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951 of 996 DOCUMENTS
St. Petersburg Times (Florida)
January 20, 1990
BYLINE: JON WILSON
LENGTH: 593 words
DATELINE: PORT RICHEY
Ticket information, 5C
PORT RICHEY - It was like, oh, let's say a high school linebacker sacking Joe Montana.
Clint Dagit, the youngest driver on the national monster truck circuit, beat Bigfoot - the machine whose popu-larity took big-wheel motorsports from county fairs to the land's largest stadiums.
It happened last Saturday night in the New Orleans Superdome.
Dagit's Thumper II, owned by Clint's daddy Earl, raced Bigfoot in a flying duel over seven cars. Dagit won it by three-quarters of a tire length.
"I was the happiest I've ever been," said Dagit, a student at Gulf High School in Pasco County. He has been driving the monster trucks with the tires tall as horses since he was 15 1/2 years old.
A rematch takes place tonight at Tampa Stadium, where a crowd of more than 60,000 is expected for the sixth annual U.S. Hot Rod Superbowl of Motorsports. Racing begins at 8 p.m., right after the 7:30 p.m. Ugly Truck contest.
Dagit's rival is John Piant, a 26-year-old former motocross champion.
"I hope the crowd will be pulling for me because I'm a hometown guy," said Dagit, who spent part of Thursday evening showing off Thumper II in front of a Port Richey restaurant.
"Who drives this?" a young woman asked.
"I do, ma'am," Clint responded.
"How old are you?" the woman asked, an inquisitorial note in her voice.
"Seventeen, ma'am."
"Cool," the woman said. "Neat "
Dagit, who isn't much older than many of the monster-truck circuit's biggest fans, spends weekdays in school. But when Gulf High lets out at 2:15 p.m. Fridays, it's off to competition. The circuit runs all over the nation.
Earl Dagit, 47, got into the monster truck business in mid-1985. He and Clint take Thumper II, an eme-rald-green pick-up chassis mounted on 66-inch tires, to maybe 40 events a year. The elder Dagit owns a four-wheel drive shop in Holiday, but the truck, worth about $ 100,000, is essentially his full-time occupation.
The living comes from prize money - first-place purses usually run between $ 2,000 and $ 3,500 - and sales of monster-truck novelty items.
Big-wheel events generally include racing, weight-pulling and car-crunching. But the Dagits concentrate on the monster-truck event, which is basically a drag race with other monsters over ramps and cars.
The competition has become so popular that Camel is now sponsoring a 25-event, $ 100,000 series sanctioned by the United States Hot Rod Association.
Besides Tampa Stadium, the series will visit Madison Square Garden, Houston's Astrodome, the New Orleans Superdome and Seattle's Kingdome this year.
One wonders how the 11-year-old phenomenon of monster-truck racing grew so popular.
"It's the kids," said Earl Dagit. "And the little kids drag out the big kids" - meaning mom and pop.
"I just hope we haven't come too far with the sport. The kids like all the noise and the crunching. Now we're getting so fast, we're flying over cars at 40 or 50 mph," he said.
"I hope it doesn't discourage the kids. They're the ones who brought us up to where we are."
LOAD-DATE: November 8, 1992
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Times Publishing Company
955 of 996 DOCUMENTS
St. Petersburg Times (Florida)
December 21, 1989, Thursday, City Edition
Rudolph couldn't pull these sleds // Hot rod 'Superbowl' is coming to town
BYLINE: Dan Klepal
SECTION: SPORTS; Pg. 8C
LENGTH: 253 words
DATELINE: TAMPA
TAMPA - Santa Claus arrived at Tampa Stadium on Wednesday. He rode to a press conference not in a red sleigh guided by reindeer but in Southern Hustler, a $ 100,000 supercharged monster truck that will be partici-pating in the 1990 U.S. Hot Rod Superbowl of Motorsports on Jan. 20.
The sixth annual event drew 62,000 fans last year - one of the largest turnouts in the country, according to Mike Boykin, executive director of Turnstyle Advertising - and will feature a host of new activities in 1990.
"We'll be having a nostalgic-class truck pull this year," Boykin said. "I think the fans will get a real kick out of seeing '57 Chevys and other classics pulling the weight sled."
The biggest difference from years past, however, will be the sponsorship of Camel and the R.J. Reynolds to-bacco company.
"Before there was no continuity in the sport. Now with Camel's involvement we have a point fund and a set of rules established," said Bill West, president of Turnstyle Advertising. "Camel's involvement will allow us to crown a national champion in the mud bog racing and monster truck events."
The Monster Truck Series will showcase 16 vehicles, up from eight last year, while the mud bog racing event will feature 27 vehicles. In addition, Vorian, a car that transforms into a 30-foot, flame-shooting robot, will make an appearance at the show.
LOAD-DATE: November 10, 1992
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
Times Publishing Company
956 of 996 DOCUMENTS
The Financial Post (Toronto, Canada)
November 24, 1989, Friday, DAILY EDITION
Monster trucks move further across nation as rules change
BYLINE: Cecil Foster
SECTION: SECTION 1, NEWS; Pg. 3
LENGTH: 479 words
Canadian truckers will be allowed to operate monster vehicles from Quebec to the west coast when the lone hol-dout, Ontario, allows longer trucks on its highways next year.
It is a clear win for the trucking lobby which has been arguing for longer trucks since 1980 and a defeat of an in-formal coalition of railways, automobile users and unions.
Ontario Transportation Minister William Wrye said the province will allow truck-trailer combinations to a maxi-mum of 25 metres long - an additional two metres - and that it will allow the operation of 53-foot trailers.
The announcement was immediately criticized by Canadian National Railway Co., which has been leading the charge against longer trucks. CN claims the longer trucks will lead to greater wear on national highways, add to con-gestion and pollution problems and result in higher maintenance cost to taxpayers.
But more important for CN, the longer trucks will steal traffic away from the railway.
The Canadian Automobile Association said the longer trucks will cause more accidents because of crowding on the highways.
''We are very disappointed with this decision,'' said Pat Curram, an association spokeswoman in Toronto. ''At a meeting two weeks ago they told us they were not thinking of doing it.''
Motorists are concerned about the excessive spray and splash from the trucks, from being followed too closely and by their speeds, she said.
But the move was applauded by the Ontario Trucking Association. David Bradley, the trucking association's vice-president and general manager, said the longer trucks are safe. Operating them will add ''hundred of millions of dollars (annually) to the Canadian economy.''
It will also ensure Ontario does not remain ''an economic island,'' sandwiched between Quebec and the western provinces which all use the longer trucks. The trucks are not permitted east of Quebec.
In making the announcement at the trucking association's annual convention in Toronto, Wrye referred to a study by the industry group, the Road Transport Association of Canada, indicating longer trucks are more stable than conventional rigs.
(Critics say the road transport group is too closely tied to trucking and road builders not to be biased.)
By having more space for drivers to sleep, the longer trucks will allow drivers to comply with a national safety code which stipulates drivers must rest at regular intervals on long trips, Wrye said.
''Our ministry review further concluded that adding to existing capacity could mean fewer trucks on the road, therefore less congestion, fewer emissions into the environment and lower fuel consumption,'' he said.
The announcement ended years of lobbying. In 1981, the Ontario government received a report from Queen's University professor Robert Uffen which said the longer trucks are not safe.
LOAD-DATE: December 9, 1997
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
TYPE: NEWS
Copyright 1989 Financial Post Ltd.
969 of 996 DOCUMENTS
Advertising Age
August 29, 1988
Monsters on the loose;
Big truck, sexy driver and plenty of destruction packs 'em in -- and mar-keters take heed
BYLINE: By Bob Garfield, Associate editor Denise Frenner coordinated this report on Sports Marketing
SECTION: SPECIAL REPORT; Pg. S-14
LENGTH: 864 words
Never mind free speech and failed collectivization. The difference between America and Russia is in the realm of large-vehicle entertainment.
In the Soviet Union, God help them, there are no monster trucks.
In the U.S.S.R, there is no opportunity for a nice Jewish girl from Flushing (or, say, Minsk) to dress up in a skin-tight jumpsuit; hop aboard a souped-up, $150,000, seven-ton pickup truck with 66-inch tires; jam her stiletto-heeled boot to the floor; crush a stack of junked automobiles and charge 10,000 Colorado Springsians (or, say, Muscovites) $10 apiece to witness the spectacle -- while promoting a chain of mini-marts in the bargain.
I refer to what went on at Colorado Springs' Penrose Stadium not long ago. I refer to Monster Truck Madness. And I refer, of course, to the American Dream.
"So here I am," says Meridith May Doulton, the world's only female professional monster truck driver, "putting the big tires on the big machine and 5-ton military axles with 10-ton ends and 468 Chevy motor. I feel powerful, and I love knowing I'm at the mercy of 750 horsepower."
Is this a great country, or what? When Meridith was a teen-ager back in Queens, she would have been content to be a novelist and teacher. Big deal. Instead, she gets to throttle up the am/pm Boss and take on the Skoal Bandit, the Copenhagen/Skoal Crusher, the Duroliner Giant and other 4x4 leviathans in a battle of automotive muscle comparing in drama to a World Wrestling Federation match or any ninja movie you can name.
We're talking totally awesome. And we're also talking capitalism at work.
"We've been involved with these trucks, oh gosh, four or five years now," says Garnis Hagen, director of field promotions for U.S. Tobacco Co., marketer of Skoal, Skoal Bandits and Copenhagen brand smokeless tobacco prod-ucts. "Basically, what they do for us is build brand awareness. They attract a crowd, many of which are our custom-ers."
Yes, says Joe Tebo, manager of sales development for Atlantic Richfield Co.'s am/pm mini-mart division. "That Boss is tremendous. When we park it in the driveway [of an am/pm store] it creates a lot of interest. It meets our de-mographics."
Thus, an evening of wholsome family fun is also an exercise in consumer awareness. U.S. Tobacco and Arco buy Monster Truck Madness sponsorships, and hundreds of thousands of people in stadiums and fairgrounds around the country get to be awed by 750-horsepower billboards.
"U.S. Tobacco says that each truck generates 97 million gross impressions," explains Seth Doulton, who (with his car-stomping wife Meridith) runs Golden State Promotions, the Santa Barbara, Calif., operator of the Monster Truck Madness tour.
All those gross, gross impressions, the Doultons say, come for a sponsorship fee of $100,000 to $150,000 a year -- which to them translates into a boss crusher of a promotional vehicle and makes them wonder why marketers aren't lining up to get involved.
"We're talking about a [annual sponsorship] price that's equivalent to one collegiate football game," Seth says. "One ad. Not NFL. Collegiate. On a Saturday afternoon, when everybody is out doing something else."
Obviously, sponsorship-wise, Nina Ricci and L'eggs and even Wash 'n' Dry are out of the question. In the macho world of brand-affiliated mutant utility vehicles, a truck called the Moist Towelette will not fly.
The Monster Truck Madness sponsor must be comfortable with a Monster Truck Madness-type name -- like the Hematoma or the Wad O'Spit or some such. To the Doultons a brewery would be just ideal.
Alas, Meridith says, "They get a million proposals a day. And if you don't know somebody, you can't get your foot in the door."
OK, other truck promoters do have beer tie-ins. Anheuser-Busch, for instance, has hooked up with SRO Pace of Hot Springs, Ark. And United Sports Promotions, Kansas City, Mo., runs the Coors Motor Spectacular. But those promoters use monsters only as the grand finale to events that also encompass truck pulls and mud-bog races.
Seth Doulton's guiding principle is that people will pay cash money to see automotive pituitary cases, even if there isn't a mud bog in sight. And he took a cue from auto racing by soliciting sponsorships for individual trucks.
When he had that epiphany, Meridith was neither a French teacher nor a spouse. She was a Los Angeles ra-dio-station promotions director and Seth's business consultant. This was also long before they hit on the most novel gimmick yet -- the monster driverette -- a vocation that is just brimming with irony.
"When I was a little girl," she says, before she dreamed of being a novelist, "I wanted to be boss of the world. I used to play with my little farm animals that I had. One of the farm animals was the boss of the world. And he -- it was a he -- would just make decisions for all the other farm animals and all the other farmers and cowboys and horses."
Well, that never came true. It's a totalitarian dream, frankly, and this is America, land of freedom and mini-marts. So, no, Meridith can't be the boss. But you should see her drive it.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: Photo, The world's only female monster truck driver, Meridith May Doulton, and her Monster truck, the am/pm Boss: "I feel powerful, and I love knowing I'm at the mercy of 750 horsepower", Truckin' Magazine
Copyright 1988 Crain Communications, Inc.;
