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St. Petersburg Times (Florida)
January 13, 1989, Friday, City Edition
MONSTER MASH // Saturday's SuperBowl of MotorSports will give fans a chance to renew their crush on Monster Trucks
BYLINE: JON WILSON
SECTION: SPORTS; Pg. 1C
LENGTH: 1054 words
DATELINE: TAMPA
TAMPA - Soon after the national anthem plays at Saturday night's SuperBowl of MotorSports, the Coca Cola Tank will chase the Pepsi Cola Truck. One vehicle at last will crush the other. Perhaps it wouldn't be right to name prematurely the ultimate cruncher, but (hint-hint) Coke is one of the sponsors of the fifth-year Tampa Stadium event.
The squashing episode represents an aspect of a sport combining outrageous show business with specialized competition stressing outlandish vehicles and startling automotive muscle.
Very startling muscle, as in 3,000 horsepower (some of the tractors) or 10-foot tires (Bigfoot the Monster Truck.) People love it.
The Tampa event draws an average of 50,000 fans, sometimes in bad weather. Promoters say they packed more than 100,000 into a show at Anaheim, Calif. And the appeal is expanding.
Tokyo will see its first big-wheel show Jan. 21. One promoter plans a seven-city European tour this year, said George Carpenter, technical show director for the Tampa extravaganza.
North American domes, stadiums and arenas more accustomed to the tread of professional ball teams offer frequent venue to the circuit - Houston's Astrodome, Seattle's Kingdome, New Orleans' Superdome, New York's Madison Square Garden and New Jersey's Meadowlands among them.
Joe Robbie Stadium, where the Miami Dolphins play, gets its first show next month.
And Diehl Wilson, a body shop owner from Winchester, Va., took his Monster Truck Virginia Giant to the West Indies for what amounted to a fortnight's festival.
"They eat, sleep and breathe Monster Trucks for two weeks," Wilson said. "On Aruba, we had 7,000 or 8,000 people, and that's on an island 18 miles by six miles."
Monster Trucks look like conventional pickups mounted on huge tires. Their axles alone might weigh up to five tons. They have four-wheel drive, special shocks and the capability of producing 1,000 horsepower. They're worth $ 100,000 and their game is pulling weight - say, 25 tons.
Such sport has its roots in old-time county fair tractor pulls. Its boom is just about a decade old.
"It seems like everybody likes destruction," said Wilson. "I don't know why. But now there's racing, and that makes it better."
Television exposure also has played a part in MonsterSports' popularity, as has the phenomenon of Bigfoot, owned by Bob Chandler of St. Louis. Chandler may have done for big-wheel motorsports what Babe Ruth did for baseball. Sometimes called the original Monster Truck, Chandler created the first one in 1973 by modifying a longbed Ford pickup.
The thing took off.
Since its introduction at early '70s pulling exhibitions, Bigfoot has showed up in movies and dozens of TV pro-grams. It has starred in commercials for Ford, McDonald's and Eveready batteries. It generated a cartoon series, a toy replica and a full line of novelties. Nowadays, Chandler has nine Bigfoot trucks valued at more than $ 1-million.
And speaking of big bucks
A Monster Truck owner might spend $ 200,000 to $ 400,000 taking his rig and crew on the road for a season, which might last six to nine months. And there's plenty of long-distance travel. For example, Wilson, the body shop owner, went to 45 events last year in the United States and Canada.
The returns aren't necessarily huge. "It's not a get-rich deal, but it's more than a hobby," Wilson said.
Said Bill West, a St. Petersburg resident who is a promoter for the Tampa show: 'It's a sportsmanship thing, a hobby for sportsmen in some aspects. For other people, it's a do-or-die situation.
"The top 10 or 20 (owners) in the country might make a (good) living."
Another, more specific example of earnings is the Mud Bogger class. Mud Boggers essentially are dragsters with modified tires that race a straight course in a mud pit. Dale Hickey, a 1978 Largo High School grad, became a Mud Bogger pro in 1983. A good year, he says, might gross an independent mudder $ 25,000 to $ 30,000. One with a major sponsor might net that much, Hickey says.
Meanwhile, big-name sponsors such as Ford and Budweiser lend their names to shows such as the one in Tam-pa Stadium. Promoters stand a chance to make a million. There's a points championship for owners and drivers, similar to sports-car, stock-car and Indy-car circuits, bringing cash awards to winners. Prize pools might range up to $ 100,000, with awards going five deep in each class.
The contests involve trucks and tractors competing to pull the most weight, trucks racing over junk cars, and the mud races. Raw power, not raw speed, is usually the theme.
And then there are the crunching episodes, and such things as the Jet Car Fire Show scheduled Saturday night. The Green Mamba will hit its afterburner and spew flames over another vehicle.
"It's like a three-ring circus," said West, adding that the idea is to produce continuous action during a three-hour show.
The fans, West said, usually represent a community's cross-section, although advertising campaigns often are targeted at males 18-49 years old. Promotions also are directed toward children's television and at family au-diences.
The phenomenon has apparently crossed into the governmental sector as well.
According to a recent issue of 4X4 & Big Wheels - one of several magazines devoted to monster motorsports - a big-wheel wrecker rig has the Bergenfield, N.J., police contract for removing illegally parked cars.
It's called the Towasaurus Wrex. Bergenfield police, upon finding nuisance cars, first leave polite notes. If such ploys fail, they call upon the Wrex, which comes and removes the offending vehicle.
After crushing it.
LOAD-DATE: November 9, 1992
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: COLOR PHOTO; BLACK AND WHITE PHOTO; A monster truck called Car Killer is modified to crush Detroit's finest; Bigfoot, a monster truck
Times Publishing Company
