(Words and photos by Doug Gregory) – Here’s the latest installment of our mud bog and monster truck time machine stories. Heading further North on our wayback journey we turn to NewKirk, OK – the county seat of Kay County. The photos of this location cover two different events with one having a pair of Cliff Starbird’s monster trucks in attendance. Both ‘Frankenstein’ and ‘Monster Vette’ not only made the haul from their home in Mulvane, KS, but put on a car crush show as well. I had previously seen both at a show in OKC, but never imagined they’d show up for a small town event such as this. I got as close to the action as was allowed and looking back on it…..it was too close. Still, the experience was awesome.
There was also a truck show and the mud pit action which made for quite a day. One of the show rigs, the ‘Tasmanian Devil’ Chevy, had been a Four Wheel & Offroad cover truck that I’d also seen on display at a Daryl Starbird show at the Kansas Coliseum. There was plenty of action in the mud, but I still have not found even half the photos I took. Again we had plenty of wild two-wheel-drive competitors which also included one with an actual Mustang funny car body. A few big trucks I hadn’t seen before showed up and put on a great show. I don’t recall any 2wd rigs making it all the way through this pit, but a few 4wd machines did. That is IF I remembered it correctly. I believe these photos were taken in 1984. Maybe.
Enjoy
Click the images below and then scroll through to see all the photos –
Frankenstein, The Monster Vette & The Wild Mustang were all creations of Cliff Starbird. Unfortunately all 3 are nothing more than lawn ornaments sitting outside at the Darryl Starbird museum in Afton,Oklahoma now. Still nice to be able to some of the monster trucks from the early years though.