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Event: International Monster Truck Museum Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony & Reunion
Venue: International Monster Truck Museum @ The American Heritage Village
Location: Auburn, Indiana
Date: November 19th, 2011
Photographer: Danny Maass
Hall of Fame Class of 2011: Bob Chandler (BIGFOOT 4×4), Jeff Dane (King Kong), Dan Degrasso (Beast), Everett Jasmer (USA-1), Fred Shafer (Bearfoot – Scott Hess accepted on his behalf), Jack Willman (Taurus) [Read more…]
Monster Truck Radio With Guest Host Ross Z. Bonar
Date: Monday, November 7th, 2011
Guest #1: Hall of Fame Inductee Everett Jasmer, owner/creator of USA-1
Guest #2: N/A [Read more…]
Event: Old Skool Motorsports Monster Truck Extravaganza
Venue: Gordon Park Speedway
Location: Augusta, Georgia
Date: April 29th-30th, 2011
Videographer: Chris Parrish
Lineup: Ballistic (Mac Plecker), Black Knight (Nancy Westin), Outlaw Clydesdale (Bennett Clark), Predator (Allen Pezo), Prowler (Lenny Kuilder), Rislone Defender (Zach Adams) [Read more…]
The premiere event for the new monster truck promoter, Old Skool Motorsports, provided a gathering of monster truck history, the likes of which probably hasn’t been seen since the early days of the sport. The location was Augusta, GA, typically known as the home of the Masters Golf Tournament. However, this weekend it would not be the quiet on the greens of Augusta National as the PGA’s best attempted to win the coveted green jacket that would be making headlines. Instead, it was Gordon Park Speedway, a 1/2 mile, high-banked, red Georgia clay oval making history with monster trucks! Needless to say, there would be no quiet in Augusta this weekend.
The event marked the return of Everett Jasmer’s USA-1 to the national spotlight. After 20 years of limited performances for the famous champion monster truck, Jasmer made the 21 hour journey from Ham Lake, MN to Augusta, GA, to kick off this premiere event. After 20 years, essentially out of any major spotlight, one would fear that the beautiful red, white and blue 1988 Chevy Silverado might have suffered the same fate as many other classic monster trucks from its time and rusted away to nothing. Fear not, Everett Jasmer has maintained the first world champion monster truck in impeccable form. I promise you that the truck is every bit as beautiful as it was when it won the first world championship in 1988. Jasmer would provide a very special role in this event.
The Augusta weekend would see the return of the beautiful 1988 championship winning USA-1 machine.
Old Skool Motorsports, as documented on previously on TMB, hopes to combine old school monster truck history with current monster truck technology and show a real progression of where the monster truck sport has been, currently is, and how it got there.
Between the old school ranks and new school race trucks, this event provided over 250 years of experience in the monster truck industry. Let me say that again for emphasis, 250 years! Where does all this experience come from you might ask? As we have mentioned, Everett Jasmer with his USA-1 was present, one of the original monster trucks. Clearly, not all of this experience could come from the presence of old school style trucks. The faces behind this event are Chandler Lloyd, former driver of the Overtime monster truck and Rodney Tweedy, former Champion Bigfoot pilot.
The racing field of monster trucks provided a vast amount of experience as well. Most of all, we have Bennett Clark in Outlaw Clydesdale. This is the man who used to drive the bright pink truck simply known as Clydesdale, rode Brahma bulls, and is still sporting his trademark black cowboy hat. Rarely to be outdone on experience, Allen Pezo, the man that began in the mid 80’s driving his Lone Eagle monster truck and has been behind the wheel of Predator for over two decades was present in his Predator race truck. On top of that, on hand was Mac Plecker in Ballistic, Lenny Kuilder in Prowler, Zach Adams in Defender and making her competitive debut was “Fancy” Nancy Weston in Black Knight. The event had innovators of the sport as well as newcomers just trying to make a name for themselves. And don’t forget that Kid KJ was on hand in his mini monster, Monster Bear, who is undeniably the future of the sport at seven years old.
Now as the reader, you may be thinking, “That is a lot of experience, but that doesn’t seem to quite add up.” Well, you are correct. There has been some omission to this point. A very special surprise appearance was in store for the fans at the Old Skool Motorsports show. While all participants were being introduced on the front stretch of Gordon Park Speedway, our special guests make their appearance over the banking in turn two. They are none other than Bob Chandler and Jim Kramer piloting THE ORIGINAL MONSTER TRUCK…BIGFOOT 1! This surprise proceeds to launch the crowd in Augusta into orbit as Jim Kramer pilots Bigfoot 1 down the frontstretch with monster truck icon Bob Chandler in the bed of the truck holding the American flag. The truck then eases to a stop, face to face with Everett Jasmer’s iconic USA-1 as Jasmer provides a salute, one icon to another. This is a sight that may have never been seen previously, the first monster truck and the first world champion face to face. This moment held many fans in captivation as well as many of the other monster truck competitors. The phrases “goosebumps” and “choked up” amongst others would frequent the lips of those present the remainder of the weekend. It was truly a magical moment.
The first monster truck and the first championship winning monster truck.
Though the original monster truck would not see car crushing action this weekend, Everett Jasmer in USA-1 was intent on putting on a memorable display. Jasmer then proceeded to climb back into the cab of the USA-1 monster truck and began buckling down into that famous seat. Jasmer, known as one of the original few monster trucks, is the only one of those original icons in the sport to be performing with his truck to this day, and a performance he would provide. Once buckled in, Jasmer hits the ignition on the famous Chevy and the engine ROARS to life. The truck sounds exactly as potent as it did when it was flying the length of straightaways over old junkers. Everett then eases towards the cars to perform a simple car crush, but throttles the USA-1 truck and sends the front wheels high into the air. This would be a crush to remember. Jasmer would proceed to attack the obstacles numerous times before coming to rest on top of the junk cars, climbing out of the cab and saluting the crowd, much to their pleasure. Do not be fooled, the crowd in Augusta were not the only ones enjoying themselves. Each and every driver of the other monster trucks had their eyes intently locked on USA-1 on the fronstretch, it was also fully apparent that this moment was one that Everett Jasmer himself looked forward to so much.
The host of TMB TV's ActionTracks, Chris Parrish, interviews the legend himself, Everett Jasmer.
As show time approached the second day, I once again found myself awestruck and gaping at the wonder that is the beautiful USA-1 truck as it sat on display in front of the venue when Everett Jasmer walked up seemingly preparing to stage the truck for the evening’s event. Observing my dumbstruck facial expression, Everett proceeded to make the ultimate offer, “Jump in and I’ll give you a ride.” As I clamored up the tire with great effort, I tried to avoid falling into what would undoubtedly be a puddle of my own drool. Once in the cab, the resemblance to a stock pickup truck is apparent. The dash is fully intact, though standard gauges are replaced with carefully placed and fabricated racing gauges. Everett prepares to fire the truck and WHOOM the supercharged 572ci Chevy engine rips to life reverberating a sound unparalleled. The truck sits and growls, simply oozing the feel of horsepower. Slowly, the USA -1 truck eases into motion and we proceed to the staging position for the night’s events and straight into a memory I will never forget.
With all of the history that was taking place, as of Saturday evening one moment was still missing and I feared the opportunity might not arise. Then just before show time, the magic moment happens as Bigfoot 1 and USA-1 are staged side by side on the peak of the banking in turn number two providing the photographic moment that dreams are made of. I sprint over to turn two fearing that the opportunity may pass before I can click my camera into exhaustion. I am not the only one that notices this unique moment as several other drivers meander over and behold the sight. As the moment begins to pass, an emphatic exclamation point is placed on an unbelievable weekend that I will never forget.
Did we mention there were modern day monster trucks on hand as well? You'd understand if we'd forgotten.
On top of all the old school euphoria, there was modern day monster truck racing, freestyle and even a wheelie contest, as well as Dirty Dingus Magee, motocross and Kid KJ in his Monster Bear junior monster truck. There were outstanding performances and great action as Mac Plecker in Ballistic swept the entire weekend, however it was the compilation of several of the originators of the sport in one place that made this weekend most amazing. To see all of these historic faces casually mingling in the pit area over the course of the weekend, discussing anything and everything as if it was th 198o’s, was a memory of a lifetime. I cannot thank all of the participants enough for the memories they contributed to this weekend, but it would not have been possible without the efforts of Chandler Lloyd and Rodney Tweedy in organizing Old Skool Motorsports. Be sure to stay tuned to TheMonsterBlog.com for all of the exciting events coming soon from Old Skool Motorsports.
Next Event:
May 13-14, 2011 at the Sevier Co. Fairgrounds, Sevierville, TN
More Information:
www.OldSkoolMotorsports.com
Don’t forget you’ll see all the great action from the event, as well as interviews with Everett Jasmer, Bob Chandler and more on the next episode TMB TV’s ActionTracks premiering Wednesday, May 18th!
(Article & Photos By Chris Parrish)
The newest event series to hit the monster truck scene is going old school – Old Skool Motorsports, to be exact. The brand new promotion company based out of Ridgeland, South Carolina features some well known names in the monster truck industry, and has plans to promote summer events featuring both old school and new school style action. Old Skool Motorsports has made waves in the industry since announcing plans to return the legendary USA-1 to competition. But even bigger news may be their plans told hold one of the biggest events the industry has seen in years this fall.
Chandler Lloyd, Everett Jasmer and Rodney Tweedy pose with the original USA-1 truck.
It all begins with the company’s owner and founder Chandler Lloyd, a name many will recognize as the former owner/driver of the Overtime monster truck during the mid to late ’80’s and early ’90’s. After stepping back from competition, Lloyd has stayed connected to the sport and from time to time brought out his ‘Lil Truck – a lifted GMC Sonoma constructed from what was once the BIGFOOT Ranger/Ms. BIGFOOT machine.
Over the years Chandler Lloyd has never the lost his love for monster trucks and more recently began to make plans for a grand return. Rather than simply building a new truck and participating in existing monster truck events, Lloyd instead chose to create his own niche in the industry in a way that celebrates where the sport came from and mixes that with modern competition. Thus Old Skool Motorsports was born.
Chandler Lloyd's 'Lil Truck, the former Ms. Bigfoot/Bigfoot Ranger.
Working with Lloyd is none other than one of monster trucks’ winningest drivers in recent years, “Hot Rod” Rodney Tweedy. Tweedy got his start with Paul Shafer Motorsports and spent several years as one of the team’s top drivers, primarily piloting Monster Patrol and Captain USA, with stints behind the wheel of Bearfoot and Carolina Crusher. Tweedy moved on to Team BIGFOOT in 2007 and found great success, winning the 2008 AMP Tour Championship and the 2009 AMP Tour Racing Championship. Rodney departed Team BIGFOOT earlier this year after a dominant start to the season, recording 16 wins and logging an impressive 67% win percentage.
The story of these two coming together begins with a BIGFOOT display at a Firestone dealership in South Carolina.
“While touring the country with the Bigfoot team, I was in South Carolina for a Firestone display,” explains Tweedy. “It just so happened that Chandler Lloyd was from that area and he came to check out the display and introduced himself. Being a longtime monster truck fan myself, I knew Chandler was in the game during the TNT days with his Overtime truck and that he had purchased Ms. Bigfoot from Bob Chandler. We ended up talking most of the day and really hit it off.”
When news of Tweedy’s departure from the BIGFOOT team broke, Lloyd wasn’t about to miss the opportunity to work with his friend.
“I had just finished my employment at Bigfoot and shortly after I received a phone call from Chandler Lloyd,” Tweedy continued. “I knew Chandler had been itching to get back into the sport and was thinking of building a new truck, but what he told me blew me away! One of the first things he tells me was, “I’ve just made a deal with Everett Jasmer for USA-1. I want to build an all new USA-1 race truck and I want you to be the driver. Would you be interested?” I nearly fainted! Naturally I accepted and our partnership has grown beyond that even and we’ve accomplished a lot.”
For monster truck pioneer Everett Jasmer, this deal is the long awaited fruit from 18 years of labor.
“I first started trying to find a new home for USA-1 in 1993 and the process has been longer than I ever could have dreamed,” said Jasmer. “I was so close to throwing in the towel and auctioning everything off when Chandler Lloyd came calling. This is such a great fit as Chandler and I have a lot of similar thoughts about what direction the sport should be heading in. When he told me Rodney Tweedy was involved, it became clear that this was a match made in heaven. This deal is truly a blessing.”
Everett Jasmer turns over the keys to Chandler Lloyd.
Lloyd and Tweedy have been hard at work scheduling events and developing their own, unique style of events for the Old Skool Motorsports venture. Rather than doing just more of the same show format used currently in monster trucks, the idea was formed to pay homage to the early days of the sport by including the classic USA-1 truck in the events.
“One of the coolest things about the USA-1 acquisition is that Everett is going to be part of the shows as well,” Tweedy excitedly explains. “We felt it would be great to have Everett pilot the 1988 championship truck at the events and have him perform an old-school car crush to kick off each show. As far as other performances go, we’re not entirely sure as to how far we’ll take the truck other than performing car crushes, but you never know!”
The deal has come together quickly and Jasmer has been rushing to prepare for the first event.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve been on the road so I’ve been rushing to get prepared,” explained Jasmer. “I’m still scrambling but it’s very exciting as the event gets closer.”
Following the old school car crushing, the events will feature a lineup of current trucks competing in wheelie, racing and freestyle. The first event is scheduled for April 29th-30th at Gordon Park Speedway in Augusta, Georgia, while the second event will be held May 14th-15th at the Sevierville, Tennessee fairgrounds. The lineup for both events will include Predator, Ballistic, Clydesdale, Prowler and Defender, while Black Knight will also attend the kickoff event in Georgia.
“We’re really excited about everything we’re putting together for the shows,” said Rodney. “Our aim on the new school side of the events was to put together a lineup of trucks that will also look clean and run consistently and we’ve been able to do that. What’s cool is we’ve got the grounds to ourselves for both shows so we’re bringing in show and shine and local car clubs to be on display and the Extreme Team monster ride truck will be on hand giving rides. When possible, we’ll also be integrating things like burnout contests and tug-of-wars, all kinds of fun entertainment. We’ve got a lot more events planned so stay tuned for more details we’ll be releasing later on.”
The first Old Skool Motorsports event will be held April 29th-30th at Gordon Park Speedway in Augusta, Georgia.
Work has also begun on the all new USA-1 race truck that will debut at one of the events later in the summer.
“The new race truck is going to be a work of art!” exclaimed Rodney. “Chandler and I have both decided we want the best parts in the business and we are still in the process of researching the build. Concussion Engineering out of Ellis Grove, Illinois will be constructing the chassis and Rich and the guys are already in the process of putting it together. That’s all we can really say about it right now but we can promise you it’s going to be one awesome piece of equipment.”
The brand new USA-1 race truck will start out as a chassis from Concussion Motorsports in Ellis Grove, Illinois.
Although the truck will primarily be used at Old Skool Motorsports events, the team is open to competing in other events as well.
“We would definitely be up for testing the waters and we are open to offers from other promoters within the industry,” stated Tweedy. “We would love to be involved with the Monster Jam series and run USA-1 at their shows.”
For Everett Jasmer, the idea of Rodney Tweedy behind the wheel of USA-1 is very fitting.
“The thought of seeing USA-1 on a new truck with Rodney driving is very exciting to me,” said Jasmer. “Rod Litzau and Steve Wilke were amazing drivers and represented USA-1 great. Rodney will no doubt do the same and I have very high expectations for the team’s performance.”
Rodney getting comfortable behind the wheel of USA-1.
EDITOR’S NOTE: A factual error was printed in the original version of this article stating that the event described below was being held at Daytona International Speedway. This was never the case as the event had always been scheduled to be held at the Volusia County Fairgrounds, just outside Daytona Beach in Deland, Florida. The misinformation was entirely the fault of TMB due to an assumption made during the interview process. We apologize for the erroneous reporting and will work to make sure nothing of this nature occurs in the future.
As if all of this big news wasn’t enough, Tweedy dropped a bomb shell, revealing exclusively to TMB plans for a huge event this fall. Old Skool Motorsports will be hosting an open qualifying purse race at the Volusia County Fairgrounds in Deland, Florida on September 9th-11th with a grand prize of $25,000 going to the racing champion.
“We are very excited to announce a huge purse racing event just outside Daytona Beach, Florida this fall. Both Chandler and I want racing to become an integral part of monster trucks once again. We are inviting any and all trucks abiding by MTRA rules and specifications to attend and we feel our purse will be more than worth the trip for teams all across the country. The champion of the open qualifying race will win $25,000, while 2nd place earns $10,000, 3rd wins $5,000, and both 4th and 5th place will earn $2,500.”
The Volusia County Fairgrounds is no stranger to major monster truck events, as the venue in Deland hosted the 2005 Paul Shafer Motorsports World Finals event. Teams will be able to register to race in the event in the coming weeks. Registration will be available on the www.OldSkoolMotorsports.com website (coming soon), over the phone or by mailing in a registration form. Registration will close at a time to be announced, but planned to cutoff roughly one month before the date of the event. No day of show registrations will be accepted.
“We’re placing heavy emphasis on MTRA rules and specifications,” explained Tweedy. “We have hired a seasoned technical inspector whose resume includes professional inspection experience with premier motorsports companies including NASCAR and NHRA. We will have tools and technology on hand to measure engine cubic inch as well as blower overdrive ratios. We’re excited and already have trucks committing to the event. The response to the event has been overwhelming and beyond our wildest expectations!”
Plans currently call for a figure 8 style race course and no freestyle. The weekend’s events will include two opportunities to qualify for the racing bracket.
“We’ve put a lot of thought into the race course. Being a racer myself, I enjoyed the straight line drag racing, but I’ll be honest, we want to make this track a challenging, driver’s track. A tricky, figure 8 course will require both man and machine to showcase their best to come out on top. Chandler and I really want racing to become the backbone of monster trucks again, so we’re not currently including freestyle. We’re very confident that the racing action will leave no one disappointed. We’re still working on all the details of the event, but we’ll keep everyone posted once everything is official. We promise you this: It will be wild!
In addition to the monster truck racing, the weekend will also feature a massive mud race featuring mega trucks, lots of show and shine vehicles, burnout contests, truck tug-of-wars, R/C exhibitions and much more.
“One other special item planned for the Daytona event is that the weekend will mark the public return of the original USA-1 truck as it will be displayed along with the 1988 championship truck that will be at our other events,” revealed Tweedy.
With so many exciting things going on at Old Skool Motorsports, there is no doubt fans will be thirsty for more information. The new website is in the works and is expected to be released soon.
“In the coming weeks, we will be launching our website, www.OldSkoolMotorsports.com, which will house anything and everything a fan or team needs to know about our shows. We’ll have a comprehensive schedule, extensive information and registration forms for the open qualifying event in September, plus much more. Of course, when new things happen within the company, TheMonsterBlog.com will be the first to find out so stay tuned for more information regarding our events on this website as well. We promise big things to benefit the sport of monster truck racing!”
TMB would like to send out a big thanks to Rodney Tweedy, Chandler Lloyd and Everett Jasmer for their participation in this article. We are greatly looking forward to following the progress of Old Skool Motorsports, the new USA-1 and the big event in Deland. Stay tuned for more updates as they become available right here on TheMonsterBlog.com.
We are also happy to announce that you will be able to see all the excitement of the very first Old Skool Motorsports event from Gordon Park Speedway in Augusta, Georgia on TMB TV’s ActionTracks. Chris Parrish will be on hand to cover the event from top to bottom, complete with interviews from Everett Jasmer, Chandler Lloyd, Rodney Tweedy and much more. That episode will premiere on Wednesday, May 18th at 8:00PM Eastern.
(Article By Kaedon Berry and Ross Z. Bonar, Photos Courtesy www.USA-14×4.com)
Monster Truck Radio With Host Jeff Richards
Date: Monday, March 8th, 2010
Guest #1: Rod Litzau, legendary former driver of USA-1
Guest #2: N/A [Read more…]
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