BY IVAN SANDERS

STAR STAFF

ivan.sanders@elizabethton.com

While many reports of Bigfoot sightings go by the way as hoaxes, there was a genuine sighting in Elizabethton over the weekend—just not the hairy beast kind.

The legendary monster truck, Bigfoot, and its driver, Darron Schnell, paid a visit to Elizabethton’s Beef O’Brady’s as part of the Beef O’Brady’s monster truck show promotion that was taking place at Bristol Motor Speedway Saturday.

Schnell took time to talk about being the driver of the beastly truck.

What’s it like driving Bigfoot?

“If you can imagine sitting in the front seat of your favorite roller coaster and being able to drive it, that’s the way I feel,” Schnell said. “It the best adrenaline rush I have ever been able to find.”

How long have you driven Bigfoot?

“I have been with Bigfoot a little over 12 years now. I started in the sport when I was 18-years-old just as soon as I could sign the waiver and mom couldn’t say no.”

How many events do you

participate in a year?

“It kind of depends as we split our time equally between races and sponsor obligations. I think I logged 270 nights a year last year in a hotel so we are on the road quite a bit,” Schnell stated.

What’s the competition like between the drivers of the monster trucks?

“ We are all friends in the pit area, but as soon as that helmet goes on, there must be a spike in the back of each one because everyone wants that trophy and its insane competition all night long,” continued Schnell. “At the end, we are all looking at the broken pieces and scratching our heads, then we kind of wonder why but it’s a whole lot of fun.”

Have you ever gotten nervous in a competition?

“I have had a couple of times in my career where you know you have parts failure and things like that but I will say this I don’t like fire. We wear full protective fire suits Top Fuel Rated SFI15, neck restraints, and all that. We wear safety gear that we can find with some of it developed explicitly for monster trucks.

“Unfortunately, it is a motorsport and things do happen.”

Are you responsible for repairing the truck?

“Unlike a lot of motorsports, each driver usually travels alone or if there are two monster trucks in a trailer, its two maybe three guys with that team.

“The guys standing on the tire at the National Anthem, if something breaks they are probably the guys thrashing to get it going in the middle of the show.

“We put the trucks in the trailer at the end of the night going bouncing down the road to another show.”

What’s it like performing in front of a big crowd in a monster truck?

“It will give you chills. The biggest arena I did was the Olympic Stadium in Montreal and there were 68,000 people all screaming for me.

“The chills that run up and down your arms is indescribable because I still look at myself as a lucky person with a cool job. I am standing here looking at everybody screaming and I am like this is really happening.”