Monster Jam drivers Colt Stephens and Tony Ochs were tasked with a difficult challenge in 2023: Hop behind the wheel of the new ThunderROARus Monster Jam truck and show to fans that this truck could perform as good as it looked.
Both of them delivered, with Ochs placing fourth in Arena Series Central, and Stephens placing eighth overall in Stadium Series Blue after some time off.
Stephens then went on to Monster Jam World Finals XXII in Nashville, TN, where he won the Freestyle World Championship, giving ThunderROARus its first major trophy.
Now, Stephens has to back that up by competing in the ultra-competitive Stadium Championship Series West tour in 2024.
“I’m excited for 2024,” said Stephens. “2023 was crazy. New truck, haven’t been in the truck in a while, and then going and winning was awesome. But I have so much momentum going into 2024 now. I’m excited. I do have a target on my back. Being a World Finals Champion in ThunderROARus, I think this is going to drive me to drive hard. I really like the tour that we’re on. I think this is a powerhouse tour and I think that’s going to push me in the truck.”
Stephens adds that not only does he want to perform well for himself and his team, but also because ThunderROARus has quickly turned into a fan-favorite truck.
“You know, it’s very interesting... I know when we come out with a new identity or a new Monster Jam truck, it’s always interesting to see how the fans are going to take it. I knew that, with it being a dinosaur, that it was going to be good. But I think the color scheme took it over the top and I think the fans really liked seeing that truck.
“I think it’s growing, especially with the new ThunderROARus Drop toy. I mean, I have a couple of those things now. I’m 36 years old and I absolutely love that thing.
“So I think it’s just going to keep growing, I think the fan base is going to get stronger and stronger. I cannot wait until I pull out on the track and I hear the entire crowd roar.”
Despite this, Stephens added that if there was any pressure on himself in 2023, it was more because of the fact that he had spent some time out of the truck, rather than the new identity he was trying to help build.
“The problem I had this year, was that I struggled on Skills. Coming from the Diesel Brothers’ BroDozer, it was really hard to do some of those Skills moves. So I had pretty much four years of down time of being able to do Skills, so I was trying to make up for those four years in one season.
“So it took me a while to get to where I needed to be in Skills. But then I ended up getting a win, which is pretty crazy. I never expected to get a win in Skills this year, especially with the caliber of drivers that were on that tour. But we did get one. But I’ll tell you what, I’ve been working on some stuff this summer. It was my whole goal after World Finals. We got a Freestyle World Championship, we need to get the Overall now. We need to get a Racing win. We need to go out and be competitive in Skills. If I can do that, then we’ll end up with that Overall, because I want to get some Overall Event wins this year and I wanted to keep that truck on top as much as possible.
“We may have won a Championship, but we ain’t done. We’re just getting started. We’re getting warmed up, and we’re bringing the ROAR every single weekend.”
See Colt Stephens in ThunderROARus in action in San Francisco on January 6.
