It took all 10 events to come up with a champion for the 2017 FS1 West Series and, in the end, one point decided the outcome.
Todd LeDuc and Monster Energy® claimed the title in a season that could be best be described as “up and down”. When the series opened in Anaheim, Carl Van Horn was at the wheel of Monster Energy and LeDuc was named to the seat right after that. LeDuc won his first Freestyle in the truck in San Diego the following week and picked up the event championship. A setback came the following week when Monster Energy was unable to perform for Freestyle, losing valuable points.
The stop in Glendale was a key turning point as Monster Energy doubled down to move within 10 points of series leader Neil Elliott in Max-DTM. The fortunes changed at the next stop with Monster Energy taking the point lead after the Sunday show in Houston. The series moved to Jacksonville, which started well with a Saturday Racing win. Disaster came on Sunday when Monster Energy did not qualify for Racing, losing key points and the series lead.
The series finale in Atlanta would feature Saturday and Sunday shows. At the end of the Saturday event, Monster Energy’s overall event win pushed the team ahead of Max-D by four points with one event left. Despite a Round 1 Racing loss, Monster Energy was able to put together a Freestyle run that earned second place and enough to claim the title by one point.
With the win, Todd LeDuc and Monster Energy have qualified to be a part of Monster Jam World Finals® XVIII in Las Vegas, NV on March 23-25.
