Linsey Weenk (Born April 22nd, 1979) is a former driver out of Plenty, Saskatchewan, Canada who currently resides in Florida. He started driving in 2000 with Jurassic Attack and would later move to 2Xtreme Racing to become the first driver of Iron Outlaw in 2005. He would then become the primary Blue Thunder driver in 2008, until 2010, when he finally moved to Lucas Oil Crusader, which would become arguably his most well-known ride. He would drive this until the end of 2020. Linsey also has two brothers, both who have driven monster trucks in the past, being Nathan and Kevin Weenk.
History[]
Before becoming a driver, Linsey was a hockey player and was planning to train for the RCMP, before his brother Kevin, who was at the time driving Jurassic Attack decided to retire from the sport and said that he could take over the seat, which he would do. He would then go on to join Don Frankish's team, Frankish Enterprises, and drive the truck, making his first major completion appearance at San Diego in 2000.
In late 2004, Linsey would meet Jimmy Creten of 2Xtreme Racing in Del Mar. Linsey was considering joining the team because of how successful they were and was keen on making television appearances on the SPEED channel. He was hired for the team, crewing for them and he would alternate with Dawn Creten driving the Scarlet Bandit chassis; when Linsey drove the chassis, it ran under a new identity, Iron Outlaw, which debuted in Houston in January 2005. He also drove Bounty Hunter in Tacoma. After the first quarter, Dawn had to go on maternity leave as she was pregnant. As such, Linsey began driving Iron Outlaw full-time while Scarlet Bandit was placed on hiatus until Dawn was ready to return. In July, he would drive Bounty Hunter again in Franklin.
Linsey's first major televised SPEED appearance would be at Montreal in October 2005, kicking off the 2006 season. He would then shock everyone by winning the racing competition, beating Dennis Anderson in the semi-finals and his boss Jimmy in the finals. Following this, he would win racing at all of his next stadium appearances in Minneapolis, Pontiac (the last show at the Silverdome), Anaheim and San Diego; the Pontiac and Anaheim shows also seeing him beat Jimmy in the finals. His winning streak would end in Phoenix during the semi-finals when he was penalized for not hitting the cars with both front tires, losing out to Jason Childress and Batman after amassing 21 victories in a row. He would bounce back later in the season with another racing victory at the first ever Ford Field show in Detroit. Unsurprisingly, Linsey would be invited to World Finals VII, one of several drivers to make their World Finals debut that year and he would receive the Rising Star of the Year award at the end of the season.
In 2007, Linsey had another successful season, though he was not able to replicate his performances from the previous year. He would however finish in a three-way tie for third place in freestyle with Marc McDonald and Damon Bradshaw at World Finals VIII after being only the second truck in the field to freestyle. In July, Linsey was offered by the Built Ford Tough sponsor to join the Blue Thunder team. He was very frustrated and exhausted with working on an independent team, not being a fan of always being on the road and working and fixing the trucks almost 24/7. Linsey would accept the offer and would join the team, becoming teammates with Tony Farrell. He would debut in Blue Thunder at Monsters on Mainstreet that same month and ran his last show in Iron Outlaw in mid-August before leaving 2Xtreme Racing for FELD Motorsports. Linsey made his televised debut in Blue Thunder in Minneapolis in December, kicking off the 2008 season and would go on to win racing.
In 2008, Linsey won racing in Detroit, but rolled early in freestyle, but did an encore. He would then notably develop a well-documented rivalry with Jimmy Creten after leaving his team. Despite the rivalry, Linsey still had respect for Jimmy, mainly with the hard work he put into the sport. That same year, his brother Nathan would join the El Toro Loco team and they would compete alongside each other. He would get an invite to World Finals IX, which would be an interesting show for Linsey. In racing, he would get a first round bye after qualifying in the top 8, and in the second round he would go up against Jimmy Creten in Bounty Hunter. Linsey would have troubles through the chicane and would lose to Jimmy. Then in freestyle, Linsey would be on a roll, going big and even attempting a triple jump. He would then get stuck on the asphalt tanker for a good few seconds of the run before eventually nudging off of it. According to Linsey after getting out, he didn't really care what happened next. He then proceeded to do a lot of impressive cross-threads before ending the run with a high jump off the step-up ramp. He would score a 30 and tie for 4th place alongside Dennis Anderson in Grave Digger.
In 2009, Linsey would continue to drive Blue Thunder, and eventually get an invite to World Finals 10. It would be another interesting night for Linsey. Both Linsey and Jimmy would get first round byes in racing, and in round 3, they would meet up and would run a re-match of last year's race. Jimmy would struggle through the final turn, and Linsey would get revenge on Jimmy and would win the race, though he would lose the next race in the semi-finals against Alex Blackwell in Captain's Curse. He would once again put on a successful freestyle run, notably, and very surprisingly, being the only freestyler to back up and attempt to clear the triple. He would score a 28 and finish in 4th again, although not tied with anyone.
In 2010, Linsey won freestyle in Detroit.
In 2011, Linsey debuted the Lucas Oil Crusader, while rookie Todd LeDuc took over Blue Thunder. Linsey won racing in Baltimore and Cincinnati. Linsey also drove Traxxas E-Maxx in Arnhem and Wrocław on the European Tour.
In 2013, he drove Scooby Doo! twice. The first time was in Monterrey, Mexico and the second time was in Mexico City.
In 2014, Linsey drove Zombie in Mexico.
In 2015, Linsey drove Zombie again in Salinas, California for the Team North of the Border Vs. Team South of the Border.
In 2015 and 2016, Linsey would drive in the Fox Sports 1 Championship.
In 2017, Linsey competed in the FS1 East Series and won the series.
In 2018 and 2019, Linsey competed on Stadium Tour 3. In 2019, he drove Gas Monkey Garage in South Africa.
In 2020, Linsey competed on the red stadium tour, until all events would be cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. For the Minneapolis & Atlanta events, Marc McDonald filled in for him. He would later be invited to compete at Arlington in October, it being the first Monster Jam since the cancellations. This would later turn out to be the final show for the Lucas Oil Crusader, as the Lucas Oil contract would end in 2021 (This would be temporary, as it would be revealed that a new Lucas Oil sponsored truck would debut in Monster Jam in the following year). Linsey, however, clarified that he wasn't retiring and would be driving again in the near future. He would end up retiring to focus on family life and his nutrition store.
In 2025, he appeared on Inside Monster Jam. He is now a booking manager for Monster Jam.
World Finals appearances[]
| Year | Truck | Results | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Iron Outlaw | Qualifying: 3rd (16.72) | Racing: defeated in round 3 by Blacksmith | Freestyle: 19th (14) |
| 2007 | Qualifying: 3rd (16.19) | Racing: defeated in round 3 by Captain's Curse | Freestyle: 3rd (29) | |
| 2008 | Blue Thunder | Qualifying: 4th (16.66) | Racing: defeated in round 2 by Bounty Hunter | Freestyle: 4th (30) |
| 2009 | Qualifying: 7th (16.90) | Racing: defeated in semi-finals by Captain's Curse | Freestyle: 4th (28) | |
| 2010 | Qualifying: 6th (16.19) | Racing: defeated in semi-finals by Maximum Destruction | Freestyle: 11th (25) | |
| 2011 | Lucas Oil Crusader | Qualifying: 3rd (16.13) | Racing: defeated in semi-finals by Maximum Destruction | Freestyle: 8th (27) |
| 2012 | Qualifying: 6th (16.425) | Racing: defeated in round 3 by Monster Energy | Freestyle: 16th (21) | |
| 2013 | Qualifying: 13th (17.088) | Racing: defeated in round 1 by Captain America | Freestyle: 6th (27) | |
| 2014 | Qualifying: 9th (16.796) | Racing: defeated in round 3 by Grave Digger the Legend | Freestyle: 5th (30.5) | |
| 2015 | Qualifying: 12th (16.750) | Racing: defeated in round 3 by Monster Mutt | Freestyle: 11th (26) | |
| 2016 | Qualifying: 25th (16.724) | Racing: defeated in round 2 by Monster Energy (Saucier) | Freestyle: 25th (17.5) | |
| 2017 | Qualifying: 29th (17.307) | Racing: defeated in round 2 by Megalodon | Freestyle: 24th (6.675) | |
| 2018 | Qualifying: 22nd (16.795) | Racing: defeated in round 1 by Fox Sports 1 Cleatus | Freestyle: 4th (8.691) | |
| 2019 | Qualifying: 15th (13.606) | Racing: defeated in round 2 by Son-uva Digger | Freestyle: 6th (8.907) | |
Accomplishments[]
- 2006 Rising Star of the Year
- 2006 Team of the Year (with Jimmy & Dawn Creten)
- 2007 Team of the Year (with Jimmy & Dawn Creten)
- 2013 Team of the Year (with Candice Jolly)
- 2013 WOW Factor of the Year (with Damon Bradshaw)
- 2014 Crash Madness of the Year
- 2017 Fox Sports 1 East Coast champion
Gallery[]
