Tampa would be the first of many major stadium Monster Jam events on the 2013 schedule for Steve Sims and the Stone Crusher Monster Truck team as they entered the familiar Raymond James Stadium this past Saturday. Sims had a solid outing with the Stone Crusher in Tampa. While the Stone Crusher was eliminated early in racing by Grave Digger, Sims bounced back with a strong freestyle run to end the night. Sims, never shy of crossing up the course didn’t waste any time getting creative in his performance, opening up the run with several crossthread jumps over the biggest obstacles on the floor. As usual Sims had to get some big air underneath the Stone Crusher and did just that with big launch over the bus stack before working in some more crossthreads. Just before the end of regulation time, an awkward landing caused some damage to the rear axle and transmission, but that wouldn’t stop Sims. Determined, he battled onward with an uncooperative truck in impressive fashion. The truck simply refused to go straight but Sims worked it to his advantage with some wild crooked leaps that wowed the crowd. Broken truck or not, Sims continued to fly the Stone Crusher as hard as he could to complete bonus time. Unfortunately, one final crossthread upset the truck upon landing, sending the truck into the jammer stack and over onto it’s lid.
With only a short trip over to Orlando for the next event, the Stone Crusher making necessary repairs at the Gun Slinger shop as they prepare for next Saturday in the Citrus Bowl.
Photo By: Andrew Fielder