Joe Sylvester with His Bad Habit Monster Truck Break World Record Jump
- Oct 18, 2013
And it's not every day that one wakes up as Joe Sylvester, longtime pilot of the Bad Habit Monster Truck. Sylvester, the 2013 Monster Jam Young Guns Shootout winner, broke a world record when he jumped his truck 237-feet, six-inches. The previous record was just over 214-feet.
The 10,000-pound truck broke the record at the Cornfield 500 in Pennsylvania, taking off at 85mph in order to safely travel the distance needed for the record. He was motivated by one thing. "The same thing that motivates me every day to push my limits," Sylvester said. "The rush of adrenaline." Joe Sylvester made a similar jump in 2010, breaking the world record. That record was broken again last year, setting the state for Bad Habit to return to the Cornfield 500 and take another shot at history. "To be honest, there was a lot more preparation involved with the first jump in 2010," Sylvester said. "After getting the ramp angles figured out a couple years ago, we knew it was simply going to take more speed to propel the truck past the 214-foot mark. "Using the same ramp from 2010, we just cleaned it up a bit and made several speed test runs with various sets of gears to get the truck to optimum speed."
In the video of the jump, put together by KMC Wheels, one of Joe Sylvester's many sponsors, the truck pretty clearly gets off line at the end of the jump. That definitely wasn't planned. "My successful jumps from a couple years ago didn't hurt, but this one did a little when I landed so hard on the front wheels," Sylvester said. "Right about when the truck started nosing over, I just saw a replay of my practice jump in 2010 going through my head, and I immediately smashed the throttle to the floor." That replay was of one of the worst monster truck crashes in recent memory. While practicing for his first record-breaking attempt, Bad Habit nosed too far forward on landing, catching the front end and cartwheeling the truck, ripping it to pieces.
This time, things were different. But it took a while before Sylvester knew he was out of harm's way. "Once the front wheels hit and I throttled out of an endo and the rear wheels touched back down," he said. "That was quite a relief. Then I had to get the thing slowed down and under control with absolutely no steering because the impact sheered the bolts off of my front tie rod." In the end, the jump was a success, and it helped Sylvester gain some more exposure for his team. Now, he has his sights set on 2014, where he will jump out of a monster truck and into a Pro Light in the TORC series. "We are ready and excited to begin competing in this rapidly growing sport," Joe Sylvester said. "But yes, I do have plans in the back of my head to jump a monster truck again. I vowed that 300 feet is possible, and I won't stop until I reach that point." The Bad Habit monster truck was equipped with K&N Filters when it set sail. "I run K&N Filters on everything from the air filter in my rig to the fuel and oil filters on the monster truck," Sylvester said. "They keep us performing at our best and never let us down." |
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| Related K&N News Article about Joe Sylvester: Joe Sylvester Wins the Young Guns Shootout and a Spot in Monster Jam World Finals |
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