http://www.bigfootmonstertruck.net en-us Mon, 08 Sep 2008 07:39:33 -0500 http://www.bigfootmonstertruck.net/dan-runte/ Famous, fearless and in love... with a bigfoot truck! Dan Runte, a person, who is close to being a legend.

He was born on the 30th of May, 1964 in Illinois. He's not marrid, but has a daughter - Jesse.

Dan started out at BIGFOOT as a crewmember and ended up loving it so much that he then became our most daring driver. Dan is most proud of the three (3) Guinness World Records he holds, including the “Longest ramp jump in a monster truck” (202’ long) and the “Fastest speed in a monster truck” (69.3 mph). Also, he is proud of his numerous ProMT racing wins. Dan’s favorite places to perform in BIGFOOT are the Firebird Raceway in Chandler, Arizona; and the fairgrounds in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, and Indianapolis, Indiana. In his free time he enjoys water-skiing and riding motorcycles. Meeting new people and competing in real racing is what he likes most about being a BIGFOOT driver. Dan is the "top dog" on the monster truck racing circuit, but he never forgets that his fans are the most important part!

In the photo section, you can take a look at what he does. It's truly incredible! ]]> Wed, 28 May 2008 11:01:23 -0500 http://www.bigfootmonstertruck.net/dan-runte/ http://www.bigfootmonstertruck.net/monster-truck-show/ Typically, a monster truck show involves the truck crushing smaller vehicles beneath its huge tires. These trucks can run up and over most man-made barriers, so they are equipped with remote shut-off switches, called the Remote Ignition Interuptor (RII), to help prevent an accident if the driver loses control at any time. At some events, only one truck is on the course at a time, while most feature two drivers racing each other on symmetrical tracks, with the losing driver eliminated in single-elimination tournament fashion.

In recent years, many monster truck competitions have ended with a "freestyle" event. Somewhat akin to figure skating with giant trucks, drivers are free to select their own course around the track and its obstacles. Drivers will often try a 'Donut', also called a Cyclone, which involves spinning the truck in a high speed circle, and maybe even deliberately rolling the truck over. Additional items for the drivers to crush - usually including a motor home - are frequently placed on the track specifically for the freestyle event.

A modern monster truck is more of a scaled up, four wheel drive dune buggy. As such, they generally aren't actual "trucks" and only maintain their name due to the common style of fiberglass bodies used on the vehicles. Trucks now have custom built tubular chassis, with four-link suspensions to provide up to four feet of travel. Mounted just behind the driver on most trucks are the engines, which are typically supercharged, run on methanol, and have displacement up to 575 cubic inches. Axles are typically out of either heavy-duty military trucks or road vehicles like school buses, and are modified to have a planetary gear reduction at the hub to help turn the tires. All trucks have hydraulic steering in both the front and the rear (four wheel steering), with the front wheels controlled by the steering wheel and the rear wheels by a toggle switch. The tires are typically "Terra" tires used on fertilizer spreaders, and have measurements of 66"x43"x25". Most trucks utilize a modified and/or custom designed automatic transmission, such as a Turbo 400, Powerglide, Ford C6 transmission, or a Powerflite 727. A limited number of trucks utilize a Lenco transmission, which traces its roots to drag racing. Most of the automatic transmissions are heavily modified with transbrakes, manual valve bodies, and heavy duty gear sets. Trucks running a Lenco use a centrifugal clutch as opposed to a torque converter, which are used in automatic transmissions. Lenco transmissions are usually found in two-speed or three speed configurations, and are commonly shifted using compressed CO2.

The trucks have many safety features, several required just to run in the small arenas that the trucks frequent. The aforementioned RII is one of three kill switches on each truck, the other two being one within the driver's reach in the cab, and another at the rear of the truck so that all electrical power may be shut off in the event of a rollover. Many trucks are constructed with the driver sitting in the center of the cab for visibility. Most cabs are shielded with Lexan (or comparable polycarbonate), which not only protects the driver from track debris, but also allows for increased visibility. Drivers are required to wear firesuits, safety harnesses, helmets, and head and neck restraints. Most moving parts on the truck are also shielded, and high pressure components have restraining straps, both in case of an explosion.

Monster trucks are also often portrayed as being a form of motorized professional wrestling. Commonly cited evidence is the use of names for the trucks, rather than numbers and sponsors (some trucks are now named for their sponsor, and in 2008, the Major League of Monster Trucks will mandate truck numbers), and often accusations of rigged races, as some trucks (including Bigfoot and grave Digger) are seen as winning more often in order to please the crowd. However, promoters have widely denied rigging races, and many shows often feature evidence to the contrary when the unpredictable happens. Perhaps more than the redneck stereotype, the pro-wrestling stereotype is hated among drivers and teams, who feel they are regarded with disrespect despite their work to compete at a high level. Likewise, many fans would like to see the sport treated by the media as NASCAR is currently. However, as monster truck events do feature a considerably more show-like atmosphere than most other motorsports, competitions are often considered a form of "sports entertainment".

The advertising of monster truck events has also become a part of popular culture. A familiar 1980s series of radio commercials for various monster truck races featured a screaming announcer (most famously, Larry "Supermouth" Huffman), blaring rock background music, and heavy use of reverb. These spots began with "Sunday!!! Sunday!!! Sunday!!!", and ended with an emphatic "BE THERE!!!!!!". Although commonly associated with monster trucks, the ads were conceived in the 1960s for funny car match races at drag strips. Chicago-area drag racing promoter Jan Gabriel, who produced three television specials about monster trucks in 1985 and 1986, is generally credited as coining the Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! catchphrase. As some promoters of those events also became promoters for monster truck events, the ads were retooled to fit the monster trucks. The ads have been frequently parodied in other advertisements. ]]> Tue, 29 Apr 2008 03:30:13 -0500 http://www.bigfootmonstertruck.net/monster-truck-show/ http://www.bigfootmonstertruck.net/bigfoot-monster-trucks/ Bigfoot is regarded as the original monster truck and remains one of the most popular trucks in the United States. Bigfoot 4x4, Inc. is owned and operated by its creator, Bob Chandler.

A former construction contractor from the St. Louis, Missouri area, Chandler began building the first Bigfoot in 1975, using the Chandler family's 1974 Ford F-250 four-wheel-drive pickup. Chandler had been using the truck for off-roading on weekends and would find that automotive shops in the Midwest generally did not carry the parts needed to repair his frequently-worked 4x4. To remedy this problem, Chandler and his wife Marilyn, along with friend Jim Kramer, opened a shop called Midwest Four Wheel Drive and Performance Center in Hazelwood, Missouri, which remains as Bigfoot's headquarters to this day. The truck was used as a rolling billboard for the shop, adorned with the various accessories Chandler sold in his new shop, as it slowly became taller.

The truck's first attention-grabbing modification came when Chandler got wind of an idea proposed to the U.S. Army of making steering capable on both axles of their four-wheeled vehicles, so that in the event of breakage in the front axle, it could simply be switched with the rear axle and held straight with a pin so that the vehicle could resume regular use with steering. Chandler decided to test that theory on his truck, but in addition would actually enable steering on the rear axle. The end result was a new innovation in automotive technology — the "4x4x4," or a vehicle with four wheels, four-wheel-drive, and four-wheel-steering.

In 1979, Chandler started making appearances at truck and tractor pulls, as well as car shows, with his newly christened "Bigfoot" to show off the truck's capabilities as well as to promote his shop. The truck's growing popularity led to its appearance in the 1981 Gus Trikonis film "Take This Job and Shove It."

While these accomplishments were certainly admirable, Chandler's next experiment would not only change the life and fortunes of a middle-class pickup owner from the St. Louis area, it would change the motorsports world forever. In 1981, Chandler obtained permission from a local farmer to place two dilapidated cars in his field, so that Chandler could videotape himself crushing the cars with Bigfoot as a joke. When Chandler began playing the video in his shop, a man promoting a motorsports event in Columbia, Missouri asked him to duplicate the stunt in front of a crowd. After initial hesitation because of the destructive image it would convey, Chandler eventually agreed to perform at the event in April of the following year in what is believed to be the first public car crush. Later that year, a second Bigfoot (built to help meet the steadily rising demand to see the vehicle) received more major media attention by crushing cars at the Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan. In 1983, Bigfoot began receiving sponsorship from Ford Motor Company a relationship which continued until December 22, 2007 when an entry on the Bigfoot website announced that the sponsorship had ended.

By 1984, many truck owners around the country had taken to imitating Chandler's template of outfitting their vehicles with tires standing 66 inches tall, with some trucks sporting even larger tires. Promoters of truck and tractor pulls, such as SRO Motorsports (later the United States Hot Rod Association) and Golden State Promotions, noticed the exploding popularity of the giant trucks and began booking several to crush cars at their events, with the eventual result being the advent of side-by-side, drag-racing style car crushing events. A popular example of the early days of monster truck racing is portrayed in the 1986 home video release Return of the Monster Trucks, which involves a truck pull, car crushing, and mud bogging all in the same course. That event, held in the Louisiana Superdome, was won by Bigfoot, as well as most of the events it was entered into in the mid 1980s. By this point, Chandler had already built an entire fleet of "Bigfoot" trucks to accommodate the vast demand for his vehicle, which remained as the most popular and marketable monster truck despite the large number of imitators. In 1987, Chandler added to his innovations by founding the Monster Truck Racing Association, which remains today as the chief voice in monster truck safety.

Another form of competition Chandler faced was the physical size of the competition. Many truck owners had taken to calling their vehicles the "World's Largest Monster Truck," so Chandler outfitted his "Bigfoot 4" vehicle with 10-foot-tall tires he had purchased from a junkyard owner in Seattle, Washington for only $1000. The tires had been previously used by an Arctic snow train in Alaska by the U.S. Army in the 1950s. In 1986, Chandler built a new truck, "Bigfoot 5", specifically for the tires. Upon its public debut in Indianapolis, Indiana, the truck immediately took the title of "World's Tallest, Widest, and Heaviest Monster Truck" and was eventually given official recognition of the title by the Guinness Book of Records in 2002. With a second set of 10-foot-tall tires attached, the truck stands 15 feet, six inches, measures 20 feet, 5 inches across, and weighs over 38,000 pounds.

Bigfoot continues to be in huge demand, even today. Partnerships with Microsoft, Firestone, DuPont, and Summit Racing have kept Bigfoot in the spotlight in recent years. The Microsoft sponsorship in particular has led to several PC and console video games starring Bigfoot. Always seeking to further innovate the sport, Chandler created monster truck racing's first open-invitation point series, ProMT, in 2000, which still in existence today, albeit only in Europe. As for closed-invitation promotions, Bigfoot ceased running events for the USHRA in 1998 (due to a dispute involving Team Bigfoot's usage of video footage and pictures) and has not returned since. Bigfoot appeared frequently for USA Motorsports and Motorsports Entertainment Group until both of those companies were purchased by the USHRA's parent company, Live Nation. Bigfoot still races for the Special Events Promotion Company (which hosted many ProMT races before ProMT ceased sanctioning races in North America after 2004), Chris Arel Motorsports, Checkered Flag Promotions, and AMP Live Events, among others. In 2007 the BIGFOOT team brought back Midwest 4 Wheel Drive at the Home of BIGFOOT in Hazelwood, Missouri.

As a token of appreciation for fathering a brand new form of motorsport that remains widely popular today, the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame inducted Chandler into their Class of 2006.

In May of 2006, Bigfoot signed former professional wrestler and Live Nation driver Debra 'Madusa' Miceli to drive a monster truck dubbed "The Madusa Bigfoot." In September of 2006 it was announced that "The Madusa Bigfoot" will be run on the "Bigfoot 10" chassis.

In December of 2007, Bigfoot's 23 year relationship with Ford ended. ]]> Mon, 18 Feb 2008 04:51:28 -0600 http://www.bigfootmonstertruck.net/bigfoot-monster-trucks/