The field of trucks. Notice the addition of WCW Nitro Machine as a 17th truck for the photo, ironically predicting the fact that a 17th truck (Ragin' Steel) would be needed for freestyle, as Blacksmith could not return. There is also an unknown ride truck is the far background, which is rumored to possible be Surf Monster.
Grave Digger mid freestyle
Monster Jam World Finals 2 was held on March 24, 2001 at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas, NV. This was the first World Finals to be seen live on Pay-Per-View, as the year before was on taped delay. Goldberg and Tom Meents swept racing and freestyle. Racing was unique as due to a broken water pipe, the trucks started inside the stadium for the finals and semi-finals. This would also be the first World Finals with an encore at the end of the show with Grave Digger and Goldberg.
The track was the same J style hook as the previous year, only with nothing in the middle of the racing lanes. On the left side was a ramp and landing pad and a box van. On the right side was 30 foot tall trailer, a rail car, and a van jump.
Avenger, fixing the broken tie rod, but popping the tire before the second round race
Destroyervs. Gunslinger (wins but breaks and cannot return)
Spider Manvs. Avenger (wins but breaks and cannot return)
Sudden Impact vs. Bulldozer
Goldberg vs. Sting
Racing Round 2
Wolverine vs. Predator
Blue Thundervs. Blacksmith (wins but crashes into wall protection, cannot return)
Spider Man vs. Destroyer
Bulldozer vs. Goldberg (note, Goldberg destroyed a waterpipe, and after this race, the track was shortened)
Racing Semi Finals
Wolverine vs. Blue Thunder (note, this race was run twice due to a bad light on Wolverine, but Blue Thunder won both times)
Goldberg vs. Destroyer
Championship Race
Goldberg vs. Blue Thunder (crashes)
Freestyle
Goldberg - 38
Wrenchead.com - 36
Wrenchhead.com, about to crash
Grave Digger - 36
Avenger - 34
Sting - 34
Madusa - 33
Spider Man - 31
Black Stallion - 30
Bulldozer - 28
Ragin Steel - 27
Destroyer - 23
Predator - 22
Sudden Impact - 19
Gunslinger - DNF
Blue Thunder - DNF
Wolverine - DNF
Encore
Grave Digger 7 & 12 along with Goldberg 2 hit the track. Grave Digger 7 crashes early, Grave Digger 12 gets stuck along with Goldberg up on the trailer, and Goldberg 2 crashes into a damaged Grave Digger 7 left out on the track.
Sportsman of the Year: John Seasock, Sudden Impact & Jim Koehler, Avenger
Crash Madness: Eldon DePew, Bulldozer
Trivia
Destroyer's unseen freestyle run.
Predator's unseen qualifying crash.
Sudden Impact's unseen freestyle run.
Sudden Impact's and Destroyer's freestyles were not shown on the DVD. Both trucks ran very brief runs before breaking down. They also cut out the part where John Seasock (driver of Sudden Impact) said the mildly vulgar P word during his interview as they wanted to make the home video release G-rated.
This was Ragin' Steel's only World Finals appearance; technically, the truck did not compete, but rather was a back-up truck borrowed by Pablo Huffaker after Blacksmith's shipping container crash.
Jim Koehler had a "3" flag on the back of his truck during this event as a tribute to Dale Earnhardt Sr., who had passed away in a tragic accident less than two months before the World Finals in NASCAR's 2001 Daytona 500.
Because Ragin' Steel wasn't ever set to perform, as it was only there for display purposes, it had no brakes. Temporary driver Pablo Huffaker had to borrow brakes from one of the Grave Digger trucks to drive it. This may be the reason why Dennis Anderson only brought out three Grave Diggers for freestyle when he actually had four.
Spider-Man's unseen test bye-run down the flooded path
Predator actually flipped over in qualifying. It came out of Thunder Alley, and when it approached the turn, it mistakenly drove too fast and flipped over on its side. It blasted a flame and it extinguished itself when it flipped onto its left side. A couple photos of this crash were actually taken and posted on the old USHRA website, and one of them was also used as the CD jewel case's interior for the 2002 video game, "Monster Jam: Maximum Destruction." However they have been forgotten about but can still be found on the old USHRA website via the Internet WayBack Machine Archive.
This was notably the only World Finals out of all 19 that did not feature a center ramp.
This is also the only World Finals to use another racing format other than the famous Vegas Style. After Goldberg struck the waterpipe in racing, the races were moved to inside the stadium due to the floods caused. This essentially created the St. Louis Style racing format, due to the similarities.
This was the first World Finals event where a certain truck (Wolverine) would be the first winner of racing but not compete for freestyle. It has been believed that Wolverine's motor was too hot to return for freestyle at its debut World Finals appearance.
Jim Koehler actually made it to the starting line to face Dan Evans in round 2,
Gun Slinger's unseen qualifying run.
but his left rear tire somehow got flat, so the USHRA officials told Gary Porter to come to the line and make a pass to get a feel of the track as soon as he made a test bye-run in Spiderman. This was only seen on the PPV broadcast.
However, a monster truck that is ready wouldn't officially compete for racing as a bye-run until a year later at Monster Jam World Finals 3.
Home Video Mistakes
When Predator leaves the track after his freestyle, the white and orange vans in the corner are not crushed, but when Wrenchhead.com hits the track next, the vans are crushed. Turns out, Destroyer, who's freestyle was not shown on the home video along with Sudden Impact, had gone right before Wrenchhead and hit them.
During Black Stallion's freestyle, his second "reverse" move was portrayed as if he accomplished it in his final five seconds of freestyle time. However, what actually happened was he didn't have time to make it over, as he needed time to align himself with the obstacle, which was more than he had time on the clock. He does, however, decide to do it anyway to appease the fans. However, the home video portrays this completely differently: it cuts out the preparation time to show it immediately. Mike's words "the time has expired," were also said before move took place, but on the home video, it was after.
NOTE: Two of the three pit-party Grave Diggers and the second Goldberg were featured in the encore. However, because the encore was solely for the fans and there were no competition points given out, they were technically non-competing trucks. The second Goldberg was originally used for qualifying though. Also, Pablo Huffaker did borrow and drive Ragin' Steel for freestyle, since Blacksmith had crashed over the containers in racing.
