Bigfoot to make Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live stop in Cape

At any monster truck show, the vehicles themselves are the star attractions. They’re practically household names. Bigfoot and Gravedigger, are but two examples.

Darron Schnell is the man behind perhaps the most famous machine of all: Bigfoot. He will be one of the drivers maneuvering the six machines when Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live rolls into the Show Me Center from Feb. 1 to 3.

Schnell, in a phone interview with the Southeast Missourian on Thursday, explained how the truck is both massive and precise.

Bigfoot is 10-and-a-half-feet tall and nearly 12,500-pounds. When he walks up to the driver’s side, Schnell said his head hits at about mid-door.

Powered by a 540-cubic-inch Merlin and producing about 1,550 horsepower, the truck harnesses a lot of power for the size of the buildings it goes into, he said.

“The tires are 66 inches tall, 43 inches wide and weigh 850 pounds apiece with the wheel,” Schnell said.

Yet despite its size, it is both customized and precise with technology.

Each truck is set up specifically for each driver, he said, including the required safety equipment.

Another person can drive Schnell’s Bigfoot truck, but it requires a lot of effort to change it over, he said, adding he tries to drive the same chassis as much as he can.

Each truck incorporates technology, he explained, noting the shocks, particularly, are “very detail-oriented.”

“I’m involved in the maintenance day to day,” he said. “We have some awesome shop mechanics that are responsible for building, and they help maintain during the week.”

The upcoming three-day show also will feature a car-eating dinosaur and three freestyle motocross riders, Schnell said.

With each show usually consisting of four elements, he said, the show will most likely start off with wheelie and doughnut contests.

“We just sit there with smoke rolling,” Schnell said. “It’s all kinds of fun.”

And then there’s the long-jump contest.

With one shot at the cars, Schnell said, whoever jumps the farthest in his monster truck wins.

“Then we’ll do side-by-side racing,” he said. “And at the end of the night, it’s freestyle. They give us 90 seconds to go out and do whatever we want.”

That’s Schnell’s favorite part, he said, because he’s able to put his own skill and creativity on display.

The appeal of monster trucks shows is something that once you’re hooked on it, he said, “you’ll come back for more.”

There are fans who travel halfway across the country to come to shows, Schnell said.

Several Bigfoot trucks are still owned by the same family, he said, confirming his is No. 19.

Bigfoot was once sponsored by Ford, but Schnell’s truck was the first to be Chevy-powered with the Bigfoot name, he said.

But for him, the only difference was just a little different engine combination, Schnell said.

“The guys that I watched on TV when I was a kid are still around,” he said. “Like a lot of people, I loved monster trucks growing up. Ever since I was 4 or 5 years old, I wore out VHS tapes.”

For the upcoming show, Schnell highly recommends ear protection for the monster truck show newbie, adding each show is “very loud and unpredictable, but very safe and a lot of fun.”

“I’ve been doing this for the better part of 15 years now,” he said. “I’ve never seen the same show twice.”

jhartwig@semissourian.com

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