In celebration of the 25th Anniversary of BIGFOOT, the 13th Annual
Summer Jamboree show, would also include special BIGFOOT events, with the
highlight of the weekend being on the Saturday night.
Bob Chandler with the Origianl BIGFOOT 1
Bob Chandler first customised his 1974 F250 back in 1975 to publisise
his family 4 wheel drive business. Little did he know, that 25 years later
that same truck would have influenced so many people to build their own
Monster Trucks & put the sport where it is today, along with the help
of many other individuals along the way.
Eighteen BIGFOOT vehicles later, (nineteen once BIGFOOT 16 is completed)
Bob's trucks have come along way since the original truck.
The BIGFOOT celebrations started on Friday night, when both BIGFOOT
14 & BIGFOOT 15 (Tonka Team BIGFOOT) came out to do freestyle at the
same time, after the racing was over.
With both Dan Runte & Eric Tack being experts at doing wheelies,
the plan was to both try & pull a wheelie side by side at the same
time.
However that proved harder than imagined, as both drivers managed
to pull wheelies, but not both at the same time. As one would get the wheelie
going, the other truck wouldn't & visa versa.
Tonka BIGFOOT wheelie
Saturday evenings celebration started with a brief history of BIGFOOT
through the years, followed by BIGFOOT 5 with it's 10 foot tall tires,
crushing an ugly truck. BIGFOOT 5 had been parked next to BIGFOOT 1 in
the Monster Truck area of the fairgrounds for the first couple of days
& John Seasock of Sudden Impact, got behind the wheel, to drive it
into the infield, closely monitored by Jim Kramer, in the cab.
Jim Kramer would be doing the car crushing in BIGFOOT 5 that night
!!
BIGFOOT 5
Click here
to see another picture of BIGFOOT
5 crushing
Jim Kramer made a total of three passes over the ugly pickup truck.
Twice from the side & once lengthways.
344KB
Click the picture to see a video
clip of BIGFOOT 5's first run over the cars.
Problems playing video clips ? click
here
You may need to right click on the link & click on
Save Target As...
After the Burnout contest & Tug a truck competition, the next
BIGFOOT action for Saturday night, was the Monster Truck wishbone contest.
This is where two Monster trucks pull a car apart. The two trucks to do
this would be BIGFOOT 5 & BIGFOOT 1. BIGFOOT 1 is currently sporting
48" tires, as that was the size of the tires, that Bob originally had on
the truck. Bob had to shave the inside of the tires, to fit them on the
truck, as they rubbed on the axles.
They connected the two trucks up to the car with chains & then
proceded to pull it apart. Jim Kramer was behind the wheel of BIGFOOT 5
& Eric Meagher was in the driving seat of BIGFOOT 1. However one the
chains broke on BIGFOOT 1 just as the car was breaking in two.
BIGFOOT 1 & 5 pulling the car apart.
Into Saturday night, the crowd where also treated to Airplane Fred
Sibleys Jet Truck car burn, along with the Monster Truck racing & Tough
Trucks.
After the Monster Truck finals, Brian Bertoletti in Snakebite, Eric Tack in Tonka Team BIGFOOT & Rick Petroline in Fireston BIGFOOT came
out to do some freestyle.
Click
here to se a picture of Snakebite
getting some air.
The highlight of the BIGFOOT celebrations would be the Monster Truck
jump by Dan Runte. Dan would be jumping over the BIGFOOT 1 & Snakebite
trucks. If he messed up not only would he break his truck, but possible
damge to the other two BIGFOOT trucks.
Bob Chandler had carefully calculated the jump, with the aid of
computers, know how fast Dan had to go & the angle of the ramp, etc.
Dan had not raced the truck at all on the Saturday, so the truck
was all set & ready to go, & Dan was all rested & prepared
for the jump.
With all trucks & people in place, it was time for the climax
of the show.
Dan spead towards the ramp & cleared the cars with ease. As
he jumped the two Monster trucks, a whole bunch of fireworks went off &
contined going off for at least 10 minutes.
BIGFOOT clearing the trucks with ease
The jumping & fireworks bought an end to the Saturday nights
celebration.
Looking at the picture above, Dan could have easily jumped BIGFOOT
5........maybe next time !
Sunday afternoon saw BIGFOOT 1 & the Tonka BIGFOOT doing the
wishbone contest. This time, no chains broke.
Tonka BIGFOOT & BIGFOOT 1
Fred Sibley with his "Litle Red Beer Hauler" Jet truck, gave the
crowd another chance to see him burn a car out.
Little Red Beer Hauler
Back to the Monster
Trucks UK Homepage
Back to the
Show Page
