BIGFOOT 50x50 Day 16, 2009: “A New Wave of Momentum”

As the 2000s came to a close, Team BIGFOOT was firing on all cylinders. Larry Swim in the new Bad Boy 14, leading the Checkered Flag points series, Rodney Tweety in BIGFOOT 10, on a hot streak for AMP Live Events and newcomer Jerry Dalton in BIGFOOT 11, getting some opening luck in his Checkered Flag debut.

At the same time, Darron Schnell and Ron Bachmann were making appearances for Firestone dealers all over the country in BIGFOOTs 8 and 12, while Rick Long in Firestone 15 and Dan Runte in Summit 16 were bouncing around everywhere, with every series. Ultimately Larry Swim would end up winning the CFP Winter Nationals Championship with Bad Boy 14, Rodney Tweety and BIGFOOT 10 would take the AMP Tour Racing Championship, and Nigel Morris would win his fourth EMTPS Championship.

In May, after a rare piece of breakage in Lima, Ohio in the form of a broken spindle, Snake Bite's skin was shed for a new look. The new black, red, and gray Snake Bite would debut at the Canfield Fairgrounds in July. Shortly after, in August, OSMT’s very own Kyle Doyle would come aboard the BIGFOOT crew. Formerly of Hall Brothers Racing, Kyle joined the team lending his experience in assisting with marketing, sales and installation with Midwest Four-Wheel Drive, and helping cover the occasional BIGFOOT gig.

In September, the third annual BIGFOOT 4x4 and Midwest Four-Wheel Drive Open House took place at BIGFOOT Headquarters in Hazelwood. Eight BIGFOOT vehicles were in attendance, including BIGFOOTs 1, 5, 10, 15, 16, Snake Bite 14, Fastrax, and the BIGFOOT SEMA Chevrolet. The event, which featured vendors, car crushes, truck displays, and other fun was a massive success with thousands of fans in attendance, and touted by BIGFOOT President Ann Trent as the most successful and professional event yet.

On the eve of their 35th Anniversary, BIGFOOT would showcase something very special for SEMA 2009. Fan interest in seeing an old school body on a new school chassis had been going on for years, and the wheels were set in motion to make that a reality. The result of roughly an entire month’s worth of scrounging, chopping, stretching, sanding, fitting, refitting, painting, and decaling. This part real steel, part fiberglass, all blue and chrome creation would have Las Vegas seeing double as BIGFOOT 12 would be sporting a brand new BIGFOOT 1 replica body while on display with the original. Kyle Doyle, Chris Ludwig, and Jim Kramer were on hand to tend to the beasts and the crowd.

Also in early November, BIGFOOT was invited to the American Drag Racing League World Finals at Texas Motorplex in Ennis, Texas. Dan Runte and Summit 16 would be racing Snake Bite 14 and Larry Swim. The duo did massive burnouts and raced each other on both Friday and Saturday. However, Saturday night into Sunday, Dan would run an 8.261 at 84.49 miles per hour. Closing out the year by driving the fastest speed ever recorded in a monster truck, establishing a new world record.