John Seasock (Born July 3rd, 1965) is a former monster truck owner and driver out of Frackville, Pennsylvania. He was the second owner of Sudden Impact from 1992-2004, before moving to drive for FELD Motorsports, most notably driving Batman in which he won back-to-back World Finals racing championships with in 2007 and 2008 respectively. Today, his two sons, JR and Kyle Seasock, remain active in monster trucks.
Career[]
John started his career in 1991.
In 1992, Seasock purchased Tom Beitz’s Sudden Impact. He would buy axles from Earl Dagit, a couple tires from Kid Rarig, & rims from STC. John performed his first show under this identity in Boyertown, Pennsylvania at a community event, which was called Fun Days. He, among other drivers didn't want to wear a helmet because it messed up your hair. Later that same summer, John would roll the truck while performing a reverse wheel stand at a company event for an excavating company in Pennsylvania. John drove this red bullnose Ford pick up until late 1994.
In 1994, John would spend the summer season out west driving Pirate Pete for Mike Welch Motorsports. Upon returning back to the North East, John began driving Devils Dodge for Larry Birch of New Jersey.
During the 1996 season John purchased Ron Burlson’s Storm Warning and renamed it Sudden Impact. This truck was where Sudden Impact gained its trademark teal color with orange lettering. John would change the suspension from leaf springs to long travel nitrogen shocks, to coil over shocks before selling it to Rich Blackburne in 1998.
In 1997, John drove Above N Beyond in New Orleans and Thrasher in Baltimore in 1997 for as a fill-in for Pat Summa.
In late 1999, John purchased Robert Fisher’s second UFO/Liquidator 3 chassis and subsequently turned it into the third Sudden Impact. This truck was a rough copy of Marty Garza and Jerry Richmond’s Maximum Overkill and was quite competitive by design. With a low CG, long wheelbase, and coil over shock design.
In 2000, John would be one of sixteen drivers invited to compete in the inaugural Monster Jam World Finals.
In 2001, John shockingly defeated Tom Meents and Goldberg in the second round of racing in Houston, ending Tom's 38 race winning streak.
In 2002, John was invited to compete at World Finals III.
In 2003, he was invited to compete at World Finals IV, which marked the final for Sudden Impact.
In 2004, John drove Inferno in San Antonio.
In 2005, John sold Sudden Impact Racing to Brandon Lagarde though he would still remain part of the team. That year, he debuted T-Maxx in New Orleans, crashing the truck during qualifying.
In 2006, John drove T-Maxx at the final show in Pontiac before he switched with Carl Van Horn and returned to Sudden Impact for the remainder of the season. In the summer, John would leave Sudden Impact Racing and joined FELD Motorsports, where he drove Team Suzuki in Bangor and Halifax, El Toro Loco in Lebanon Valley and Inferno on the European Tour with the truck also running as Hot Wheels a couple of times.
In 2007, John became the new driver of Batman after going through a divorce, which resulted in him losing his trucks. Monster Jam would call him and ask John to start driving for them. He won racing in Atlanta and later claimed the racing championship at World Finals VIII by defeating Dennis Anderson and Grave Digger. Later that summer, he drove Blue Thunder in Stafford Springs, Connecticut.
In 2008, John successfully defended his racing championship World Finals IX, becoming only the second driver after Tom Meents to successfully defend his title two years running, and wouldn't happen again until Adam Anderson in 2013 and 2014 respectively.
In 2009, John won racing at back-to-back events in Detroit and Indianapolis alongside a third racing win in Oakland. He would be unable to make it three racing championships in a row at World Finals X after losing in the first round to Lupe Soza and El Toro Loco, ending his two-year reign as racing champion. John won racing in Gothenburg on the European Tour
In 2010, John drove Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle on the European Tour alongside a session in Disney XD in Manchester.
In 2011, John moved to Advance Auto Parts Grinder. During this time, John was able to step up his game in freestyle as he did not have to worry about wrecking the truck; he had previously been more conserved in his freestyle performances when driving Batman as he did not want to damage the expensive body. While he did not compete in the main field at World Finals XII, he took part in the encore alongside the other drivers of the team, Lupe Soza and Frank Krmel.
In 2012, John won racing in Minneapolis and returned to the main field for World Finals XIII, where he competed in racing while Lupe Soza competed in freestyle.
In 2013, John won racing at the first event in San Antonio and made his final competitive World Finals appearance at World Finals XIV, again competing in racing while Lupe Soza competed in freestyle. In the off-season, John left the Grinder team and returned to Batman. He would also drive Wolverine in Sydney, Australia.
In 2014, John drove Batman until its retirement that June. He also drove one of the Doom's Day trucks at the World Finals XV freestyle encore and Spider-Man in Arnhem and Stockholm.
In 2015, John drove Metal Mulisha in Charlotte, North Carolina, N.E A. Police in Anaheim (where he won racing) Scooby Doo! in Edmonton, Alberta, and drove Max-D in Arlington, Texas during qualifying before being replaced by Lupe Soza during said event.
In 2016, John's son JR Seasock debuted driving Higher Education. His other son, Kyle Seasock is currently building and will drive Violent Impact.
In 2025, John made a one-off return to drive Muddy Girl for a Monster X Tour event in Toledo, Ohio.
World Finals appearances[]
| Year | Truck | Results | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Sudden Impact | Qualifying: N/A | Racing: defeated in round 1 by Wrenchead.com | Freestyle: 9th (26) | |||||||||
| 2001 | Qualifying: 7th (17.37) | Racing: defeated in round 1 by Bulldozer | Freestyle: 13th (19) | ||||||||||
| 2002 | Qualifying: 7th (17.82) | Racing: defeated in round 2 by Bounty Hunter | Freestyle: 7th (24) | ||||||||||
| 2003 | Qualifying: 10th (19.59) | Racing: defeated in round 2 by Wolverine | Freestyle: 7th (27) | ||||||||||
| 2007 | Batman | Qualifying: 8th (16.59) | Racing: defeated Grave Digger in the finals | Freestyle: 21st (8) | |||||||||
| 2008 | Qualifying: 3rd (16.62) | Racing: defeated Bounty Hunter in the finals | Freestyle: 18th (16) | ||||||||||
| 2009 | Qualifying: 18th (17.65) | Racing: defeated in round 1 by El Toro Loco | Freestyle: 12th (21) | ||||||||||
| 2010 | Qualifying: 10th (16.63) | Racing: defeated in round 2 by Air Force Afterburner | Freestyle: 21st (4) | ||||||||||
| 2011 | Advance Auto Parts Grinder | Encore only | |||||||||||
| 2012 | Qualifying: 11th (16.724) | Racing: defeated in round 2 by Lucas Oil Crusader | Freestyle: N/A | ||||||||||
| 2013 | Qualifying: 20th (17.545) | Racing: defeated in round 1 by Son-uva Digger | Freestyle: N/A | ||||||||||
| 2014 | Doom's Day | Freestyle encore only | |||||||||||
Trivia[]
- During his time in Sudden Impact, John was known to stand on top of the truck while it was moving after a freestyle run. He also did this during his early career in Batman.
- John had previously suffered from bell's palsy.
- The logo on his first truck was used with real gold.
- He has done part time driving for Mike Welch in the late 1980's.
- One year, he was asked to drive in the Penda Points Series by Fred Shafer, but he didn't want to be stepping on anyone's toes.
- He has also driven Bigfoot 5.
- Coty Saucier was one of his crew members.
- John was a co-owner of Eradicator with Andy Slifko, as both drivers are from Pennsylvania.
- John is close friends in real life with former WWE wrestler, Gene Snitsky, along with former drivers like Bob Chandler.
- In addition to being a monster truck driver, John also worked as a volunteer firefighter in Frackville.
- https://web.archive.org/web/20110101081149/http://www.monsterjam.com/Bios/Drivers/John_Seasock/
Awards[]
- 1996 MTRA Sportsman of the Year
- 1997 MTRA Sportsman of the Year
- 1998 MTRA Sportsman of the Year
- 1999 MTRA Most Improved Team of the Year
- 2000 MTRA Sportsman of the Year
- 2001 Sportsman of the Year
- 2007 Monster Jam World Finals racing champion
- 2008 Monster Jam World Finals racing champion
- 2010 Team of the Year (with Alex Blackwell)
- 2010 Humanitarian of the Year (with Frank Krmel, Charles Benns, Lupe Soza, Kathy Wills and Dennis Anderson)
- 2013 Donut of the Year
Gallery[]
