- Columbia, Missouri, 1982.
A crowd waits patiently as Bob Chandler
sits in his 1974 Ford F-250.
The massive, 460 cubic inch engine, gurgles and spits
like a hungry wolf, ready to devour its prey.
It rides high on 48-inch wheels.
The decal on the side of the truck reads, Bigfoot.
The crowd is completely consumed by the spectacle.
No one's ever seen a truck like this before.
Suddenly, it's go time, he lurches forward.
Little did Bob know, this moment,
would set off a chain reaction that would snowball
into one of the most dramatic Motorsports to ever exist.
Talking monster trucks today, baby.
(upbeat music)
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Monster trucks are so ingrained in our culture,
that we sometimes forget how insane they are.
They've kind of become this entertainment on par
with professional wrestling or the circus.
But if you think about it, these trucks are some
of the most incredible machines ever made.
Modern monster trucks have
methanol powered 1500 horsepower engines.
They ride on 66 inch tall tires and weigh 12,000 pounds.
The tires themselves weigh 650 pounds each.
These trucks do flips, they ride on two wheels
and regularly fly 40 feet in the air.
I can go on and on about the insane specs of monster trucks.
In fact, we actually did a bumper to bumper
on Grave Digger, if you wanna check that out.
But what we really wanna talk about today,
is the unlikely rise of this niche sport
and where it all started.
We're gonna talk about the exact moment
that monster trucks were born, working backwards
through different milestones that helped shape
the modern monster trucks we see today.
So what was the moment that really set this sport in motion?
We're gonna find out.
(upbeat music)
March 25th, 2017, at the Monster Jam World Finals
in beautiful Las Vegas, Nevada.
The 18th annual event was just getting started
and things were already getting crazy.
In the freestyle event, Wildflower was blasting big airs.
El Toro Loco was doing back flips
and Grave Digger was doing somersaults, somehow.
At one point the driver of Avenger, Jim Koehler,
went full send and flew what must've been
60 feet in the air, but Avenger's reign was short,
as Neil Elliott in his spike covered Max D truck,
had a nearly flawless run, which included a reverse flip.
But what came next shook everyone to their cores.
I seriously got chills when I saw this clip.
No cap, as the kids say, I feel old just saying that.
Lee O'Donnell, driver of VP Racing Fuel's
Mad Scientist truck, was having a great run.
He was using the entire course
and had a good smattering of tricks
that went off without a hitch.
Towards the end of his run, he started blasting huge airs
and it was clear that he was gearing up for something big.
With mere seconds left on the clock,
Lee blasted over a tabletop gap,
landing hard with a big bounce
which sent his nose up in the air.
Lee guns it, getting his truck
into what's called a slap wheelie.
He then drives straight into the next jump,
with only his back wheels touching the ground.
This sends his truck into a front flip,
spinning end over end and landing
perfectly on the opposite ramp.
This was the first successful front flip
ever performed in Monster Jam history.
- [Voice Over] What, he did a front flip
Ryan, that was insane!
- That seems insane to me, sending a 12,000 pound vehicle
end over end and actually landing it.
Like how do you practice that?
It feels like you'd have to have
a great understanding of your vehicle,
know how to do it theoretically, and then just go for it.
It's a leap of faith, but this moment
wouldn't have been possible, had it not been
for another leap of faith, a few years earlier.
March, 2010 in beautiful Jacksonville Florida.
Nitro Circus monster truck driver Cam McQueen,
is competing in a freestyle event
in front of a sold out crowd of over 72,000
screaming monster truck fans.
Nearing the end of his run, he blasts this truck
towards the side of a jump,
sending it straight up into a back flip.
He lands all four wheels on the ground.
This is the first ever monster truck backflip,
in competition, but drivers had been
attempting them for quite some time.
More than a year earlier,
none other than Travis Bay Boy Pastrana,
tried one in his backyard
with his boy Street Bike Tommy, watching from the wings.
His attempt was an unsuccessful one
but it's pretty rad that he had the extra try
in a vehicle he's not known for being an expert in.
That's pretty typical of Travis Pastrana.
It is actually very scary, as Travis is going so fast,
the jump sends his truck super far up into the air
and comes down on the roof of the truck.
Luckily though, Travis wiggled
out of it, relatively unharmed.
Back flip attempts to go all the way back to the year 2000,
where Lyle Hancock attempted a reverse back flip
in the very first Monster Jam World Finals,
but was unsuccessful.
Sure, Cam McQueen holds the record
for the first ever backflip in a competition,
but if you really wanna be a stickler about it,
the very first backflip was landed
by Larry Quick in his ghost rider truck,
in 2009 at a Monster Jam in Vermont.
But since it was done during Larry's Encore,
it wasn't counted in his run, unfortunately.
I was surprised to learn that there are actually
a bunch of different types of backflips
performed by monster trucks, many of which were pioneered
by the dude who first landed one
in competition, Cam McQueen.
I just have to say man, that's an amazing name.
These backflips include your standard backflip,
a reverse backflip, Mcflip, which is a corkscrew backflip,
and the 360 flare, which was invented just last year
by Scott Bluto in El Toro Loco, which is different
than when Chris Joslin 360 flipped El Toro.
(banging)
(shouting)
None of these tricks would've been possible
without advancements in monster truck technology,
specifically, their suspension.
Think about the insane forces a truck has to deal with.
Not only just driving around, but how much compression
it has to survive after dropping from 50 feet in the air.
Had it not been for this innovation,
who knows if Monster Jam would even exist today.
I'm gonna put on my Jeremiah hat
and talk about some of this innovation.
The way these trucks are able to do such big jumps,
is because of these big, burly bypass tube shocks,
which are much stronger than anything
you need for your average truck.
But then again, you aren't flying through the air
nearly as much as Monster Jam drivers.
Jim Vaders was the first driver
to have this type of shock in his truck,
The Black Stallion Two,
but like everything in the monster truck world
it wasn't an overnight development.
Jim's 1982 Ford F350, started its life
as a bone stock truck.
First, he put a 12 inch lift kit on it,
because that was the biggest kit he could find.
Then he dropped in a Ford, big block
460 engine in it, put some planetary gears in there.
Then 66 inch tires and soon,
it was one of the biggest trucks around.
But, as the jumps got bigger
and the drops became more violent,
he was gonna need to beef up that suspension as well.
That's a lot of stress you're putting on your butt.
He ripped out the leaf springs
and replaced them with air suspension.
During a show in Bloomberg, Pennsylvania in 1991,
Jim's truck experienced a disturbing rollover
which left him pretty shook.
It dawned on him that the airbags just weren't gonna cut it.
So that's when he turned to his friends at King Shocks,
known for making beefy, off-road shocks.
Together, they developed special bypass tube shocks,
that could absorb tons of impact
with an incredible 26 inches of travel possible.
This is the first time this kind of shock
was used in the monster truck circuit,
but after other drivers saw how well it worked
with what they were doing, it soon became the standard.
The technology kept getting better and better,
and by the late 90's, Vaders' Black Stallion truck
had shocks with 36 inches of vertical travel, insane.
Nowadays, monster trucks have four
nitrogen filled shocks per wheel,
which allows the jumps to be bigger
and the compression to be more intense than ever before.
But it's not just the shocks that help dampen the drops.
The tires are inflated to only 20 pounds per square inch,
to provide an extra dab of cushion for the landing.
The moment, Jim Vaders put these shocks
on his truck in the early 90's, there was no going back.
Everything from there on out
was only gonna get more insane.
Another thing happened in 1992, that could be viewed
as possibly the most important thing to happen
in monster truck history.
The first televised monster truck race, The Monster Jam.
(upbeat music)
This event held in the now demolished Pontiac Silverdome,
was put on by the USHRA, the US Hot Rod Association,
and featured trucks like Hammer Time,
Bad Medicine and King Crunch,
Captain Crunch's older brother.
But the star of the show was a truck
that was already a household name,
and that name was Bigfoot.
The event featured a race that was
two straights with one hairpin turn.
Bigfoot had been dominating in the preliminary rounds
which culminated in a final heat against Snake Bite.
The final flag waved and the driver of Bigfoot,
Andy Brass, mashed the throttle.
The trucks were neck and neck around the turn,
so whichever truck got to jump
on the backstretch first, would take the championship.
The drivers gunned it and Bigfoot
got a slightly better launch, taking him over
the crushed cars and securing his win,
mere inches ahead of Snake Bite.
- [Narrator] Bigfoot wins, yes Bigfoot defeats Snake Bite,
in the Pontiac Silverdome.
- It was a spectacular finish
for the first ever Monster Jam event.
Finally, people who had never seen anything
like this before, were now fans.
Kids at home picked their favorite truck
like picking their favorite wrestler.
Each truck had a unique personality
and at the center of it all, Bigfoot.
For fans at home, this might've been
their first exposure to Bigfoot,
but for the last decade, this truck
had been innovating at every turn.
Going bigger, stronger, higher, and louder.
And it was all because of one dude,
Bob Chandler, the granddaddy of monster trucks.
One day, Bob had an idea that was a little crazy, okay.
He wondered if Bigfoot could drive over other cars.
There wasn't any intention behind it,
he just wanted to see if it was possible.
So Bob and his friends set up some junkers
and a video camera, and filmed Bigfoot
attempting to drive over these cars.
Sure enough, it did so with ease.
The first time, it drove straight over the cars,
the second time, he stopped the truck on top,
as if to say this feat had been conquered.
Like an early 80's version of YouTube,
the video made the rounds.
And at a certain point, a promoter saw it.
He pleaded with Chandler to recreate
the stunt in front of a crowd,
but Chandler was hesitant, surprisingly.
Why would anyone wanna come out
and see a truck drive over cars?
What if no one showed up?
There were a lot of unknowns.
It took constant persuasion to convince Bob Chandler
to agree to crush some cars, but finally he relented
and agreed to perform the stunt again.
So Bob brought his truck to Columbia Missouri,
where the promoter had lined up
four dilapidated cars, in a square.
A large crowd had gathered, with an effortless grip,
Bob drove Bigfoot up and over the cars,
crushing them in a spectacular fashion.
The onlookers went nuts, all of Bob's worries
and insecurities, were drowned out by the roar of the crowd.
He didn't realize what he had hit on,
but he knew there was something special
in this odd form of entertainment.
In his own words, it was a fluke.
From this point on, all Bob did with his trucks
was crushed cars and raced at events.
Obviously Bob Chandler did more to develop
and promote monster trucks than most people,
but he wasn't the only one to thank for its success.
Everett Jasmer, built a truck called USA-1,
built on a Chevy CK, that rivaled Bigfoot early on.
Both trucks appeared in the show, That's Incredible,
in 1983, competing against each other.
This is actually the first official
monster truck rivalry ever, and it drove innovations
that helped the sport evolve.
Bob Chandler was very competitive
and always strived to make Bigfoot
the biggest, most powerful truck out there.
After copycat trucks started claiming
the title of biggest truck in the world,
Chandler put 10 foot tires on Bigfoot
and made sure no one could get close
to retaking that title, of the world's biggest truck.
I actually took 16 more years,
but eventually Bigfoot Five was recognized
as being the world's tallest, widest
and heaviest monster truck at a staggering
20 foot five inches long, 15 feet,
six inches high and an insane 38,000 pounds.
A partnership with Ford in 1983,
helped offset the massive cost associated
with maintaining these vehicles and swapping out parts.
But more importantly, the partnership made everyone realize
that there was room in the sport for big money sponsorships.
It wasn't just a backyard hobby anymore.
It was a full-blown industry,
and Bob Chandler made that happen.
And it wouldn't have been possible
without that first show in Columbia, Missouri, back in 1982.
Let me know in the comments,
what your monster truck would be.
I wanna know what it's name is, what the gimmick is.
I want you to get creative.
I think that hockey mascot, Gritty,
would make a really good monster truck.
Like the windshield could just be his huge eyes,
and then you just have like giant pool noodles as his hair.
I think that'd be pretty cool.
I wanna see what you guys can come up with.
Be kind, see you next time, nailed the dits.