Shaker Racing Monster Truck Team

09/04/2026

I was just reminded of a story from when I was young, dumb and bulletproof. I haven't always been in to monster trucks. Dad was a drag racer and he had some respectively fast street cars in his day. My first hotrod I owned was a 1964 Chevelle 2 door hard top.

I forget what year this was, but the Atlantic City Expressway had just been finished, ....very early '90s, maybe? Anyway, my friend and I were driving down the newly completed AC expressway at a high rate of fuel consumption when my friend noticed that the call boxes on the side of the highway "Placed every mile for your convenience" seemed to be going by fairly quickly. (Before cell phones, they placed emergency call boxes on the side of the road that dialed the police incase you broke down or there was an accident.) I told him to time how far apart the next two call boxes were.

Not long after that, I hear him casually say, "Yeah, you should probably slow down."

"Why? How long did it take us?"

"Fifteen seconds."

😳

We came to the conclusion that those two call boxes could only have been half a mile apart. .....at least I friggin' hope so. The speedometer needle had fallen off of the speedo, so I really have no idea how fast we were going. It was a great time to be alive. I'm not sure how we still are.

Side note: My fastest speeding ticket ever was in this car. 130 in a 25 zone. That cop had NOOooo sense of humor.

09/04/2026

This one goes out to all my friends still cleaning mud off of their trucks and equipment from the recent mud-fest shows that have been happening up north lately.
...we sure have been having some pretty weather in Missouri. :D

09/03/2026

Throwback Thursday comes with a story this week.

Years ago, a couple was breaking in to homes and stealing stuff during the day while people were at work. One day, the home owner came home to find them in his home and he held them at gun point until the police showed up. They were arrested and their white Dodge Stratus was impounded. A few weeks later, the lady came to get some stuff out of the car at the tow yard next to my shop. A tow yard that used to give me cars to practice crushing with. The tow operator can't stand a thief and had no time for these people. He told her she isn't touching the car until the tow bill and storage fees were paid in full. Of course they didn't have the money and she continued to complain about it. The tow operator finally said something to the effect of, "Not only are you not getting anything out of the car, but if you don't pay me in the next (whatever length of time for the lien to come through) I'm going to watch this car get crushed!"

A couple weeks later I called and asked to borrow a couple cars and he was unusually happy when I asked. He said, "I have just the car!" That's the thieves white Stratus under Earthquake. :D

*Side note: This photo is unedited. I didn't use a filter. It was just a crappy camera.

09/02/2026

"I think I'll put some aluminum wheels on my hauler."

If I ever say that again, somebody please beat me unconscious. A week and a half and $800 later (The wheels were only $400) I have aluminum wheels on my hauler. The inner wheels are cleaned and painted, the spots I missed undercoating are now done and I have 79 new lug nuts on my trailer. Why not 80? ...because the lug nut bucket at Fleet Pride had a left handed lug nut thrown in the wrong bin. I used a good used one in it's place. But I sure do have a snazzy looking hauler. As soon as I buy a new mattress for the living quarters, it is 100% DONE!

09/02/2026

I got out of the truck four months ago. Do I miss it? ....I miss before the show, standing in the bleachers, watching the track guy (or girl) build the track while me and the other drivers swap stories about last weeks show. I miss the late nights after the show at Waffle House. I miss the cookouts after the show by the haulers. I miss seeing my friends and second family that we made over the years. I miss seeing the fans react to the trucks in the pit party.

I miss everything about monster trucks other than the trucks themselves. ....well, I kinda' miss them too, but it's everything else that matters more.

09/01/2026

Sparta, Missouri is getting a new gathering place!

"The Digs"

It will have a tap room, arcade and they got the car wash up and running again! Come get your car clean and hang out for a while. It will happen September 11, 12 and 13th. We'll have Earthquake on display for the whole day on Saturday. They're right across the street from the Town and Country grocery store. You can't miss it!

Check them out on Facebook and give them a follow.
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61587246615690

09/01/2026

Ok, I don't normally say anything about this, but I keep seeing it over and over again.

Ah-hem. I'm going to speak up so everyone can hear me.

IF YOU'RE RESTORING A 40 OR 50 YEAR OLD TRUCK, THE GAPS ARE GOING TO SUCK! THESE WERE TOOLS WHEN THEY WERE BUILT AND NOBODY GAVE A CRAP ABOUT PERFECT DOOR, FENDER AND HOOD GAPS. THEY WERE HORRIBLE RIGHT OFF THE ASSEMBLY LINE AND DIDN'T GET BETTER WITH AGE, ACCIDENTS AND AFTERMARKET PARTS. UNLESS YOU SPEND A FEW HUNDRED HOURS PERFECTING PANEL EDGES WITH CUSTOM FAB WORK AND TEST FIT EVERYTHING A FEW DOZEN TIMES, YOUR GAPS WILL SUCK. YOU CAN'T FIX IT EASILY, SO STOP ASKING HOW TO DO IT.

I had a 100% original truck in decent shape and one side of the truck was 1/2" longer than the other side, right from the factory. It is what it is. Do the best you can and move on with your life. ...it's just a truck. You want it nice? Fine. Know that the factory never cared about "nice". it was a mess when it was sitting on the dealer lot. Spend the time to do the fab work on the panel edges to make it perfect, but know when you bolt a stock truck together, nothing will line up correctly. That's why good paint jobs aren't cheap and take years to do right.

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09/01/2026

Guess how many lug nuts are on an 18 wheeler with Budd wheels.

180. You read that right. ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY lug nuts. Today I spent $330 buying 80 lug nuts just for the trailer. Good grief. To add insult to injury, nobody stocks 80 lug nuts, so I had to go to 4 different places to get them all. Hopefully I can make some headway on these wheels tomorrow. I'm not going to lie. It's hot out there folks and while it's handy when it comes to painting stuff, working in the heat kinda' sucks. I have to go slow, but I AM moving forward. I know I'll at least have the driver's side done. What's taking the time is pulling the inner wheels off, wire wheeling the inner wheels and painting them, then replacing all the lug nuts as I put it back together. This is going to be a REALLY nice trailer in a couple days.

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08/30/2026

Ok, I'm done swapping wheels out until I buy new lug nuts. I said it was SW tire that did me wrong. I saw SW was the tire manufacturer and just got the tire and tire shop confused. It was T&W tire in Springfield that got trigger happy with the ugga dugga. I got the second tire done and just put back on the trailer for the photo op. I have to take all the wheels off and replace all EIGTHY lug nuts because I don't feel comfortable putting these back on. Better safe than kill someone.

This is the impact I was using and the new breaker bar that the lug nuts laughed at. That last picture though, ....they couldn't hang with the smoke wrench.

08/29/2026

One down, three to go. This has become a giant pain in my rear end. Thank you SW tire for so grossly over tightening my lug nuts, I’ll need a torch to get them off. My 1” impact and 175 psi wont break them loose and I already broke a 3/4” breaker bar with a 5’ cheater pipe.