step back in time about 25 years or so....

[dougg01]

Lots of pics I'm scanning from years, and years, and years ago. Posting the better stuff and hope to avoid much repetition.

Only thing I am doing to them is cropping for content. Most were taken with a old Kodak Disc camera or an Olympus 35mm. Venues range from Enid, Perry, Hennessy, Newkirk, Blackwell and OKC, OK to Montgomery Alabama and more. Most of the monster trucks are at Garrett Coliseum in Montgomery.

The Landwehr's of Waukomis, OK had a Jeep dealership and ran a Honcho, then Commanche pulling truck with Boyd-built motors (Norman, OK).
Then they built Love, sweat, and Tears Honcho for mud bogs. It saw a lot of upgrades and eventually ended up as High Risk - a full-on monster truck of the day.
Somewhere I have a photo of the t-shirts they gave me and that kind of stuff because I drew pictures of their truck (which I gave to them and have no copies).









They don't seem to be around any more and information about their rigs is scarce out on the Web. Stir Crazy was a real contender in the SuperMod truck class so I figured finding some data wouldn't be hard.


The Rolling Thunder Dodge Van at a Daryl Starbird's show in OKC. I think it was diesel-powered then.



Jeff Dane's King Kong after he took it off the streets. Yup, it was diesel then.



Dennis hasn't grown up at all.








PHEAR the CHEVY LUV.....

Paula (and Jim) Harbuck's Master of Disaster. This was in her early days and anyone who has been into mud racing knows she went on to become one of the best.



Mud Warrior Toy.



Lil Monster. I watched over the course of about three seasons as this thing morphed from a nearly tame thing into a super-scooper-equipped rocket.







2WD. Yup. Back then there was quite a bit of competition in the 2wd classes.




I can't find the other picture I took along with this one, but the rear on this 2WD modified puller was steerable. I think it was a 2 1/2 ton rockwell with a ram and a toggle switch.
I think the plan was to use that instead of turning brakes to keep the thing inbounds. Apparantly it never caught on.



Sand Scratcher




This one was featured in Off-Road magazine I think. Pinto wagonish-truck on what I remember was an early Bronco chassis.

[dougg01]

The lawman Toy w/ 383 and spray. Dont let the water on top fool you. This pit was stirred to the consistency of chili.
If you lifted the rig would drop and stop.



before and after for CJ5 at the Perry Pit






Don't get it dirty. This thing went to all the rod runs, cruises, shows, etc. It might have won a WOW even at the Kansas Colliseum.





Grinderman complete with mudflap.








Cliff Starbird's Frankenstein at Newkirk





His Monster Vette was there too. BBC and it had the neon-gas tubes for plug wires. At the Myriad in OKC they'd cut the light and he'd lift the body before making a run to show them off.




Different vette from Enid @ blackwell. It was a real '68 body if I remember right. Ugh.




Its Only Money. Allis drop drive rear and a 396. this thing could move in some deep mud.



All the other rigs were stopping at a berm they'd caused. IOM went up and over then slogged almost all the way to the end with the front tires barely getting dirty.
The pit was progressively deeper and before he stopped moving the tires were completely under...!!!



Messy.



wheelie.



The berm




Lil Monster on MMs.



Same, but on Ags.



then after the transformation to rocket ship.

[dougg01]

Love, Sweat, and Tears on dry land.



Yes, a J20 was used to haul it.



fall down go boom.





Midnight-mudder.






Local 4WOR cover truck - Tazmanian Devil




Outlaw Jeep. I'm not sure that trailer was big enough.




Old grain trucks were popular for making into one thing or another and there were plenty of them sitting dormant around the county.
this one is River Bottom Express.






The great gran mudder



I never knew what was up with the wing on this thing.




There are more, but I am trying to hit the highlights and not bore with repetition. Another handful of monster truck pics will get scanned later.

Enjoy. If anyone wants the full image scanned at 600dpi or better just let me know. I cropped these a lot and scanned most at six hundred.

There was another rig that didn't mud, but was from up around Newkirk an I cannot find any of my pictures of it or the mag it was in. It was featured in Off-Road in the mid-80s. A mid-70s Power Wagon with a 440 on propane. It was painted a tinged Gold that faded to black. It had shotguns engraved on the headlight covers. He used it mostly to pull his Duster drag car that shared the same paint scheme and was powered by a 440 wedge and cert'd for S/G. It was a sight, but I haven't found any images of it.

[rilynsdad]

..

Great pics!

[Flxratd]

neet stuff i remember about 75% of those.
amazing how far things have come

[Coppertop]

]

I wonder how much protection this early roll bar would have provided?

Great pics...Huge Grave Digger Fan.

Nick

[94Dodge Truggy]

I wonder how much protection this early roll bar would have provided?

Great pics...Huge Grave Digger Fan.

Nick

His wife said it was fine!

[blazerbrad]

Brings back memories....still remember drooling over the Tasmanian Devil Chevy when the magazine came out. Heavier axles, gears, or a decent riding suspension weren't even on my dream list back then...but had to have at least a dozen KC lights and the more shocks per wheel the better.

[donaldcon]

Great pics. were are still carrying on the tradition these days.

[GPER]

Cool pics, I have some of the first Big Foot at the Gravelrama.

[dougg01]

Brings back memories....still remember drooling over the Tasmanian Devil Chevy when the magazine came out. Heavier axles, gears, or a decent riding suspension weren't even on my dream list back then...but had to have at least a dozen KC lights and the more shocks per wheel the better.

By the time the mag hit the stands he'd already done axle, driveshaft, and other upgrades. The cleanliness of the truck when I saw it was rivaled only by the Red Sampson monster truck of the day. I last saw it at a World Of Wheels show in Wichita. I'd heard he a few years later he still had it and was still taking it out for light wheeling and showing it.

Another from near home was 'the Watcher' (actually in Brahman, OK). It was a chevy SWB too of near the same vintage, but was built stout and had a widened frame to fit a detroit diesel. It had the 8-spoke turbine wheels and I think he ran 44in MM. Before I left for the miltary someone told me the guy had flipped it near the diversion dam. Went by where he lilved to see if that was true and it was sitting in the front yard - broken wheel, roof crushed, side flattened, what looked like a broken axle housing, etc. It was fubar and likely never rebuilt. It was impressive to see in person back in the early 80s though.

[dougg01]

I like the chevette and remember you posting it had been reacquired.

I am also sort of partial to Digger, but specifically dennis anderson. He hasn't gone corporate on us and I consider him to be the milder version of John Force in the Monster truck world. There was nothing analytic about how he tackled it and set his mind and will to win and have FUN doing it. He has been a fan hound as long as I have been into it and knows they pay his bills and have given him a life he could only dream of. Army Armstrong had a hand in that too though.....he helped hype it.

We had local mud races within a 50mi radius every weekend it seemed. The oil patch hadn't turned south yet. We weren't getting much for wheat, but cattle was doing good and for the mosty part folks were doing okay so stuff like this flourished. We had everything in the world show up to the bogs too and the sport advanced quickly. I seen everything from a 300-six-powered f-100 with everything clifford made on it grind its way through a bog when all the SBC and BBCs were not getting it done. A few of them that showed up: a 40" tire Honcho, a 40" shod Scout II Rally (in a burnt red no less), agri-tire Jeeps with minimal lift (where have I heard that....), lots of roasted clutches and burned-up autos. 3-wheelers with over-inflated tires and the race guys out with their paddle-tire 350Rs getting completely coated trying to skim the surface. Wish I'd had a video camera.