Neil Elliott ascends to top of Monster Jam Power Rankings - MotorSportsTalk

Stadium Series Green is packed with talent, accounting for three positions in the Monster Jam Power Rankings. Ryan Anderson recorded one of the most difficult combinations in the freestyle competition and advanced to eighth. Morgan Kane held onto a top-two spot on the chart. But it was Neil Elliott in the Max-D monster truck that ran away with the lead.

With 37 points earned, Elliott tied Anderson and Son-Uva Digger for the most at Anaheim last week, which was just enough to give him the No. 1 ranking this week. Elliott won the racing portion of the night over Megalodon and Cory Rummell. It was the first time for both drivers that they reached the final round.

The racing victory gave Elliott the confidence needed to win his fifth skills challenge of the year. And so far, he’s been nearly perfect in that session. Elliott failed to win the skills challenge only once in 2020.

More importantly, Elliott took the points lead in the series with 206 to Kane’s 200.

Kane and Grave Digger had a comparatively bad evening. He was unable to stage his truck for Round 2 in the racing competition and earned minimal points for the session. When the points were tallied at the end of the night, he was 10 below Elliott and Anderson.

Colton Eichelberger held onto the third spot in the rankings with a nearly perfect weekend in another Max-D truck. In the Triple Threat Central division, he scored the most event points in three of four races with 43 of 44 pocketed Saturday afternoon. Eichelberger won three of the four racing competitions at Pittsburgh’s PPG Paints Arena in addition to winning eight additional competitions.

MORE: Ryan Anderson and the anatomy of a Monster Jam freestyle run
MORE: Adam Anderson and Grave Digger are a family affair for Monster Jam

Stadium Series Red’s Todd Leduc had the biggest gain of the week. He advanced three positions to land fourth in the Power Rankings. To see exactly how he accomplished the feat tune into the Indianapolis event, which airs Feb. 18 at 4 p.m. on NBCSN (click here for streaming).

Leduc advanced with consistency and excellence. Earning 35 points and taking the overall win Saturday evening, he returned Sunday to put another 33 in the bank. That placed second to Cole Venard and Black Pearl for the afternoon and tied him with Monster Energy’s Linsey Weenk. Venard did not make the Power Rankings, but he had one of the sickest moves of the week when his pirate-themed truck walked the plank (backflipping to walking a wheelie across the stadium floor).

Coty Saucier rounds out the top five with a racing win Sunday afternoon in Houston and a second-place finish Saturday evening in Stadium Series Yellow.

Also of note this week was freestyle run of Ryan Anderson. In the Son-Uva Digger truck in Stadium Series Green, Anderson earned 9.619 in the freestyle competition – his best score to date. It is his third freestyle win of the season.

Power Rankings

1 – Neil Elliott–up 1
2 – Morgan Kane–down 1
3 – Colton Eichelberger–same
4 – Todd LeDuc–up 3
5 – Coty Saucier–same
6 – Brandon Vinson–up 2
7 – Tyler Menninga–down 1
8 – Ryan Anderson–up 1
9 – Justin Sipes–returning
10 – Linsey Read–new for 2020

Upcoming TV Schedule (All showings on NBCSN)

Indianapolis: February 18 (Tuesday); 4 p.m.
Oakland: February 22 (Saturday); 11:30 p.m.
Miami: March 1 (Sunday); 12 a.m.
Jacksonville: March 9 (Monday); 6 p.m.
Detroit: March 21 (Saturday); 11 p.m.
Las Vegas: March 28 (Saturday); 7 p.m.
Santa Clara: April 11 (Saturday); 7 p.m.
Philadelphia: April 17 (Friday); 2:30 p.m.
Monster Jam World Finals Racing: May 9 (Saturday); 5 p.m.
Monster Jam World Finals: May 19 (Tuesday); 4 p.m.
Monster Jam World Freestyle: May 20 (Wednesday); 12 a.m.
Monster Jam World Finals: June 20 (Saturday); 2:30 p.m.

In a continuing effort to help fans keep track of the on track action, SuperMotocross is in the process of developing and implementing leader lights for the unified series.

Currently Supercross (SMX) utilizes stanchions in the infield that are triggered manually by a race official. At least two stanchions are used in each race as a way to draw the eye to the leader, which is especially useful in the tight confines of the stadium series when lapping often begins before the halfway mark in the 22-bike field. This system has been in place for the past two decades.

Later this year, a fully automated system will move to the bike itself to replace the old system. At that point, fans will be able to identify the leader regardless of where he is on track.

The leader lights were tested in the second Anaheim round this year. An example can be seen at the 1:45 mark in the video above on the No. 69 bike.

“What we don’t want to do is move too fast, where it’s confusing to people,” said Mike Muye, senior director of operations for Supercross and SMX in a press release. “We’ve really just focused on the leader at this point with the thought that maybe down the road we’ll introduce others.”

Scheduled to debut with the first SuperMotocross World Championship race at zMax Dragway, located just outside the Charlotte Motor Speedway, a 3D carbon fiber-printed LED light will be affixed to each motorcycle. Ten timing loops positioned around the track will trigger the lights of the leader, which will turn green.

SMX’s partner LiveTime Scoring helped develop and implement the system that has been tested in some form or fashion since 2019.

When the leader lights are successfully deployed, SuperMotocross will explore expanding the system to identify the second- and third-place riders. Depending on need and fan acceptance, more positions could be added.

SuperMotocross is exploring future enhancements, including allowing for live fan interaction with the lights and ways to use the lighting system during the race’s opening ceremony.

Read more about SuperMotocross