Linsey Weenk (Born April 22nd, 1979) is a retired monster truck 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. Weenk would not be the only driver named Linsey to drive a Lucas Oil sponsored truck. Linsey Read drove Lucas Stabilizer from 2023 - 2024 as a fill-in for Cynthia Gauthier, who was pregnant. Mike Christensen was one of his crew chiefs. For more information, click here: https://web.archive.org/web/20111202064938/http://www.monsterjam.com/Bios/Drivers/Linsey_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 and drive the truck, making his first major completion appearance at San Diego in 2000.
In 2005, Linsey would meet Jimmy Creten and his team in Del Mar. Linsey was considering joining the team because of how successful the team was, plus making appearances on SPEED channel. Linsey & Jimmy would drive Bounty Hunter in Tacoma that year. Linsey drove Bounty Hunter again in Franklin. He then asked Jimmy if he'd be interested in being a new driver, to which Jimmy agreed and began working with the team, before getting his own ride at the end of year called Iron Outlaw, which was Dawn Creten's Scarlet Bandit chassis at the time, though truck name was on hiatus at the time because Dawn was pregnant and couldn't drive for the time. That same year, Linsey joined 2Xtreme Racing, his brother Nathan would get involved with the sport, taking Linsey's place as the Jurassic Attack driver.
Linsey's first major televised appearance would be at Montreal at the end of 2005, kicking off the 2006 season. He would then shock everyone by winning the racing competition, beating drivers such as Dennis Anderson and his boss Jimmy. Linsey would then go on to have an unbelievable winning streak, having over 20+ racing wins in a row. His most notable victory would be at the very last show for the Pontiac Silverdome. This success would almost instantly earn Linsey his first ever invite to the World Finals, though he wouldn't win any world titles at the event. He would also be successful in 2007, getting a second invite to the World Finals.
In the summer of 2007, Weenk was offered by the Built Ford Tough sponsor to join the Blue Thunder team. Linsey 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 then debut at Minneapolis 2007 in December, kicking off the 2008 season. He would go on to win the racing. 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 9, 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 Europe.
In 2013, 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.
World Finals appearances[]
- 2006 - Iron Outlaw
- 2007 - Iron Outlaw
- 2008 - Blue Thunder
- 2009 - Blue Thunder
- 2010 - Blue Thunder
- 2011 - Lucas Oil Crusader
- 2012 - Lucas Oil Crusader
- 2013 - Lucas Oil Crusader
- 2014 - Lucas Oil Crusader
- 2015 - Lucas Oil Crusader
- 2016 - Lucas Oil Crusader
- 2017 - Lucas Oil Crusader
- 2018 - Lucas Oil Crusader
- 2019 - Lucas Oil Crusader
Gallery[]
