High Roller was a Ford F-350 monster truck that ran from 2002-2004. The truck was made to advertise the Monster Jam World Finals throughout the winter season, but despite its theming, the truck never competed at any World Finals events. High Roller is best known for being driven by Neil Elliott, who took the truck to many television appearances throughout the 2002 Monster Jam season on TNN. Following this however, the truck appeared less frequently, before being retired.
History[]
- 2000 - A concept drawing of High Roller appears in advertisements for the pay-per view of World Finals II advertised from mid 2000 to March 2001.
- 2001 - High Roller officially debuts at the 2002 season opener in Minneapolis on the former Bulldozer chassis from the prior year. Rookie driver and former crew member Neil Elliott pilots High Roller under Team Meents, making it to the final round of racing.
- 2002 - The truck debuts its iconic poker chip wheel covers at the second event of the season in the Houston Astrodome. Neil begins to make a name for himself, taking the truck to racing finals and performing wild freestyle runs. High Roller's chassis is used to run Hot Wheels under Eldon DePew at World Finals III
- 2003 - Two High Roller trucks are ran for the 2003 season. Neil moves to the second Maximum Destruction truck and rookie driver Phil Foster takes over as the main driver of the original front engine High Roller for the main stadium shows, while a second rear engine High Roller on a PEI chassis is piloted by Ron Nelson for the smaller events. The truck is ran on the Ragin' Steel chassis for the second Pontiac 2003 event under Steve Reynolds, while Ron uses the truck's proper chassis for El Toro Loco. Rob Knell drives the truck in Tampa. During the summer, Ron was involved in a violent mid-air collision with Grave Digger while driving High Roller in Yakima, Washington. No footage of this crash has been released to the public. Phil drives the truck on the Bulldozer chassis at West Lebanon during the Summer Heat series and drives it for a final time in Montreal, during the 2004 season opener.
- 2004 - The primary High Roller truck is converted into Hot Wheels for the 2004 season, under Phil and as such, the PEI High Roller becomes the main full time truck and Lonny Childress steps in as the new driver for the season. Its chassis is used for Advance Auto Parts Metal Monster for the World Finals V pit party.
- 2005 - Lonny retires from driving and High Roller is discontinued. The chassis is then converted into the second Bulldozer truck for the 2005 season under Lonny's brother, Jason Childress.
Trivia[]
- The Hot Wheels toy of this truck was originally going to be released in 2005, but for unknown reasons, it was cancelled. Fortunately, it was resurrected and released in 2010.
- Interestingly, both versions of the Hot Wheels diecast for the truck had the decals on that are on the hood of the truck also placed on the tailgate of the truck, instead of having specific dates for the World Finals of each year, as the real truck runs. This was likely to help in giving the truck a more general design, rather then catering to one particular year.
- In 2003, drivers had their locations based on the theme of the truck, Phil Foster location is Las Vegas, NV (despite its true location his Paxton, Illinois) showing how the truck is an advertisement for the World Finals.