Round Five of the Monster Jam Fox Sports 1 Championship Series brought the Stone Crusher Monster Truck team to St. Louis, Missouri’s Edward Jones Dome for the next event on the season. The previous weekend in Indianapolis saw Steve Sims and the Stone Crusher break through and score their first point on the season, and were looking to gain some more on the massive floor in St. Louis.
While the 2015 season got off to a tough start in Houston, the Stone Crusher team has been strong in every event since and been one of the more consistent trucks in the field weekly. However the points scale for the series is based solely on wins, so points have been very hard to come by. Sims and the Stone Crusher looked competitive in Friday night’s practice session when they found themselves fourth at the end of the night. They looked to build on that performance in qualifying Saturday night.
Qualifying saw Sims line up against his son Steven in Hooked as they both looked to chase the point for fastest qualifier in the standings. Both were on their way to good passes, but Steven bicycled Hooked before a broken spindle broke off his right front tire. With the attention going to Steven, it was Steve who put together a strong run and qualified seventh. Sixth place qualifier Madusa took a hard crash after the finishline and would be unable to return, so Stone Crusher was bumped up to sixth. Unfortunately for Sims, his good luck in racing would end there, as breakage in Round One would end his racing efforts early.
The pits were busy for the Stone Crusher team as crew chief Tommy Powers and Gary Wiggins thrashed to get both Stone Crusher and Hooked back for freestyle. Their hard work paid off as both trucks were ready for action when they were called to the floor. Sims put together a strong run with some nice jumps and hitting everything on the floor while filling both regulation and bonus time. His efforts would be rewarded with a score of 33 and good enough for seventh place on the night.
St. Louis saw another strong performance from the Stone Crusher team despite some mechanical issues. Their next stop on the Monster Jam Fox Sports 1 Championship Series takes them on their first ever visit to Anaheim, California and Angels Stadium next weekend. Be sure to catch the St. Louis Monster Jam on Fox Sports 1 next Sunday, February 8th at 12:00pm ET/9:00am PT.
(Photo By: Brett Moist Photography)