Jon Zimmer Jr. Rules Racing and Skills Before Team Grave Digger Pulls Ahead Through a Wild Mix of Monster Trucks and Freestyle Motocross.

August 23rd, 2026

The Florida Panthers’ ice was nowhere to be found Sunday afternoon. In its place, Amerant Bank Arena had become a rutted playground of dirt, ramps and crushed obstacles, trading slapshots for shock absorbers as Monster Jam roared into Sunrise.

Long before the first timed run, one detail offered an important warning: protective earmuffs covered the heads of small children throughout the building. They were less a fashion accessory and more survival gear. Once the engines fired, the growl vibrated through the seats and rattled around the enclosed arena with enough force to make every chest cavity part of the sound system.

The opening presentation made the trucks feel like heavyweight fighters entering the ring. The arena lights dropped, cabins glowed in neon green, red and amber, and the machines emerged beneath a massive patriotic display across the video board. It was loud, theatrical and wonderfully excessive.

Monster Jam also found ways to place its youngest fans inside the experience. A fan challenge asked children to predict a winner through a video montage featuring three trucks. The winning group appeared on the enormous scoreboard and earned a post-event opportunity to meet all the drivers. For children already wearing truck shirts and gripping miniature replicas, that prize might as well have been a backstage pass to the moon.

The opening JCB Racing competition stripped the formula down to one unforgiving question: Who could navigate the compact course fastest?

Drivers accelerated across the uneven dirt, attacked tight turns and attempted to keep their enormous trucks settled while every bump threatened to steal precious fractions of a second. The massive tires kicked up dirt, suspensions compressed and bodies rocked from side to side as each driver raced against the clock.

Jon Zimmer Jr. made the course look smaller than it was. Behind the wheel of Terminal Velocity, he recorded a winning time of 10.550 seconds, the quickest run of Monster Jam’s entire three-event weekend in Sunrise. It was the first indication that the afternoon might belong to him.

Speed soon gave way to controlled absurdity in the 2-Wheel Skills Challenge, where balance, creativity and nerve became more valuable than the clock.

El Toro Loco immediately upped the ante with a mesmerizing moonwalk and nose-pick combination. The bright orange bull rose nearly vertical, balancing its 12,000-pound frame on its front tires while the rear wheels hovered overhead. For a moment, the snarling machine appeared almost weightless, a ridiculous sentence to write about something weighing roughly as much as three passenger vehicles.

Classroom Crusher followed with a lesson of its own. The flame-covered, school-bus-inspired truck climbed into another towering two-wheel display and held its body upright before returning all four tires to the dirt. It was one class where nobody dared put their head down.

Sparkle Smash added a burst of unicorn-colored chaos, lifting its pink-and-purple body toward the ceiling. Its whimsical design created a hilarious contrast with the precision required to keep such a hulking machine balanced on only two tires.

Terminal Velocity then began stringing tricks together. Rather than relying on one isolated stunt, Zimmer Jr. flowed through a series of combinations that displayed control, variety and growing confidence. The run pushed Terminal Velocity into the lead and forced everyone remaining to chase it.

Grave Digger answered by going after surreal air. The iconic black-and-green truck launched completely off the dirt, all four tires hanging above the arena floor before the machine twisted sideways on its descent. It was the sort of visual Monster Jam sells so well: several tons of steel and fiberglass briefly ignoring gravity because the driver asked nicely.

Excaliber followed with a steep nose stand that exposed nearly its entire chassis to the crowd. JCB DIGatron then planted its construction-themed front end and climbed nearly upright. Driver Tony Ochs added a wonderfully cocky flourish by briefly removing the steering wheel while the truck remained balanced, as if controlling a monster truck on two wheels had suddenly become too easy.

Still, nobody displaced Zimmer Jr. Terminal Velocity won the Skills Challenge with a score of 9.459, giving its driver victories in the afternoon’s first two truck competitions. The reigning 2026 Arena Championship Series East champion had delivered the weekend’s fastest racing time and its best Sunday skills score before intermission.

Monster Jam returned from the break with fewer tires but no reduction in nerve.

Freestyle motocross riders raced toward a metal launch ramp, shot high above the arena floor and descended toward a massive airbag. The motorcycles looked almost tiny after sharing the dirt with Monster Jam trucks, right up until the riders began flipping them backward several stories above the ground.

Backflips, aerial extensions and side-by-side launches kept the show moving without a post-halftime lull. The bikes crossed through the air while riders stretched away from their seats, rotated upside down and somehow found the handlebars again before gravity collected its debt.

That crossover is the hook behind Monster Jam’s Freestyle Mania format, which combines the traditional Racing, 2-Wheel Skills and Freestyle truck competitions with two freestyle motocross events in a team-based contest. The motorcycles did not feel like filler between truck runs. They brought a different rhythm and a fresh sense of danger to the same dirt-covered canvas.

The trucks later returned for Freestyle, where JCB DIGatron earned the competition’s top score of 9.238. Grave Digger and Terminal Velocity finished tied at 20 overall points, but Grave Digger was officially listed as the Sunday event winner, allowing Team Grave Digger to pull out the victory after Zimmer Jr. had controlled the early rounds.

Monster Jam’s appeal comes from that constant clash of contradictions. The machines are enormous, yet drivers balance them with delicacy. The trucks look like cartoon characters, yet the athletes inside require extraordinary timing and precision. The event pounds the senses, yet some of its most memorable moments involve children getting pulled onto the video board or earning the chance to meet their heroes afterward.

Amerant Bank Arena has heard plenty of noise over the years, but Monster Jam brought its own frequency. It came through the floor, shook the seats and turned a Sunday afternoon into a celebration of speed, suspension and machines doing things their weight should never allow.

Judging by the earmuffs, wide eyes and children refusing to look away, Sunrise was more than happy to get rattled.