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 MINNEAPOLIS, MN (February 19) – John Seasock and the T-Maxx™ monster truck came ever so close to extending their two-event winning streak Saturday, but the third time wasn’t the charm for Traxxas’ entry in the United States Hot Rod Association Monster Jam® at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome.
Seasock drove the full-size replica of Traxxas’ award-winning radio-controlled monster truck to victory over Eradicator®, Maximum Destruction® and Destroyer® before coming up short against Grave Digger® in the finals. The T-Maxx also put together its best freestyle performance of the season, but the 24-point score was four points behind defending World Champion Dennis Anderson in the Grave Digger.
“I was really happy with it,” Seasock said. “It would have been nice to go out and pull out a victory for the Traxxas team, but it just wasn’t in the cards. We had to settle for the bridesmaid’s role that night. Beating those other good trucks and losing to the World Champion isn’t bad at all. We wanted it really bad; we gave it everything we had. The truck was awesome. I just couldn’t get it around the course quite fast enough to beat Dennis. But we’ll meet again, hopefully in Las Vegas (in the World Finals March 19th).”
Seasock defeated fellow Pennsylvanian and former teammate Andy Slifko in the First Round. Slifko has been a sentimental favorite since he lost his trailer in a fire during the trip home following a Monster Jam at the Pontiac Silverdome in January.
“Andy and I are still good friends,” Seasock said. “We had a good run against him. Something happened to his truck – he broke a shock or something – in the middle of his run. I’m not sure when it happened or anything. We were just trying to run our own race.”
“Our truck worked very well. Mike (Hoy, the team’s crew chief) had all the nuts and bolts tightened and the truck ran awesome. He gave me a really good piece of equipment. He had the shocks set up differently – at a different height than usual – for the ‘roundy-round’ parts and it worked really well.”
Maximum Destruction, driven by six-time USHRA world champion Tom Meents, was the fastest qualifier in the Metrodome event. His loss to Seasock and the T-Maxx in the Second Round marked the first time this season he has lost in a Monster Jam televised by the SPEED Channel.
“We got by Eradicator in the First Round and then took on Maximum Destruction next,” Seasock said. “When Tom came in from his qualifying run, there was something wrong with his steering. We ran over and tried to help him fix it. You want to have a heads-up race and not win by default. We went out to race and something happened to his truck. He backed out of the way so I could keep on going and get a good time for lane choice in the next round.”
Seasock’s victory over Destroyer in the semifinals pushed him into the finals for the fifth time in his last six Monster Jam events.
“After we beat Destroyer, we went into the finals against Grave Digger,” Seasock said. “I tried to run the best race I could, but I couldn’t get it to slide around the corners as well as I wanted. I had the T-Maxx up on two wheels in the last corner. I didn’t want to stop and put the two wheels back on the ground, so I tried to bicycle over the ramp and across the finish line. I really wanted to win and I tried everything I could, but Dennis was the better man that night. Dennis had some problems in freestyle the last time he was at the Metrodome, so he wanted to redeem himself.”
Seasock brought the 63,000-plus fans to their feet as he put the Traxxas T-Maxx on display with a rousing freestyle performance.
“We went out for freestyle and everything was going really well,” Seasock said. “We had a good pass going. We got some big air and some really good wheelies. I went into a doughnut in the last 11 seconds of the pass and the back end came around and the truck slammed to the ground. It was like somebody turning a pancake over and their hand slipped. I thought everything was going great and all of a sudden the truck is on its lid. We still scored a 24 and Dennis went out and got a 28, so we finished second.
“We’ve worked really hard with this new T-Maxx to drive it straight to the top. We’re keeping the intensity up, gunning for a position in the World Finals in Las Vegas (March 19th). The T-Maxx fan base is growing every time we compete or display the truck. I can’t thank Traxxas enough making the T-Maxx possible. We’re doing everything we can to give them a truck and team they’re proud to support.”
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