Zombie Fire and Grave Digger 36 (Tyler).
Camden Murphy red-lit at the World Finals for the third year in a row.
This is the first World Finals where a driver red-lit in the final round, which was Bari Musawwir in Zombie Fire. Bari would red-light twice, one in the semifinals, which was forgiven by the officials, and the second at the finals, which wasn’t forgiven.
This is the third World Finals in a row to not have a home video release. However, the entire footage of the World Finals was released to the public audience on YouTube.
This is the first World Finals to have all trucks get lane choice to start their freestyles in that lane.
The two fastest qualifiers (Menninga for main field and Ochs for the showdown) each came from a different lane (Ochs in the right lane and Menninga in the left lane).
Ironically, both Menninga and Ochs only had one timed pass. Ochs could not run a second time, due to rollover damage and Menninga rolled in the turn on his second pass.
This was the second World Finals to have Grave Digger come out first for freestyle, the first being World Finals 17 and the third being World Finals 22, where Brandon Vinson also came out first.
For the first time as a main field driver, Becky McDonough did not give away a horn after freestyle. This was because the truck did not suffer any cosmetic damage during the events.
Two pieces of trucks were given away by drivers on Saturday. Cynthia Gauthier gave away the foam tag from Ice Monster Mutt Dalmatian and after his freestyle, Randy Brown gave away the jolly roger from his Grave Digger.
This was only the second World Finals since Monster Jam World Finals 12 to have trucks remove most of their fiberglass bodies during qualifying.
This was the last World Finals to happen without a break, as a coronavirus outbreak would end up cancelling the following year's and delaying it to 2022 on May 21-22.
During the awards ceremony earlier in the week, an incorrect clip was used for a crash madness nominee. A clip of Morgan Kane rolling during the 2019 Minneapolis event was used instead of the actual nominee of Charlie Pauken at the same venue in April 2018. Pauken wound up winning the award.
This is the first World Finals to have an elevated starting line for racing. Due to stadium renovations this style was not used at World Finals XXI but will return for World Finals XXII.
This was the first and only World Finals to feature ATV and Speedster competitions as they were removed for the following World Finals due to the discontinuation of the Triple Threat Series.
Patriotic Avenger on Axe.
.png "Vlcsnap-2019-05-12-13h27m27s816 (8).png (2.1 MB)")
