BIGFOOT 50x50 Day 30, 1995: “20 Years In”

By the mid-90’s competition was becoming more and more stiff. In the first half of 1995 between USHRA and USA Motorsports, Team BIGFOOT would have their hands full with the likes of Grave Digger, Carolina Crusher, Equalizer, Monster Patrol, and Predator, just to name a few.

The PENDA series did not start out well for Team BIGFOOT. Rewinding back to November 94, in the opener for the 95 season at the RCA Dome (I don’t get it either) both BIGFOOT trucks were hit with mechanical issues. Power Wheels 10 went dead on the line during qualifying, and a driveshaft issue would take out BIGFOOT 15 after Eric Meagher’s qualifying run. When the series began in earnest in June at the Allen County Fairgrounds in Lima, the hits kept coming. Fred Shafer was a force to be reckoned with in Bear Foot. He’d win the first event in Lima, but would lose on a technicality to Dan Runte in the second. After that, it was nearly an all BIGFOOT season that culminated in Dan Runte winning his first championship, and a 20th Anniversary celebration at the Indy Jamboree featuring BIGFOOTs 1, 5, Fastrax, and SafariFoot in addition to the race trucks.

On September 30, a new tradition would take place on the beach in Wildwood, New Jersey. The first edition of Thunder on the Beach would take place with Lonny Childress and BIGFOOT Cruiser 10, and Ricky Rattler in Snake Bite 8. On the first day Tom Meents in Monster Patrol would take the win by a short margin, and Lonny would go on to win on day two.

1995 would also mark the year that BIGFOOT 7 would be sold. After several months of surgery to become a tundra tire wearing giant ala BIGFOOT 5, was sold to Race Rock, a racing themed restaurant in Orlando, Florida. For years, 7 would be a permanent fixture off I-4 for people coming and going to Orlando’s theme parks, and an awesome photo-op for people visiting the restaurant.

On October 29th a rather peculiar piece of business took place on top of a parking garage near Cobo Hall in Detroit. BIGFOOTs 8 and 9 were welded together so that the trucks could engage in the first ever monster truck sumo match. Hulk Hogan would pit his Hulkster (9) monster truck against The Giant’s Dungeon of Doom ( machine. The ground was sprayed down with water so the massive machines could do battle trying to push each other out of the circle. The melee was presented on World Championship Wrestling’s annual Halloween Havoc pay-per-view, with Bob Chandler joining Eric Bischoff and Bobby “The Brain” Heenan on commentary. Hogan would ultimately win the battle, but would lose the war for the World Heavyweight Championship later on in the night.

(Writer’s Note: Sorry wrestling fans, I refuse to break kayfabe.)

20 years is a long time to be doing anything. But BIGFOOT had continued to to endure. Though new names and faces were starting to challenge the King of the Monster Trucks as the face of the industry..