It was a night like many others back in the early 1990s on the monster truck racing tour. John Piant in Bigfoot was lined up against Jack Willman Sr. in the venerable Taurus. Two experienced drivers in two trucks that carried a lot of weight in the monster truck world. Bigfoot was king at that point but Willman had also been around since the early days and he was in a double frame rail style truck that was far more advanced than the early rigs and another evolutionary step that brought us to the high flying beasts of today.
The race was on a circular course with the trucks effectively chasing each other around. The guys on the call are Bret Kepner and Jerry Devine. The real star of the show is the starter who is standing in what he believes to be a safe spot in the middle of the course by the starting tree. He was wrong.
During the course of the race, Piant gets a lead on Willman and in a desperation move, Willman overcooks a corner and in an attempt to make some time back he gets in the throttle early and cannot correct the truck to get it back on the right line. Normally that would not be a big deal but remember the starter? Yeah he’s right there and in a combo of physics, quick reactions, and the grace of some almighty power, the guy gets run over but doesn’t. As you will see the truck wipes out the tree which comes down and bashes the dude in the back. As he is tumbling to the ground it looks like the rear wheels are going to chew him up but they hit a berm and actually seem to jump over the guy as he is prone on the ground.
All of this happens in a split second and it is simply stunning to watch. You press play below and tell us how this dude lived. We STILL cannot figure it out.
