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- HOW MUCH DOES A MONSTER TRUCK DRIVER MAKE A YEAR FULL
- HOW MUCH DOES A MONSTER TRUCK DRIVER MAKE A YEAR TV
I’ve flipped over and been shut off about 10 times.Ĭareer goal: Ultimately, I’d like to win the World Finals, which are held every March in Las Vegas, Nevada. Kill radios? An official can shut my car off at any time when I’m driving – like if I’m rolling over and there’s a fire I don’t know about. The rulebook is unbelievably – motor truck racing is the only motor sport controlled by kill radios. What straps you in? A five-point harness with custom-built feet. They are shock resistant, and the seats are customized. You can flip over and crash in these trucks, and you’ll be fine. Have you been injured on the job? Other than an occasional sore back, no. You sweat your butt off, but if you catch on fire, you’ll be able to get out.
HOW MUCH DOES A MONSTER TRUCK DRIVER MAKE A YEAR FULL
Racing gear: Fire-protected underwear full fire suits and fire gloves. It’s not – and you might not realize that until you go to big shows. Something people don’t know about the job: There’s still a perception that monster truck driving is a redneck, backwoods, fair-type atmosphere. Zimmer standing alongside his truck before a show. There was a period of five or six years when I was only home for a total of one month. Hardest part of the job: Traveling and being away from my family. It blows my mind how much the fans know about us. For example, we’ll go to Jacksonville and race in front of 74,000 people in one night. My wife gets a kick out of that.īest part of the job: The crowds and fans.
HOW MUCH DOES A MONSTER TRUCK DRIVER MAKE A YEAR TV
But now, since I’ve been on TV shows, people in the neighborhood will tell me they saw me on the Speed Channel. What goes through your head right before a big race? I don’t get nerves anymore I put it in my head to go out there and have fun.ĭo people recognize you from your TV appearances? Since I’m from a very small town in Vermont, I didn’t really advertise what I did for a living. Number of shows per year: 40 to 53, which is extreme. Truck decorations: Reds, blues, lightning bolts – it’s a very busy paint job. Where did the name of your truck, Amsoil Shock Therapy, come from? AMSOIL is one of my major sponsors, and “Shock Therapy” is the name of one of their oils. The second is 90 seconds of freestyle, when a truck is on the track by itself with tons of different obstacles, from airplanes to boats to mobile home trailers. The first is side-by-side racing over cars. My team, Sudden Impact Racing, owns four trucks – and I can pretty much drive all of them.ĭo you mostly compete in races or do solo shows? There are two kinds of monster truck events. But every monster truck is the same in the sense that they are 12 feet high, 12 feet wide, weigh about 10,000 pounds, and have an average of 1500 horsepower. Is driving a monster truck like riding a bike – once you know how, you always know how? Each is a little different. He’s really taken an interest in the mechanics. For the past few years, my son has been spending his summers on the road with me. She’s awesome enough to let me do this for a living.ĭo you have kids? Yes, a daughter who’s 19, and a son who’s 11. Was your wife mad that Anderson hijacked your honeymoon? She was – and always has been – very supportive. During a show five years later, one of the guys on the team said to me, “Okay, you’re driving today.” Apparently, I did well. Through Dennis, I met a team in Philadelphia, and I began working for them full-time as a mechanic and learning everything I could about monster trucks. How you got the job: During my honeymoon, I happened to meet Dennis Anderson, who owned the famous Grave Digger monster truck. Zimmer's Amsoil Shock Therapy gliding over a lineup of crushed cars. We didn’t really have sports in my town, so it was all about being able to drive anything that was put in front of you. What led you to monster trucks? A lot of grow up doing lots of sports, but I spent high school on dirt bikes and four wheelers. Previous jobs: Farmer construction worker carpenter Truck costs: More than $150,000 to build easily that much to run for one year Graduated from: Vergennes Union High School in Vermont.
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Below, Zimmer chats about flipping over in his truck, reaching local celebrity status, and loving Pawn Stars. They schedule 40 to 53 shows per year across the United States, meaning Zimmer is constantly on the road, away from his wife and kids. Zimmer belongs to a four-person monster truck team, Sudden Impact Racing, which is one of the largest independent teams in the country. monster truck with an engine equivalent to that of eight Toyota Camrys. Over the years, he’s transitioned from a dirt bike to a 10,000 lb. Since high school, Jon Zimmer knew that racing was in his blood. "And I expect everyone around me to work like I do." "I'm very to the point," Jon Zimmer says.