Is a sport really a sport before there is a champion? We don’t really think so and that’s why the 1988 TNT Renegade Monster Truck racing season was such a big deal. It was the first year that a running season championship was held for monster truck competition. It helped to elevate the professionalism and intensity of the sport and while monster trucks still performed at fairs and stuff, racing changed everything. It was a battle between names the everyone knew like Rich Hoosier in Bigfoot and names that no one had heard of like Rod Litzau of Minnesota in USA-1.
Amazingly Litzau was able to win the championship as a rookie driving Everett Jasmer’s truck. It came down to the wire and the cool thing is that what you are going to see is a recap show following that 1988 season. The announcing team includes friend and legend Army Armstrong. He was THE MAN when it came to calling monster truck evens and pulls back in the day. He’s also a good dude, a hot rodder, and his son Mason is an integral of the NHRA television crew and a friend as well.
The run for the money, a heads-up contest between USA-1 and Bigfoot is epic. It was a short area course but the end is freaking amazing.
Weirdly, monster truck competition morphed into fantasyland and the momentum of legitimacy that the competition had back in the day was washed away for pure showmanship. Kids still love them which is cool but they don’t know what they missed with fun like this.
