Syracuse would mark the ninth and final stop of the Monster Jam Fox Sports 1 Championship Series and close out a strong first quarter for Steven Sims and the Hooked Monster Truck team. After a good weekend in Detroit the team looked to finish up the season with another good outing as they rolled into the Carrier Dome. The start of the weekend didn’t go like they wanted as practice their practice pass resulted in a rollover. While the truck did roll, the damage was mostly cosmetic and Hooked was back to 100% the next day for Saturday’s event. The upstate New York fans packed the Carrier Dome Saturday night as well over 30,000 fans turned out for the event. Steven wasn’t gun shy at all going into qualifying after Friday’s rollover, and laid down a pass good enough for seventh place and a spot in the eight truck racing bracket. Round one matched Hooked against the strong running Zombie and unfortunately for Steven, the tacky surface in Syracuse bit him once again as he rolled the truck over in the final turn. Once again the damage was just cosmetic and Hooked would be ready to go for freestyle later in the evening.
With a seventh place freestyle finish the week before Steven and Hooked were slated to go out in the back half of the freestyle field as the ninth truck out. After some strong performances earlier in the night turned in by his fellow competitors, Steven knew the bar was high to score well but willing to push it to the absolute limit to take the lead. There was no holding back right out of the pits as Steven soared Hooked with a great slap wheelie and followed it up with some huge air. With the strongest opening to a freestyle all night Steven was on pace for a huge score but a broken spindle and bent four link bar saw the left front wheel come off of Hooked and cut his run short. The judges loved the run but couldn’t score it too high because it wasn’t a complete performance, however Steven’s efforts were good enough for seventh place in the freestyle competition.
As the Monster Jam Fox Sports 1 Championship Series has come to a close it’s time for the team to gear up for the rest of 2015 as crew chief Tommy Powers is busy at the shop getting ready for what lies ahead. Be sure to catch the Syracuse Monster Jam on Fox Sports 1 next Sunday March 22 at 12:00pm ET/9:00am PT.
(Photo By: David DeAngelis – MonsterJam.com)
