BIGFOOT 50x50 Day 20, 2005: “30 Years In”

Support from and for Summit Racing came out of the gate strong in 2005. On January 7, in Colorado Springs, the brand new Summit Racing BIGFOOT 15 debuted at the World Arena for Monster Nationals. Dan Runte and Summit 15 also took an early lead on the Monsters of Destruction leaderboard, but in the end championships remained out of BIGFOOT’s reach for another year. Dan Runte and BIGFOOT 15 won the racing portion at the annual Thunder on the Beach, but lost out on the 2005 King of the Beach title to Gary Porter and Grave Digger 12.

The 2005 Ford F-350 Crew Cab BIGFOOT Street Truck would go on display at the 2005 North American International Auto Show in Detroit early in the year. Later, it would join BIGFOOT 12 at a SEMA off-road expo in Indianapolis, then the Chicago Auto Show, and finally, Potosi, Missouri for the grand opening of a new store, BIGFOOT Off-Road and Performance. In addition to the roughly 5000 people in attendance were the #21 Wood Brothers Motorcraft Ford, a street truck owned by James Hetfield of Metallica, and BIGFOOTs 1, 8 and 10.

For the 30th Anniversary, BIGFOOT decided to take things back a few years with a return of the classic, all-blue, paint scheme, complete with Dan Patterson’s iconic cartoon and desert chrome door logos. Sadly, Dan would lose his life in 2005. His artwork and ability was a crucial component to many of BIGFOOT’s classic looks. From the airbrushed accoutrements on the old school trucks, to Snake Bite, Wildfoot, Cyclone, Chromalusion, the BIGFOOT haulers, and other monsters like USA-1 and DeGrasso’s Beast. BIGFOOT and the rest of the monster truck world would mourn his passing.