Monster Trucks Behind the Scenes

For me, my trip started with a seven & a half hour flight from London to New York, then a hour & a half hour bus journey from New York to Allentown, Pennsylvania.

It was there, some 20 hours after leaving my home in London, which was some six thousand miles away, that my behind the scenes trip finally started.

Wednesday 8th July 98
John picked me up from the Airport in Allentown. I was quite surprised that his street pick-up is actually a Chevy, as his Sudden Impact Monster Truck is a Ford. It looked pretty cool though, as it had a 6 inch lift, 35 inch tires & tinted windows.

First port of call was to the home of Sudden Impact for a few more hours work, before shutting up for the night. John runs the Sudden Impact truck out of the back of his partner, Andy Slifko's, Auto & Truck Repair shop, which is located in Pottsville, PA.

" I've known Andy since I was 12, but we've only been in the monster truck

business together, for past 4 years. Even though I've been doing it for 8 years"

The front of the shop is for regular customers & in the back, they run the Sudden Impact, Eradicator & Eradicator Ride truck. They are also in the process of building another Eradicator ride truck. They will then transform the old Eradicator Ride truck into a Sudden Impact Ride truck.

"We don't have a fancy shop like some of the other Monster Truck teams, but we do have a Swimming pool, a gas grill barbecue & a great bunch of guys!"

John & Andy where getting both the Sudden Impact & Eradicator trucks ready for the 11th Annual Summer Jamboree in Bloomsburg, PA. The Sudden Impact was going to race, & the Eradicator would be on display for Trail Master, who is one of their sponsors. The Bloomsburg show was a fairly close show for them to travel to. And even though the show didn't start until the Friday they would be taking the trucks to the fairground on the Thursday.

Andy Slifko had quite alot of work to do on his truck

John had rebuilt the shocks on the truck & was in the middle of putting them back on the truck, when he had to pick me up from the airport.So after putting them back on, John was finished for the night. We left Andy & the other guys working away on Eradicator. We all met up again later for some therapy with a few drinks !