Thank you for uploading these old shows. I only discovered monster trucks on TV when Bigfoot 4 was competing in place of the banned Bigfoot 8. I never knew the full story until I watched this episode today! Watching the events leading up to this, it was pretty clear that it was a big step ahead of Equalizer, and in a whole other league compared to everyone else.
I’m on this video at 1:51 walking up behind them in the super cool jacket! I can’t believe I just saw this for the first time. I remember seeing those guys and thinking, I know who they are! Such an exciting night and age for me. I never saw this episode on tv back then so I never even knew that I’m essentially famous!
I remember the night this aired in Indiana we had a storm and the power went out late at night where I could not record my favorite show. I was devastated as a 12 year old lol.
It's wild that a field of 18 trucks tore the roof off of Texas Stadium like that and Doug Spanier looked like he was shot out of a cannon in there at that wild race with Tuff E Nuff and Buffalo Tremor like that. Man, oh man!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Master was rippin' it up in texas! I'm a huge Bigfoot fan and was disappointed when I went to this show that day and only saw it run once. I do agree with the temporary bigfoot ban. I know that isn't a popular opinion, but it was slapping the other trucks left and right. When the whole field can't complete, what do you do. That bigfoot killed what a monster truck was, looking back. That was when they stopped being trucks.
See what I don't get is they said that Bigfoot was dominant compared to the other competition, and maybe they have a point. However, you look at the way point standings were coming into this event, Bigfoot only had an 11-point advantage on Equalizer. Now this is 25 years in hindsight, but I think it still was suspicious that they banned #8, and yet the year prior the Equalizer was a completely different chassis compared to the rest and yet no one complained there. Really strange is how I thought of it back then, and I also feel the same way now.
Part of the disappointment was that Bigfoot didn't come out in 89, but Scott Stephens has since said that the drivers were more upset with TNT than Bigfoot. The rulebook stated that the trucks had to have automotive springs of some type and Bigfoot had none. Bob Chandler has also said he didn't really blame them for being upset and he may have done the same thing had he been in their position. If you watch the season unfold in the late stages, it becomes clear that TNT had trouble following their own rules at times. This became quite evident in Stafford Springs.
The point among the drivers I have talked to from that era was already made. They were not angry at Bigfoot because of the truck. All felt it was an excellent piece of equipment. They were more angry at TNT for letting the truck compete, since it did violate the rules they instituted. What it did was get TNT backed into a corner where they were forced to act, beginning in Dallas when #8 was pulled and then the engine limitation was added. By then honestly the damage was done in the trust factor. The following season TNT was bought out by USHRA, and we said goodbye to the original Monster Truck Challenge series. Bigfoot 8 didn't doom the industry, nor that series. TNT ultimately doomed it when they failed to enforce their own rules.
Small attendance, hope they got the building cheap! TNT should have just changed the rules to include gas shocks and told the other drivers to deal with it, they were selling the company anyways and USHRA didn't even pretend to care about such things.
The most absurd thing about the banning can be seen at 3:54 -- Bigfoot was only 11 points ahead of Equalizer in second, and only 21 points ahead of King Krunch in third. That is not much at all. Instead of TNT focusing on the great battle between Bigfoot and Equalizer (two evenly-matched trucks), they focused on how poorly third-rate trucks like "THE AWESOME Grave Digger!!!!!" and USA-1 were doing. Let's revise history for a second and pretend Bigfoot skipped 1990 -- Equalizer would have dominated and won the championship by probably 200 points -- maybe more. And this would have been after winning the 1989 championship by nearly 100 points over Carolina Crusher in second, and 200 (!) points over USA-1 in third! Now let's think about another curious aspect -- Chevrolet sponsored the TNT series. Allegedly some within the industry at the time thought Chevrolet's sponsorship had something to do with USA-1's 1988 strange championship win (the points scenario in the final few races made zero sense at all, and I've yet to see one good explanation of how USA-1 won despite going into the final weekend well behind Bigfoot and not even racing on the final day). Yes, there was a best of 29 finish rule, but even with that it makes no sense. With this being said, I wouldn't be surprised if there was more to the banning of BF8 than meets the eye.
@@MisterGravelrama They would add non-televised races, but here is what I pieced together from my watching how points changed from the beginning of a show to an end 1 point for fastest qualifier 4 points for making the call to the light 2 bonus points if you won the race So in a 4 round day (which most were), you would could get up to 25 points 1 fq + 16 (4 races where you made the call) + 8 (4 wins) =25points
@@azisles02 Thank you, that seems about as close to an accurate breakdown as any other I have heard. I think confusion stemmed from inaccuracies in the television broadcast points updates between the beginning and end of shows along with Army's random rants and false math. But, the fact that people still care over 30 years later speaks volumes to what the motor "sport" potential could have been. .
@@MisterGravelrama I stand corrected. After watching more races of that season, I finally figured it out & here's how it goes: Top 5 Qualifiers get points based on position (fasted qualifier gets 5, 2nd fasted gets 4, 3rd gets 3, 4th gets 2, 5th gets 1) Make a legal pass: 3 points Win a race: 2 points Yep. I admit to being a monster truck nerd lol
TNT: Noooooo! You can't run a super-advanced truck in our league! That's unfair! Also TNT: Allows Equalizer, a similarly-pioneering "tube chassis" truck (and one who's original chassis in question lasted well into the 2000s!), to compete
1990 TNT Monster Trucks (Hypothetical) Points Standings (After Race 18 TV/YT): 1 Bigfoot - Andy Brass/John Piant 86 2 Equalizer - D.Morris/G.Holbrook/M.Wine 72 3 Auto Value King Krunch - Scott Stephens 65 4 Awesome Kong - Steve Cain 60 5 Carolina Crusher - Gary Porter 54 6 USA-1 - Steve Wilke 48 7 Gravedigger - Dennis Anderson 47 8 Night Life - Dave Weiczoreck 42 9 Buffalo Tremor II - Johnny Kwasniewski 36 10 Clydesdale - Bennett Clark 32 11 Jersey Outlaw - Mike Wine 27 12 Wild Hair - Marvin Smith 26 13 No Problem - John Moore 23 14 Mad Dog - Jon Breen/Bob Breen 20 15 Whiskey Business - Ken Deppe 17 Thunder Chicken - Kid Rerig/Karen Pensyl 17 17 Master of Disaster - Doug Spanier 16 18 Mopar Magic - Gary Wiggins 15 19 Tuff e' Nuff - Pablo Cruz 14 20 Pony Express - Anthony Fortier 12 21 Liquidator - Bob Fisher 6 22 Bearly Tame - Kevin Dabney 5 Playin' for Keeps - Jessie Birgey 5 24 Fanatic - Arlene Edd 4 25 Star Monster - Chris Tuffley 3 Rocky Mountain Thunder - Nick Jackson 3 Troublemaker - Jody Peterson 3 Rocky Mountain High - John Valdez 3 29 Barbarian - Jim Miller 2 30 Bad News - Norman Meyers 1 31 4-Wheel Crazy - Rob Morris 0 Micro Machines - Kurt Fisher 0
They asked Andy if Bigfoot 4 could still be competitive against the other trucks. The 1 year that 4 ran the full series they finished second to USA 1. Fast Forward to 1990 had they ran the full season with 4 I could have seen Bigfoot being a top 2-3 truck on the tour.... But if they made Team Bigfoot run 4 all year long and the rest of the team didn't get to see 8 in action they wouldn't have known how much safer Bigfoot 8 was compared to the rest of the trucks.
I’ll never be considered a Bigfoot fan (except when Dan Runte was driving. I liked him) but even I have to admit Bigfoot got hosed so badly in this. And also, why did it have to be 4? Why not bring 6 out since it was the more current racer?
6 was not updated like 4 or even 7 were. 6 got somewhat demoted to smaller arena shows and more exhibition events. 7 and 4 had that 540ci engine on 3 predators. later for louisville ky figure 8 #4 was upgraded even more with rear nitrogen shocks plus #4 was all fiberglass by that time. 7 also did get fuel injection for a while. 6 was detuned by installing a 460 slightly bored over and only 2 predators and no weight savings until like 1992.
Thank you for uploading these old shows.
I only discovered monster trucks on TV when Bigfoot 4 was competing in place of the banned Bigfoot 8. I never knew the full story until I watched this episode today! Watching the events leading up to this, it was pretty clear that it was a big step ahead of Equalizer, and in a whole other league compared to everyone else.
I’m on this video at 1:51 walking up behind them in the super cool jacket! I can’t believe I just saw this for the first time. I remember seeing those guys and thinking, I know who they are! Such an exciting night and age for me. I never saw this episode on tv back then so I never even knew that I’m essentially famous!
I remember the night this aired in Indiana we had a storm and the power went out late at night where I could not record my favorite show. I was devastated as a 12 year old lol.
Nothing says innovation like banning new concepts.
THAT WAS AWESOME !!!! WHAT A NIGHT OF RACING, TRULY THE BEST MONSTERS RACING TOOTH AN NAIL, WITH ALL THEIR HEARTS. Thank you MT.
It's wild that a field of 18 trucks tore the roof off of Texas Stadium like that and Doug Spanier looked like he was shot out of a cannon in there at that wild race with Tuff E Nuff and Buffalo Tremor like that. Man, oh man!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Awsome race this is the first time seeing this race n it was good!!!
Master was rippin' it up in texas! I'm a huge Bigfoot fan and was disappointed when I went to this show that day and only saw it run once. I do agree with the temporary bigfoot ban. I know that isn't a popular opinion, but it was slapping the other trucks left and right. When the whole field can't complete, what do you do. That bigfoot killed what a monster truck was, looking back. That was when they stopped being trucks.
This appears to be the first event with the new blue Auto Value King Krunch
See what I don't get is they said that Bigfoot was dominant compared to the other competition, and maybe they have a point. However, you look at the way point standings were coming into this event, Bigfoot only had an 11-point advantage on Equalizer. Now this is 25 years in hindsight, but I think it still was suspicious that they banned #8, and yet the year prior the Equalizer was a completely different chassis compared to the rest and yet no one complained there.
Really strange is how I thought of it back then, and I also feel the same way now.
Because all the other drivers were jealous of bigfoot?
Part of the disappointment was that Bigfoot didn't come out in 89, but Scott Stephens has since said that the drivers were more upset with TNT than Bigfoot. The rulebook stated that the trucks had to have automotive springs of some type and Bigfoot had none. Bob Chandler has also said he didn't really blame them for being upset and he may have done the same thing had he been in their position. If you watch the season unfold in the late stages, it becomes clear that TNT had trouble following their own rules at times. This became quite evident in Stafford Springs.
*****
And TNT and the drivers got pissy about it.
The point among the drivers I have talked to from that era was already made. They were not angry at Bigfoot because of the truck. All felt it was an excellent piece of equipment. They were more angry at TNT for letting the truck compete, since it did violate the rules they instituted. What it did was get TNT backed into a corner where they were forced to act, beginning in Dallas when #8 was pulled and then the engine limitation was added. By then honestly the damage was done in the trust factor. The following season TNT was bought out by USHRA, and we said goodbye to the original Monster Truck Challenge series. Bigfoot 8 didn't doom the industry, nor that series. TNT ultimately doomed it when they failed to enforce their own rules.
Good year for Team Bigfoot. Brass in #11, Gene in #10, and Runte under a mask began showing what he could do in #8.
0:11: this is the craziest part of the episode!
Small attendance, hope they got the building cheap! TNT should have just changed the rules to include gas shocks and told the other drivers to deal with it, they were selling the company anyways and USHRA didn't even pretend to care about such things.
The most absurd thing about the banning can be seen at 3:54 -- Bigfoot was only 11 points ahead of Equalizer in second, and only 21 points ahead of King Krunch in third. That is not much at all. Instead of TNT focusing on the great battle between Bigfoot and Equalizer (two evenly-matched trucks), they focused on how poorly third-rate trucks like "THE AWESOME Grave Digger!!!!!" and USA-1 were doing.
Let's revise history for a second and pretend Bigfoot skipped 1990 -- Equalizer would have dominated and won the championship by probably 200 points -- maybe more. And this would have been after winning the 1989 championship by nearly 100 points over Carolina Crusher in second, and 200 (!) points over USA-1 in third!
Now let's think about another curious aspect -- Chevrolet sponsored the TNT series. Allegedly some within the industry at the time thought Chevrolet's sponsorship had something to do with USA-1's 1988 strange championship win (the points scenario in the final few races made zero sense at all, and I've yet to see one good explanation of how USA-1 won despite going into the final weekend well behind Bigfoot and not even racing on the final day). Yes, there was a best of 29 finish rule, but even with that it makes no sense. With this being said, I wouldn't be surprised if there was more to the banning of BF8 than meets the eye.
Has anyone ever found an official points record script for any the TNT points series years? There is never any consistency from the televised updates.
But based on the current standings, did Bigfoot attain his 319 points in way fewer events than Equalizer did to obtain his 308?
@@MisterGravelrama They would add non-televised races, but here is what I pieced together from my watching how points changed from the beginning of a show to an end
1 point for fastest qualifier
4 points for making the call to the light
2 bonus points if you won the race
So in a 4 round day (which most were), you would could get up to 25 points
1 fq + 16 (4 races where you made the call) + 8 (4 wins) =25points
@@azisles02 Thank you, that seems about as close to an accurate breakdown as any other I have heard. I think confusion stemmed from inaccuracies in the television broadcast points updates between the beginning and end of shows along with Army's random rants and false math. But, the fact that people still care over 30 years later speaks volumes to what the motor "sport" potential could have been. .
@@MisterGravelrama I stand corrected. After watching more races of that season, I finally figured it out & here's how it goes:
Top 5 Qualifiers get points based on position (fasted qualifier gets 5, 2nd fasted gets 4, 3rd gets 3, 4th gets 2, 5th gets 1)
Make a legal pass: 3 points
Win a race: 2 points
Yep. I admit to being a monster truck nerd lol
TNT: Noooooo! You can't run a super-advanced truck in our league! That's unfair!
Also TNT: Allows Equalizer, a similarly-pioneering "tube chassis" truck (and one who's original chassis in question lasted well into the 2000s!), to compete
The rear left tire of auto value king krunch looks like a Bkt tire
4 Wheel Crazy ran in the USHRA events so why was in this TNT event?
because he was a Texas native and decided to run this race?
1990 TNT Monster Trucks (Hypothetical) Points Standings (After Race 18 TV/YT):
1 Bigfoot - Andy Brass/John Piant 86
2 Equalizer - D.Morris/G.Holbrook/M.Wine 72
3 Auto Value King Krunch - Scott Stephens 65
4 Awesome Kong - Steve Cain 60
5 Carolina Crusher - Gary Porter 54
6 USA-1 - Steve Wilke 48
7 Gravedigger - Dennis Anderson 47
8 Night Life - Dave Weiczoreck 42
9 Buffalo Tremor II - Johnny Kwasniewski 36
10 Clydesdale - Bennett Clark 32
11 Jersey Outlaw - Mike Wine 27
12 Wild Hair - Marvin Smith 26
13 No Problem - John Moore 23
14 Mad Dog - Jon Breen/Bob Breen 20
15 Whiskey Business - Ken Deppe 17
Thunder Chicken - Kid Rerig/Karen Pensyl 17
17 Master of Disaster - Doug Spanier 16
18 Mopar Magic - Gary Wiggins 15
19 Tuff e' Nuff - Pablo Cruz 14
20 Pony Express - Anthony Fortier 12
21 Liquidator - Bob Fisher 6
22 Bearly Tame - Kevin Dabney 5
Playin' for Keeps - Jessie Birgey 5
24 Fanatic - Arlene Edd 4
25 Star Monster - Chris Tuffley 3
Rocky Mountain Thunder - Nick Jackson 3
Troublemaker - Jody Peterson 3
Rocky Mountain High - John Valdez 3
29 Barbarian - Jim Miller 2
30 Bad News - Norman Meyers 1
31 4-Wheel Crazy - Rob Morris 0
Micro Machines - Kurt Fisher 0
Why didn't they allow Andy Brass to drive Bigfoot 4? He was the driver that started the season and only his truck (Bigfoot 8) was suspended not him
Andy and Bigfoot 8 were doing other events. 8 was his truck and he drove it elsewhere.
They asked Andy if Bigfoot 4 could still be competitive against the other trucks. The 1 year that 4 ran the full series they finished second to USA 1. Fast Forward to 1990 had they ran the full season with 4 I could have seen Bigfoot being a top 2-3 truck on the tour.... But if they made Team Bigfoot run 4 all year long and the rest of the team didn't get to see 8 in action they wouldn't have known how much safer Bigfoot 8 was compared to the rest of the trucks.
0:12 Its Scared Me
I’ll never be considered a Bigfoot fan (except when Dan Runte was driving. I liked him) but even I have to admit Bigfoot got hosed so badly in this. And also, why did it have to be 4? Why not bring 6 out since it was the more current racer?
6 was not updated like 4 or even 7 were. 6 got somewhat demoted to smaller arena shows and more exhibition events. 7 and 4 had that 540ci engine on 3 predators. later for louisville ky figure 8 #4 was upgraded even more with rear nitrogen shocks plus #4 was all fiberglass by that time. 7 also did get fuel injection for a while. 6 was detuned by installing a 460 slightly bored over and only 2 predators and no weight savings until like 1992.
YES!