Carolina Crusher is a 2015 Chevrolet Silverado Z71 monster truck owned by Triple B Motorsports. Originally created and driven by Gary Porter in 1985, the truck was a staple of multiple early monster truck leagues throughout the 1980's and 1990's, including the TNT Monster Truck Challenge and the PENDA Points Series. Porter competed with the truck from 1985, until joining the Grave Digger team in 2001. Two years earlier, he had sold the operation to Paul Shafer Motorsports who ran the name until 2007. On January 27th, 2022, the truck along with every PSM owned truck was sold to James Trantina III, who debuted his version on June 10th, 2022.
History[]
Gary Porter era (1985-1999)[]
1985-1986[]
Carolina Crusher was originally constructed in 1985 by Gary Porter. At the time of its debut, the truck featured a 1972 Chevrolet C-10 body style and had a gun metal gray paint scheme. It was also initially used to help advertise for a four-wheel-drive shop owned and operated by Porter's brother in Wadesboro, North Carolina. Carolina Crusher eventually made its first professional appearance at the Spare Time 4x4 Center in Greensboro, North Carolina. The first incarnation of Carolina Crusher’s yellow paint scheme came in December 1986.
1988-1989[]
Porter continued to compete in the original Carolina Crusher until 1988, when an all-new truck was constructed for competition in the TNT Monster Truck Challenge. Porter and Carolina Crusher would go on to finish fourth in the 1988 standings, and later second in the 1989 standings, behind David Morris in Equalizer.
1990[]
Carolina Crusher 3 was built, featuring the first incarnation of the truck’s red/yellow paint scheme. The truck would begin competing in the mid summer at various events while Porter continued to drive Crusher 2 on the TNT series. Carolina Crusher 3 would however take the place of Carolina Crusher 2 for the remainder of the summer following an event in Stafford Springs CT. Porter and the truck began competing in the recently-established PENDA Points Series the following year, and would go on to win the series’ inaugural points championship. The second truck would be sold to Don Van Loo and would become Bad Medicine.
1991[]
Don Van Loo would crash Bad Medicine in Oklahoma City and destroy the Carolina Crusher 2 frame. Don has confirmed this was the last run for the truck before building a second Bad Medicine frame using the running gear and cage.
Carolina Crusher 4 would debut with Gary Wiggins as the primary driver.Carolina Crusher 3 would win the inaugural PENDA Points Series championship.
1992[]
Carolina Crusher 3 would be halved and stretched and have the shocks moved from the cambered inboard position to a more standard outboard vertical set up.
1993[]
Carolina Crusher competed in USHRA Monster Wars. Rick Zumwalt would portray the Carolina Crusher character on TV.
1994[]
Carolina Crusher 5 made its debut. Another Carolina Crusher would also be constructed during this time with Tim Tesmer driving; however, this truck was not owned by Porter. Carolina Crusher would continue to compete in the PENDA Points Series until 1995 having opened the points season with a victory and early season lead in the Hoosier Dome in the fall of 1994. The truck would not return for the final season in 1996.
Paul Shafer Motorsports era (1999-2007)[]
1999[]
Porter would sell the Carolina Crusher name and truck to Paul Shafer in early 1999. Despite that, Gary Porter still drove his truck under Paul's ownership. Carolina Crusher would become one of the flagship trucks of Paul Shafer Motorsports, being run on multiple different trucks and with the name being leased to many different teams.
2000[]
Mike Harper and Joe Payne would run Porter's truck while employed by Paul Shafer. Harper was arguably the best-known Carolina Crusher driver from 2002-2006, winning both the 2004 and 2005 CFP Winter Nationals championships. The team would also create a Carolina Crusher ride truck. Rod and Doyle Schmidt would lease the Carolina Crusher name from Paul and run it on the Temporarily Insane chassis. Guy Wood planned to run the name on his Tropical Thunder chassis, but plans fell through, and he ended up running Bulldozer instead.
2001[]
Gary Porter left the team to join PACE/SFX Motorsports (now FELD Motorsports) in 2001 as the driver of Grave Digger 12. Monster Patrol 2 would be converted into a second Carolina Crusher and would be driven by Scott Chisolm from 2001-2002.
2004[]
Nitro Promotions would run their version of Carolina Crusher from 2004-2005.
2005[]
The truck ran as ZipZaps for an RC commercial. James Tigue II, Paul Shafer, and Larry Swim would drive a version of Carolina Crusher on two former Bear Foot chassis (13 and 14) from 2005-2007 as a Chevy Silverado. In November, Tigue would win the freestyle championship at the 2005 PSM World Finals in this rendition of the truck.
2006[]
Tim Tesmer sold the chassis he ran his Carolina Crusher on to Joe Sylvester who converted it into Bad Habit, and now currently competes as Block Head albeit rebuilt and unrecognizable.
2007[]
Kyle Chandler would drive Carolina Crusher in Israel. This was also the last rendition of the truck to compete for Paul Shafer Motorsports. The name would be leased to different teams for the next 15 years.
2010[]
Straight Up Racing ran their own version of Carolina Crusher on California Kid, as a one-off in Charlotte, North Carolina driven by Donald Epidendio.
2014-2017[]
Monster Jam would run their own version of Carolina Crusher which had been leased by Shafer, featuring Gary Porter behind the wheel once more to close out his driving career.
2018[]
Hot Wheels released a 1:64 diecast, based on Monster Jam's version and later a "Flashback" to the original yellow paint scheme.
2019[]
Tom Herzog ran Carolina Crusher as an alter-ego to Midnight Rider as a collaboration with Shafer. Unfortunately the truck was short lived as Herzog passed away in May.
2020[]
Michael Harper would run his version of Carolina Crusher after having been a driver for PSM, with Mark Cole driving the truck. Later in the same year, Aftershock Racing ran the name as an alter-ego to Plane Krazy, which was driven by Bob Robbins Jr.
Triple B Motorsports era (2022-present)[]
2022[]
On January 27th, the name and truck would be sold to James Trantina III, along with the Carolina Crusher ride truck and three of its former race trucks, being the former Larry Swim version, along with Carolina Crusher 5 (although as a stripped roll cage), and the Ride Truck. Cameron Tweedy was named the driver for the truck. On April 16th, Porter returned to drive Carolina Crusher at TNT Motorsports: Unfinished Business. On June 10th, the truck made its competition debut in Cheyenne, Wyoming on the former Nitro Menace chassis.
2024[]
On January 12th, the truck would receive a brand-new modern Silverado body style and updated paint scheme along with a new chassis which was formerly used for his father’s USA-1. The new truck is dubbed: "Carolina Crusher 2.0". The truck’s former chassis is then used for Brett Falvey’s Quad Chaos and later his USA-1. On June 24th, Tweedy announced his departure from Triple B Motorsports, and he would be replaced by Byron Cadigan in July. Paul Craighead drives the truck in Turlock and Ventura, California.
2025[]
Rob Poutre drives the truck in Montgomery, Alabama. Travis Schweizer drives it in Cedar Rapids, Iowa & Albany, Georgia. David Rife drives the truck in Abilene, Texas. Both Chris Keyes and Rob French drive the truck in Perry, GA.
Drivers[]
Current drivers[]
- TBD
Former drivers[]
- Gary Porter (1985-2000, 2014-17, 2022)
- Scott Chisholm (2001-2002)
- Michael Harper (2002-2006)
- Brian Townsend (2000)
- Joe Payne (2001)
- Richard Patterson (2002)
- James Tigue II (2005-2007)
- Larry Swim (2005-2007)
- Paul Shafer (2005-2007, sparingly)
- Kyle Chandler (Tel Aviv, Israel 2007)
- BJ Johnson (Unknown)
- Mike Dropik (1999)
- Brian Womack (2000)
- Cameron Tweedy (2022-2024)
- Byron Cadigan (2024)
- Paul Craighead (Turlock, CA 2024)
- David Rife (Abilene, TX 2025)
- Thomas Kimmons (West Monroe, LA 2025)
- Rob French (Perry, GA 2025)
- Chris Keyes (Perry, GA 2025)
Versions of Carolina Crusher[]
From 2007, until the sale to Trantina in 2022, the Carolina Crusher name had been leased to various monster truck teams across the United States, as shown below:
| Version | Description |
|---|---|
| Carolina Crusher (Aftershock) | Campaigned by Aftershock Racing as an alter-ego to Plane Krazy since 2020. Currently driven by Bob Robbins Jr. |
| Carolina Crusher (FELD) | Campaigned by FELD Motorsports from 2014-17; driven by Gary Porter during his final seasons in Monster Jam. |
| Carolina Crusher (Harper) | Campaigned by Harper Motorsports originally from 2003-05 in collaboration with Shafer; originally driven by Mike Harper. Revamped in 2020; currently driven by Matt Cole. |
| Carolina Crusher (Herzog) | Campaigned by Tom Herzog as an alter-ego to Midnight Rider as a collaboration with Shafer. Competed exclusively throughout the early 2019 season; retired following Herzog's death mid-way through the year. |
| Carolina Crusher (Ride Truck) | Ride truck used by Paul Shafer. Sold to James Trantina III in 2022. |
| Carolina Crusher (Roy) | Campaigned by Nitro Promotions from 2004-05; driven by Chris Roy. |
| Carolina Crusher (Schmidt) | Campaigned by Rod and Doyle Schmidt as an alter-ego to Temporarily Insane. |
| Carolina Crusher (SUR) | Briefly run by Straight Up Racing as an alternate name for The Cali Kid in 2010. |
| Carolina Crusher (Tesmer) | Constructed in the mid 1990's by Tim Tesmer to compete as a second Carolina Crusher in collaboration with Porter. Competed until 2006; sold to Joe Sylvester and converted into Bad Habit. |
| Carolina Crusher (Wood) | Planned to run on Guy Wood's Tropical Thunder, but never happened. |
World Finals appearances[]
| Year | Driver | Results |
|---|---|---|
| 1993 | Gary Porter | Defeated in the semi-finals by Monster Patrol |
| 1994 | Defeated in the semi-finals by Grave Digger | |
| 1999 | Defeated in the finals by Bear Foot |
Video game appearances[]
- Monster Truck Madness
- Monster Truck Madness 2
- Monster Truck Madness 64
- Monster Truck Madness (GBA)
- Monster Truck Destruction
Trivia[]
- Porter's chassis (Carolina Crusher 5) resided in Paul Shafer's shop for 16 years, completely stripped of all parts, and has since been sold to James Trantina. It is for sale and a crowd funded purchase was attempted to have the chassis restored to put it in the International Monster Truck Museum & Hall of Fame, but failed.
- The Carolina Crusher name would also be run on Bear Foots 11-14 at various times from 1999-2007, as well as Taurus 5 in 2000.
- Paul Shafer also featured a Carolina Crusher ride truck in the 2000's, being the former Intimidator truck.
- The truck's tailgate says ''Have You Driven Over A Ford Lately'', a parody of the Ford slogan "Have you driven a Ford lately?".
Gallery[]
.png "1994 USHRA MONSTER WARS 1-41 screenshot (1).png (1.85 MB)")
.png "000-0-0-0-0-889890890----unknown (2).png (1.23 MB)")
.png "000-0-0-0-0-89980-unknown (15).png (1.75 MB)")
.jpg "305663575 3279074995661234 8771686224607918477 n (2).jpg (123 KB)")
Merchandise[]
.jpg "1993 OM-Carolina Crusher (2).jpg (380 KB)")
.jpg "M064-03-23 Carolina Crusher-Mummy (2).jpg (467 KB)")
.jpg "M064-04-09 Carolina Crusher-Van Helsing (2).jpg (446 KB)")
.jpg "M064-04-15 Carolina Crusher-Van Helsing (2).jpg (438 KB)")
.jpg "M064-04-16 Carolina Crusher-Van Helsing (2).jpg (442 KB)")
.jpg "M064-04-17 Carolina Crusher-Van Helsing (2).jpg (427 KB)")
.jpg "M064-03-35 Carolina Crusher-Jaw 2 Jaw (2).jpg (440 KB)")
Videos[]
