USA-1 vs. Bigfoot: Monster Trucks Discover Rivalry

Before They Were Rivals, They Were Two Guys Making Trucks Ridiculous

Chandler and Jasmer met in 1979 at a four-wheel-drive event in Minnesota. Chandler had Bigfoot, his increasingly outrageous Ford. Jasmer had a Chevrolet that would become USA-1.

Both men owned four-wheel-drive businesses. Both used oversized trucks to demonstrate what their shops could build. Both had already wandered beyond the point where a sensible pickup owner would have said, “That ought to be tall enough.”

They became friends.

Chandler even brought Jasmer into the movie Take This Job and Shove It, because early monster-truck builders were still more fellow travelers than blood enemies.

Then promoters discovered people would pay money to watch these contraptions do something.

Bigfoot’s car-crushing exhibitions changed the equation. A giant truck sitting still was interesting.

A giant truck attacking automobiles was a show.

And if one truck was entertaining, sooner or later somebody was going to bring two.

Television Discovered the Other Lane

In 1983, That’s Incredible! put Bigfoot and USA-1 together for a nationally televised race over a long row of cars.

There was one mechanical inconvenience.

USA-1 had recently received enormous 66-inch tires, each weighing roughly half a ton, and Jasmer had run out of preparation time before the event.

That is one way to conduct testing.

Put the truck on national television and see whether it turns.

Once USA-1 arrived, Jasmer discovered the steering was not especially enthusiastic about the new arrangement. Bigfoot was better prepared and quicker.

Jasmer later suspected Chandler eased up rather than embarrass him badly. Chandler remembered the television producers encouraging him to let USA-1 catch up because a runaway was not much of a television race.

Monster-truck racing had barely learned how to steer on 66-inch tires and television was already worried about producing a close finish.

Now that’s progress.

Then Racing Became the Show

By the middle of the decade, monster trucks were multiplying. Tires got larger, engines got stronger and stadium crowds got bigger.

Bigfoot remained the truck everybody recognized.

That also made it the truck everybody wanted to beat.

Promoters began lining trucks up against each other. Brackets appeared. Finish lines mattered. Eventually points did too.

Most importantly, another enormous truck could now make yours look slow in front of everybody.

Nothing improves mechanical development quite like public embarrassment.

In 1988, TNT Motorsports turned the idea into a season-long Monster Truck Challenge.

Ford versus Chevrolet.

Bigfoot versus USA-1.

Chandler versus Jasmer.

Exactly the rivalry the sport needed.

There was only one problem.

USA-1 wasn’t there.

Everett Had Booked the Wrong Kind of Show

Chevrolet wanted Jasmer to build a new 1988 USA-1 around its new pickup, and he had already committed the truck to auto-show appearances during the early part of the year.

That sounded like good business when the calendar was made.

It looked less clever once Bigfoot started collecting championship points while USA-1 sat under display lights.

By the time Jasmer joined the series in April, Bigfoot had built the sort of lead that usually gets everybody else thinking about next season.

Then Jasmer handed the driving to younger crewman Rod Litzau.

Litzau started winning.

USA-1 climbed from nowhere in the standings to second and kept coming.

By the final weekend, the truck that had missed the opening months had erased enough of Bigfoot’s lead to make the championship a real fight.

That was considerably better television than two friends politely driving over the same row of junk cars.

Now the Rivalry Had Something Worth Losing

Bigfoot and USA-1 had started as promotional trucks owned by two four-wheel-drive businessmen who became friends.

Now there was a championship.

Nobody needed television producers to manufacture a close finish. USA-1 had spent months digging out of a hole. Bigfoot had been the benchmark from the beginning.

One of them was going home beaten.

That is when an exhibition becomes racing.

The crushing cars are still entertaining. The huge tires still justify the admission price.

But once one fellow has to spend the ride home knowing the other fellow beat him, the machinery starts getting developed with considerably more enthusiasm.

USA-1 Found the Finish Line Before It Found the Ground

The championship came down to USA-1 and Bigfoot.

The trucks charged over the cars toward the finish.

USA-1 got there first.

Then it fell over.

Rod Litzau crossed the line before USA-1 rolled onto its side, giving the truck the 1988 TNT national championship.

There are cleaner ways to win a title.

Very few are more appropriate for monster trucks.

After spending the season chasing Bigfoot, USA-1 finally finished the job by reaching the line first and then demonstrating that remaining upright had not been included in the championship requirements.

The trophy was won.

The truck could worry about dignity later.

That Was the Piece Monster Trucks Had Been Missing

The trucks had already learned how to get bigger, louder and better at flattening automobiles.

What the sport still needed was a reason for the crowd to care which truck reached the other end first.

Bigfoot supplied the standard everybody wanted to beat.

USA-1 supplied an opponent with enough identity to make beating Bigfoot mean something.

Once that happened, the show changed.

A car crush could be repeated.

A rivalry had consequences.

One truck won. One truck lost. Somebody collected points. Somebody went home needing more horsepower, better suspension or a driver with a slightly less respectful attitude toward the obstacle course.

Now the giant trucks had all the ingredients required for racers to start taking things personally.

Crushing Cars Was Only the Opening Act

Bob Chandler and Everett Jasmer did not set out to create one of monster-truck racing’s defining rivalries. They were two four-wheel-drive businessmen building ridiculous promotional trucks and discovering, one oversized tire at a time, that people wanted to watch.

Then Bigfoot crushed cars.

Television put Bigfoot and USA-1 together.

Promoters started keeping score.

By 1988, USA-1 had chased Bigfoot through an entire season and won the championship while tipping over just past the finish line.

That is a fairly complete education in how spectacle becomes sport.

The trucks were already enormous.

The crowds were already there.

All monster trucks really needed was somebody in the other lane.

Once they discovered that, merely crushing the cars in the middle became the easy part.