(Words and photos by Joe Grippo) – Growing up as dragstrip rats there was only three things my brother and I liked about the winter…going sledding at the golf course, the ISCA Custom Car show at the Philadelphia Civic Center and our yearly trips to the indoor Truck and Tractor Pulls. These shots are freshly scanned from one of my brother Dan’s photo albums all taken in the early to mid 80’s at the famous Philadelphia Spectrum. I think these were National Hot Rod Truck and Tractor Pull Association and United States Hot Rod Association events. Danny still has all his programs and if you are curious I could scan some of those as well. Not sure if this is blog worthy but I thought you might enjoy seeing them.
(Editor’s note: This gallery rules because in it you’ll see the major stars of the monster truck and pulling world of the 1980s. Bigfoot 1 is here shown pulling the sled in the arena with is small tires on. Later in the gallery you will see a truck that is probably Big Foot 3 or 4 crushing cars. Back to pulling, the famous Orange Blossom Special of Alan Gaines is present and accounted for, the turbine pulling tractor of Art Arfons is here, and my all time favorite pulling truck the “Big Iron” flip top body 4wd Ford is there as well. Had I been old enough to walk into that arena with Joe and his brother, my head would have literally exploded off of my shoulders. Look, the first time I was given tickets to go see pulling and monster trucks as a kid, I broke down in tears. Literally, I cried like Miss America when they are handing her the bundle of roses. These vehicles make up the bedrock foundation of my venture into gearheaded life. Joe’s gallery is a bad ass time warp.)
The photos aren’t modern pro-digital quality so if you feel like getting snobby about that, put a sock in it. The vibe, attitude, and feel of the photos certainly matches the environment where they were taken. Arenas in the 1980s at these shows smelled like beer and Marlboros. The photos don’t smell but you get where we’re going. If you loved these trucks in the 1980s, you are going to really dig this gallery. OH! There’s monster truck wreckage as well!
I was there the next day! The jeep was in the parking lot with the squished roof. I sat in the wheel for a photo.
The “Kool Jerk” pulling truck in the foreground blew up leaving a smokey haze in the Spectrum for the rest of the show.
Cool! By the end of every show there was a haze up by roof…I loved the sound of those engines screaming and echoing through the building. Good times….
So much win in that gallery.
This was such a cool time period. ‘Bigfoot’ actually showed up in the back woods of W.Va. in ’84 or ’85 at “Big Run Hollow” in Hedgesville, W.Va. It was billed as the ‘Fastest 300 feet in the East’ at that time. They had racers come from several other states. They had flat drags, obstacle course, hill drags & of course the mud pit that ‘Bigfoot’ walked thru. The obstacle course ran in and out of a large creek bed & the E.P.A. got wind of it and the insurance eventually went sky high also so they shut it down around ’88 or ’89…..good times
We had the same group in Kansas City back then, Arfons blew some ceiling tiles out of the roof with that jet. Back then truck that became the Bud Boss was The Little KW, yellow with stripes and the two motors. Sluggo was an econoline truck or A100 in the 4wd mod class as well as the Mean Green Machine, and the Swiss Cheese truck with holes all over it. I still remember this and I was just a kid then.