Driver Ed Eckert has competed in the Monster Jam racing circuit for 15 years, and the adrenaline still pumps before every competition.
“I still get a little nervous,” he says. “You’re always hoping that everything in the truck holds together. You try to build them the best you can, but things break.”
A little sweet talk usually calms his nerves – though maybe not the kind you’d expect.
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Monster Jam – Feb. 6-7
“Before a race, I talk to my truck likes it’s a woman,” he says. “I pamper her. It’s superstitious, but it’s something I always do.”
At 49, Eckert, of Knoxville, loves the competition, the challenges and the excitement of sitting behind the wheel of his gigantic Ford-body truck. Called Fullboar, the truck sits 12 feet high atop 66-inch tires, tall enough to drive over a school bus.
“I’ve always been into motorsports, anything with an engine,” says Eckert, who grew up on a 40-acre farm in Michigan. “Dad taught us to drive everything that had a motor in it, and I eventually got into the competitions of fixing up trucks and making them pretty and fancy.”
Then one day, something bigger, bolder, badder caught his eye.
“I was at a car show, and a guy brought a monster truck and showed how it can crush cars. It was so cool,” he says.
It wasn’t long before he started constructing his own monster truck, the same one he competes in today. Because the price tag for a ready-made monster truck can approach $200,000, he says, he built his own.
“My father and stepfather were mechanics,” he explains. “I bought my first car for $25 and had to assemble it. That’s how I was taught to work on motors. I’m a fabricator and a mechanic.”
Those skills come in handy on the circuit too. Depending on the damage done to Fullboar at shows, Eckert and his assistant have been known to work through the night to get the truck ready for the next day’s competition.
“Don’t want to let down the fans,” he says. “It takes a lot of blood, sweat and tears to build and maintain this truck (he transports it in a semi, which he also drives), but it’s worth it. I love every minute of it.”
Unlike most sports, Eckert says, monster truck drivers don’t get a lot of practice time. Most of it is done during the actual competitions.
“We call it ‘seat time,’ ” he says. “Seat time is when your butt is in the seat. The more you’re in the seat, the better you drive.”
Eckert says he competes in about 20 events annually. Last year, he recalls, he won the racing and donut contests at Chattanooga’s Monster Jam.
Typically, the local competition uses a concrete floor. Not so this year. Sixty truckloads of dirt will be dumped on the floor of McKenzie Arena to form the racing surface.
“I’ve only competed there on concrete. I’ve never been there with dirt, so it will change into a different driving skill for me,” Eckert says. “I prefer dirt, but my truck does good in racing, period.”
Contact Karen Nazor Hill at khill@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6396.