Despite being a relative newcomer to the sport, Steve Sims has already become popular with the fans and with his Monster Jam competitors for many reasons, including his cheerful “we’re here to have a good time” personality and his obvious dedication to doing whatever it takes to make his team the best it can be. The respect he and his team have already earned was evident when they took home the coveted Team of the Year trophy at this year’s Monster Jam Awards ceremony the night after the NGK Spark Plugs World Finals in Las Vegas. That is really an amazing accomplishment for a team that wasn’t even in existence five years ago.
Watching Steve Sims strong debut this year in the finals driving his Stone Crusher Ford it’s easy to see that Steve and his team plan on being big time players in the sport for years to come. And that’s amazing itself when you consider that Sims got into the sport more by coincidence than maybe anyone else we’ve seen enter the game. For Sims, his entry into Monster Jam was more about loving the sport as a fan, just happening to live close to the biggest name in the industry, and having a company of his own, unrelated to Monster Jam, that could provided a product that Dennis Anderson wanted.
I asked Sims to tell me the actual story of how his foray into the world of flying 10,000 pound technological marvels through the air got started: “I’ve been watching monster trucks run ever since I was a little guy,” Sims recalled. “Actually the first time I ever saw Dennis run was he was running across the street in Chesapeake (Virginia). He was at a little tractor pull and he was doing a car crush. So we actually snuck in to watch it. To this day he still asks me for my three dollars, ‘cause he never got it.”
From there Sims went from being a fan to a participant thanks to the time tested barter system. “Tommy Powers, my Crew Chief, worked for Dennis for years, actually married to his sister. I really don’t know what happened there, but he’s not with Dennis anymore, he’s with me, he came to work for me as a truck driver,” Sims continued. “Then Dennis called up Tommy and said ‘hey, I’m thinking about some granite counter tops’, so they called me. Tommy said ‘hey, you want to put in some counter tops for Dennis?’ I said ‘yeah, that’s not a problem. But I want Grave Digger in my front yard for my kid’s birthday party, and then I’ll put him in some counter tops. It’s an even swap. You get counter tops, my kids get Digger.’ So my kids got Digger and Dennis got his tops. Then we were out there messing around in his garage and actually it was Dennis’ cousin Troy, he said ‘we ought to build a monster truck. Let’s call it Stone Crusher. Let’s build one.’ Then Dennis calls and says “I found this deal on a truck.’ Well, we’re in the car the next day, and the semi is coming home with this monster truck. We actually went and bought the old Back Draft chassis. Since then we’ve just been running hard.”
What started as a trade designed to treat his children to a unique birthday had now carried Sims into a whole new world. Buying that first truck was just the beginning. Now Sims and his team really went to work Monster Jam style. “We worked all the bugs out of that thing, and then we went and hired (former Mopar Magic driver) Gary Wiggins,” Sims explained. “We got him out in the field, and the first time I ever saw him in it he pogoed the truck and tore the whole back end off of it. I said ‘ok, we’ve got a good start here.’ I had just spent one hundred and thirty grand and there it was all wrapped up in pieces. But we went on, went out in 2005, our first season, and had a good year. We were still working bugs out then.”
Now Steve Sims was a full fledged Monster Jam truck owner. Then an unexpected injury forced Sims from behind the scenes and on to the Monster Jam front lines as a driver. “We came out in 2006 and went to the Pontiac Silverdome and Wiggins got hurt. I needed a driver, so I said ‘all right, I’ll do it.’ They threw me in the truck,” Sims remembered. “The first time I ever ran the truck I was racing against Gary Porter in Greensboro and I landed with the brakes on. I said, ‘oh man, this little building, the track’s running out’ and landed with the brakes on. Porter came up to me afterward and said ‘hey, I know you beat me, but you’ve got to let off of the brake. That’s not a good deal.’ So a lot of the guys: Gary Porter, Gary Wiggins, Dennis, Tom (Meents), Carl (Van Horn). I mean everybody has helped me and given me pointers. I’ve run equipment all of my life. Ever since I was a little guy I’ve been running bobcats, excavators, bulldozers, driving trucks, dump trucks, so maybe that helped, but they said I was a natural at it (driving a monster). And I’ve been running ever since.”
Sims is building a following as a top level Monster Jam driver more and more every time he rolls Stone Crusher onto a track. As an owner, though, he earned instant credibility by committing from day one to building his Monster Jam operation the right way, whatever it takes to get the top. “Definitely. We don’t spare any expense on parts or whatever we need,” Sims said in explaining his ownership philosophy. With Stone Crusher up and running, it was just natural for Sims then to expand his team. “Then the second truck came into the deal because after I started driving then Gary got better and was ready to get back in the truck. That’s when I found out that the old Mopar Magic, his original chassis that he built was up for sale. So I decided that I wanted my Stone Crusher back to drive and I wanted Gary in his truck. So I went out and bought it for him. Then I leased the Pure Adrenalin chassis from Randy Brown for the first quarter of 2007 and we ran it, so then we were able to buy that from Randy Brown, we threw the Mopar Magic body on that chassis and Wiggins debuted the new Mopar Magic in Naples, Florida, in 2007.” From that point Sims has balanced his role as an emerging driver with his responsibilities owning two high profile Monster Jam machines.
Clearly he has done both well, earning kudos as a driver at WF9, especially for his crowd pleasing freestyle performance, and then being totally shocked to hear his group named “Team of the Year” at the awards ceremony. “We were really surprised to get the Team of the Year award,” Sims acknowledged. “We really have tried to find the best people. Tommy, he knows these trucks from the front to the back. I don’t have to worry about anything when I get in the truck. He has got it top notch. There’s no expense spared. Whatever he needs, from the smallest nut and bolt to a brand new engine, we get it.”
As the team owner Sims has been able to get good people to work for him and he gives them the resources to get the job done right. As a driver it is up to Sims himself to develop his own skills and to try to improve every time out. “It has definitely been a very big learning experience,” Sims pointed out. “I’m used to setting stone and putting counter tops in. Now I’m in this truck getting beat around trying to find the right seat, the right shocks. I mean Tommy took the shocks to the Digger shop and got them dialed in. Now they are actually setting their trucks up to our set-up. Then I got this new ISP seat. I had bent several other seats and I told Tommy ‘I’m tired of getting beat around, I have to go back to work on Monday morning.’ So now with this seat I don’t move, I’m more comfortable than I’ve ever been, and I’m hitting stuff harder. I have to ask ‘was that any good, did I get any air?’ I really can’t tell ‘cause of the new seat. They told me ‘look, you’re getting plenty of air – now you are starting to bend housings and spindles.’ We bent the housing and tore up a brand new body at the World Finals, and I did not get hurt a bit. I got out the next day and I felt great. I had one little bruise under my arm. The innovation and the technology that has come to these trucks is amazing. I can’t imagine what Dennis and Gary went through in those old leaf spring trucks. There is no doubt that I would not want to have been in one of those.”
Steve Sims has been able to put a top level team together in what seems like an amazingly short period of time, and they’ve already experienced great success. Sims says that despite the success already, there’s much more that they want to accomplish. Sims plans to be a major player in the Monster Jam world well into the future. “I think we can. I looked into this for the long run,” Sims told me. “We are having an awesome time. We’re really having fun, and that’s why we’re here. If we make money, that’s good. If we don’t, we’re still here to have fun. Like I’ve said before, this is not my full time business. So I can put everything that we make in Monster Jam back into these trucks. Everything we earn goes back into the trucks to keep these things top-notch. If we turn a profit one day, that might make me happy. But I still think we’re going to end up getting new trailers, new haulers, new parts, and then when all that stuff is paid for maybe we’ll be able to get a pack of gum or something,” he said while laughing.
In less than four years Sims has seen his start up Monster Jam operation move quickly to the sport’s biggest stages, and what a year 2008 has been, being named Team of the Year and having Stone Crusher debut impressively at the Monster Jam NGK Spark Plugs World Finals. The next goal: that has to be to see his Mopar Magic truck, now being piloted by Carl Van Horn, earn a spot along with Stone Crusher in World Finals 10. “That would be an awesome call to get,” Sims said when I asked him what he thinks it will feel like if both of his trucks get invited to Las Vegas in the future.” We were very surprised to get the call this year. I mean not being out here all that long, there are a lot of guys who have been out here a lot longer and definitely paid their dues. Some people asked ‘why is the Stone Crusher here and why isn’t this other truck here?’ I guess we did good all year and that’s what they (Monster Jam officials) told me. They said I had earned my spot. I told them that I thought I could handle it and I would try not to let them down. That was the biggest thing, was staying calm. You know, not trying to be the hot shot. I mean I wanted to go out there and win just like anybody else. But I went out there, made the first hit and I did not feel comfortable, so I backed up a little on the next one. Because I just did not want to go out there and make one or two hits with that Stone Crusher Ford and let everybody say’ oh yeah, look at that rookie out there, he’s upside down already.’ So I wanted to play it just a little bit safe at the start. My whole thought was just run that time out, cut it loose and whatever happens, happens. “That’s exactly what he did, filling the clock with a freestyle that was among the best at Monster Jam’s greatest event. If Sims has his way, that’s just the beginning, and the best is yet to come.
