BIGFOOT 50x50 Day 15, 2010: “How I Spent My 35th Anniversary”

BIGFOOT’s 35th Anniversary would begin with a slew of victories to start off the year with the team as busy as ever trying to keep up with the demand. Rick Long, in the E3 Spark Plugs BIGFOOT 15, was picking up multiple wins in the Monster Nationals series. Larry Swim continued his dominance of the Checkered Flag series in Bad Boy 14, as were Dan Runte and Summit 16 on the west coast. Jerry Dalton was ripping it up in Firestone 11, and Rodney Tweety was on a tear in BIGFOOT 10, but succumbed to a hard rollover and a blown motor.

Larry and Bad Boy 14 would go on to win their second consecutive Checkered Flag Productions Winter Nationals Championship. Meanwhile, Rick Long would capture his second championship with BIGFOOT as well, taking E3-15 to the Monster Nationals Racing Championship.

In March, it was revealed that not only would there be a new driver joining the team, but a new Ms. BIGFOOT as well! Amber Walker, formerly of Paul Shafer Motorsports, would be joining the team and making her debut in the new Ms. BIGFOOT 11 at the Springfield Jamboree at the end of April. Joining her would be Dan Runte in a second “RetroFoot” body sitting atop BIGFOOT 16. The duos would go on to clean up very well at the Ozark Empire Fairgrounds, but during a freestyle run, Amber accidentally clipped a stack of cars during a wheelie and Ms. BIGFOOT went tumbling onto her side. Both ladies were fine, and with the help of some friends got patched up and made it back in time for the second round of racing.

On April 17, Former BIGFOOT driver Eric Tack would come back to pilot BIGFOOT 11 for what would become the absolute final time a BIGFOOT truck would perform inside the legendary Pontiac Silverdome. The three-time champion would capture the racing win in what was, for the BIGFOOT team, something of an emotional and very fitting homecoming of sorts, given their connection to Ford Motor Company and the nearly 50 shows that the BIGFOOT trucks appeared at over the past 30 years.

On May 18, Bob Chandler, Jim Kramer and Kyle Doyle took BIGFOOT 1 down to Commerce, Georgia to the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway. Bob served as Grand Marshall of the event while The Original Monster Truck would be on display all weekend. The boys got to have some fun as well. On Thursday, they, along with other guests and Summit staff, got to drag race each other in new Ford Tauruses and Fusions. Jim made it all the way to the finals, but was knocked out by a Summit teammate. They also got to hang with NHRA drag racing legend, John Force, and on Saturday, Bob took his baby for a ride in front of the grandstands. In true Bob Chandler style, he gave the audience a sight to see when he hit the rear steering knob and crab-walked the truck. On Sunday, Force’s son-in-law Robert Hight won the Funny Car division and on Kyle’s suggestion, his team ditched their normal tow vehicle and piled into BIGFOOT 1 for the ride back to their pits, towing Hight’s Ford Mustang Funny Car behind them.

Also in May, Madill Motor Sales in Madill, Oklahoma won the right to host “The Ultimate BIGFOOT Display, Presented by Firestone Tires.” The tiny town was taken over by BIGFOOT trucks and fans flocked from hundreds of miles around to see the one of a kind event that featured Jim Kramer, Kyle Doyle, and Heath Padgett (driver of the modern old school monster, BFT) tending to BIGFOOTs 1 and 5, while Rick Long performed car crushes in 15. Bob Chandler himself would also spend the weekend in Madill, mingling with the fans and signing untold numbers of autographs, as he had for the past 35 years. Some iconic, beautiful images of the trucks came out of that event, and it remains the only event of its kind to ever visit a Firestone retailer.

Fans received a polarizing jolt in July when BIGFOOT debuted its first-ever Chevrolet bodied, Chevrolet powered truck in the form of the Major League Baseball/Firestone BIGFOOT, a project for which BIGFOOT 10 was used. With Ford no longer providing support for the team, they were free to explore new avenues and connected with the General Motors Chevrolet division via their mutual sponsorship of the MLB alongside Firestone. In order for a BIGFOOT truck to appear at the annual MLB All-Star FanFest in Phoenix, the team would have to feature a GM-styled body. The team leapt at the chance to break new ground, and thus “MLBFoot” debuted to the surprise of the entire industry and fanbase after weeks of top-secret work on the project. Jim Kramer, Kyle Doyle, and Rodney Tweedy would sneak the truck from St. Louis to Anaheim and spend nearly a full week “standing guard” at the festival with it. To this day, images of the truck remain incredibly polarizing despite the team’s many flirtations with non-Ford bodies and powerplants in the years since.

Jim Kramer and Kyle Doyle once again paired up in October for some good times on the road, but also to pull off a caper that remained a closely guarded secret for over a decade. During a three day Firestone event in Missouri City, Texas, Kyle performed car crushes in BIGFOOT 15 on Friday, and would again on Sunday. But on Saturday, Kyle helped Jim Kramer sneak into the seat for “one last ride” in BIGFOOT! With Kyle running RII and taking photos, Jim quickly found his rhythm and was sending the truck as safely and as confidently as he ever had. The guys swore they’d keep that one between themselves as the occasion was purely for Jim’s own satisfaction and maybe even closure. Thankfully, Jim would make more driving appearances and his “Last Ride” was still years away, but for Kyle and Jim, the “Top Secret Texas Crush” was just that..

To close out the year, Dan Runte and other members of Team Summit were chosen for a USO sponsored support mission to visit stationed troops, as well as many wounded veterans from Afghanistan and Iraq, at Ramstein Air Base in Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany. Dan spent his time visiting with wounded veterans in the ICU, including one who had been flown in from Iraq just after the team had arrived. During the visit, the four drivers were each presented with a Soldier’s Angel pin, a cherished item which Dan would wear proudly. The trip was one that made a lasting impression on Dan, and one that he had the utmost, and most humble pride, in taking part of.