Dan Evans (Born January 9th, 1963) is a former driver out of Scottsville, Michigan. He was the original owner and driver of The Destroyer from 1999 until 2011, before selling the truck to become a driver for FELD Motorsports until his retirement in 2016. He is also the father of Deric Evans, who served as a crew member along with his wife, Lori Evans.
Career[]
Before getting into monster trucks, Dan was a motocross racer, drag racer and owned a limousine company.[1]
In 1994, Dan's monster truck career began with the limo-themed ride truck Limonator. He would drive the truck at a few events, but eventually stopped as it was not designed to race.
In 1999, Dan purchased Blue Max from Larry Nukaya and converted it into The Destroyer.
In 2001, Dan made his first World Finals appearance at World Finals II.
In 2002, Dan would debut his signature reverse move, which he would use for the rest of his career.
In 2005, Dan completed the first combo move in reverse at World Finals VI. He did a reverse move over a bus stack, then continued his reverse move over the semi-trailer before breaking the rear tire rod, which ended his run. Dan eventually finished 5th in that competition scoring a 26. He later used the yellow version again in Stafford Springs, Connecticut & Birch Run, Michigan.
In 2006, Dan drove El Toro Loco at the first Ford Field show in Detroit as a fill-in for Lupe Soza and drove Batman on the European Tour as the truck did not have a full-time driver.
In 2007, Dan's son Deric Evans began his driving career but would retire from full-time competition after only year. At World Finals VIII, Dan fittingly destroyed Destroyer with a reverse move over the double bus stack, which broke off the right rear wheel, before rolling back over on its wheels, leading to the chassis' retirement. In July, at Monsters on Mainstreet, he debuted a brand-new Ford Destroyer with a Navy battleship on the sides which was designed by Hot Wheels. For the European Tour, Dan debuted Jetix in Gothenburg and drove Pastrana 199 in Antwerp as a temporary replacement for Jetix. He ran Jetix again for the following year's European Tour.
In 2009, Dan began driving Disney XD for the European Tour, which was the successor to Jetix. He would proceed to drive the truck on every European Tour until the truck's retirement in 2013.
In 2010, Dan began running The Rod Ryan Show for the Houston events, doing this for every year until 2014 with the exception of 2012. He also drove Backwards Bob in San Jose, Costa Rica.
In 2011, Dan competed in his last show in Destroyer in Baton Rouge before selling the truck to Roger Stidell. He would subsequently join FELD Motorsports as a result.
In 2012, Dan began driving the new Team Hot Wheels. He would also drive as a fill-in for Monster Energy in both San Jose, California and Costa Rica and Captain America in Delaware where he won racing.
In 2013, Dan moved to the revived Blue Thunder. He also ran Big 105.9 Paul & Young Ron Mornings on the truck's chassis in Miami. He would drive Blue Thunder again in 2014 before retiring from full-time driving.
In 2016, Dan filled-in for a sick Marc McDonald in Hidalgo, Texas. However, if you watch the truck's freestyle from that show, the announcer mentions Marc McDonald as the driver. He then retired for good and stayed behind the scenes as part of the Monster Jam international crew. That year, he would tour Son-uva Digger as a promotion for the Cardiff event, though he did not drive it at the show itself.
In 2018, Dan would tour with the El Toro Loco display truck.
World Finals appearances[]
| Year | Truck | Results | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | The Destroyer | Qualifying: 14th (21.33) | Racing: defeated in Semi-Finals by Goldberg | Freestyle: 11th (23) | |||
| 2005 | Qualifying: 14th (19.56) | Racing: defeated in Round 2 by Madusa | Freestyle: 5th (26) | ||||
| 2006 | Qualifying: 15th (18.16) | Racing: defeated in Round 1 by Predator | Freestyle: 10th (22) | ||||
| 2007 | Qualifying: 22nd (18.00) | Racing: defeated in Round 2 by Iron Outlaw | Freestyle: 10th (23) | ||||
| 2008 | Qualifying: 20th (18.28) | Racing: defeated in Round 1 by An Escalade | Freestyle: 23rd (5) | ||||
| 2009 | Qualifying: 22nd (17.72) | Racing: defeated in Round 1 by Captain's Curse | Freestyle: 17th (17) | ||||
Trivia[]
- One of his crew chiefs was the father of Tim Hall Jr.
Gallery[]
