Racing Monster Trucks

Monster trucks have been a part of the American entertainment and racing landscape for decades. It is modeled after a pick-up truck but comes with modifications, massive modifications. Monster trucks are built higher up off the ground than a pick-up truck, have a larger body size and have incredibly large wheels and suspension. Monster trucks appear at Monster Truck Rallies nationwide which entail the truck running over and crushing smaller cars underneath it on a course.

Monster Truck Rallies are so popular that they need to be held in large arenas or outdoor venues. A Monster Truck Rally ends with a freestyle competition where the driver can pick his course and what he wants to do with the vehicle. The drives like to perform donuts, cyclones and destroy even more tiny cars below their massive wheels. Sometimes a monster truck will even try to crush a motor home. A motor home! Monster trucks are so large that they can destroy a motor home.

Monster Trucks became popular in the decade of the 1970s after regular pick-up trucks were being modified to compete in mud bogging and truck pulling competitions. Some owners of the pick-up trucks were modifying their vehicle to the point of raising it higher into the air. The lifted trucks led to the invention and development of the Monster Truck. The trucks that became nationally known were Bigfoot, Bear Foot and King Kong. These were the first known Monster Trucks. They were owned by Fred Shafer, Jack Willman Sr. and Jeff Dane respectively.
Regular racing of Monster Trucks came into play in the 1980s, specifically 1985, when the USHRA and TNT Motorsports delved into the business. TNT established a championship points system in 1988, which is when most trucks used Fiberglass bodies and a lighter axel to create more speed and shave off some of the weight of the truck.

Monster Trucks and Monster Truck Rallies have become so popular since the 1980s that competitions have been televised; video games have been produced where the player can drive a truck through different levels of competition and magazines have been published about the industry. There have been movies that have included Monster Truck competitions within the plot as well. Monster Truck Rallies were advertised time and again in the 1980s and 1990s on radio with different spots featuring a fast-talking radio announcer that would scream at the top of his lungs. This was the industry's way of informing the people about the rallies and races. Loud noises and excitement were what grabs people's attention when listening to the radio and watching television.

Some of the most popular monster trucks right now are Batman, the Carolina Crusher, Donkey Kong, Iron Outlaw, King Krunch, the Predator and the USA-1. Monster trucks bring excitement and entertainment to the auto racing industry, selling out arenas and venues across the country each and every year. The business of Monster Truck racing and Monster Truck shows has escalated since the advent of the monster truck in the 1980s so much that it has become a multimillion dollar industry.