(Photos by Doug Gregory) – This is the second group of photos that Doug Gregory sent us from a monster truck event he attended in Montgomery, Alabama in 1989 and these are as good and maybe better than the first group we ran the other day. I was 9 when he shot these photos and 100% completely obsessed with these trucks. I remember the guys names, how they spoke, their accents, and who I was rooting for and against. I remember Grave Digger as belonging to a crazy guy who never won that much on TV but sure knew how to put on a show. I remember begging my dad to buy a Ford truck rather than a Chevy because every Sunday morning I’d be pulling for that big blue Ford to beat all comers at whatever event TNN was covering.

Monster trucks in the 1980s provided the root to many kids like me to become obsessed with motorsports in all of their various forms. Looking at these photos takes me right back to those days watching TV, popping in VHS tapes, and generally participating in the monster truck mania that swept the country. It is awesome stuff. Like all things, someone figured out how to corner the market on making money on monster trucks and they escalated from pretty home spun efforts to major league money suckers under corporate control. Shows like this one are now pretty slick productions that all fall under the same script.

Back when these photos were taken there was no script. There were few rules, there was innovation (see King Kong!) and there were guys with their heads hanging out the doors of their trucks as they mashed junked cars. It was a great time to be a kid!