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Robert "Bobby" Zoelner (usually referred to as Bobby Zee or Bobby Z) (Born August 13th, 1967) is a retired monster truck owner and driver out of Chicago, Illinois. He was best known for driving Monster Mutt as well as a handful of Monster Jam owned trucks.

Career[]

Bobby started his career in monster trucks in 1985, working a part time job for Kirk Dabney while he was in the Air Force.  He left and worked in construction until a car accident took too much of a toll on him physically.

In the late 80's, Bobby returned to driven various trucks for Seth Doulton, such as AM/PM Boss, and Skoal Crusher until 1992, when he saved up enough money to purchase Giant.

From 1999-2001, Bobby returned to drive for Kirk Dabney to drive Bulldozer, then later Extreme Overkill.

In 2002, Bobby began his Monster Jam career driving Spider-Man at the France Motorshow in 2002, later also driving the truck at the 2003 season opener in Minneapolis. Throughout said season, he took part in three Wall of Steel stunts in St. Louis, Minneapolis (the second show) and San Diego, utilizing the Spider-Man chassis. At the end of the season, he made his World Finals debut at World Finals IV, once again behind the wheel of Spider-Man. That September, he drove Werner Warrior for an independent show.

From 2004-2006, Bobby drove Monster Mutt alongside teammate Bryan Winston, making his second World Finals appearance at the end of the season at World Finals V.

In 2005, Bobby also occasionally drove Vette King, which was the touring partner to Monster Mutt, culminating in his third and final World Finals appearance at World Finals VI.

2006 would be Bobby's final full-time season, still campaigning Monster Mutt, driving the truck at the season opener in Montreal and in San Diego. During the latter event, he pulled off a spectacular pirouette maneuver, which earned him joint-second in the freestyle competition; this moment later made it into the TV opening for the following year's season in 2007.

In 2008, Bobby returned to serve as a fill-in for Taz in Toronto as Adam was running in San Diego. Both trucks were campaigned on the former chassis used by Frank Krmel, which was primarily used for the Ford F-150 Team Suzuki driven by Lee O'Donnell throughout the season. A week later, he drove Demolition Man for the "Wall of Steel" stunt in Indianapolis. He retired at the end of the year, although he was seen at World Finals IX helping Adam Anderson out of Taz after his championship winning run.

Bobby was seen attending an independent show in Joliet, Illinois in August 2023, hosted by Triple B Motorsports.

World Finals appearances[]

  • 2003 - Spider-Man
  • 2004 - Monster Mutt
  • 2005 - Monster Mutt

Gallery[]

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