Mike Welch (Born September 26th, 1963) is a monster truck driver out of Bellingham, Washington. He was the driver of many different monster trucks, primarily trucks that he owned. His most notable truck is Monster Mash.
Career[]
Before he built his truck, he worked at a wrecking yard. At the wrecking yard, he would buy a 1964 pickup truck which he would modify to make it bigger. This is what interested him in monster trucks. Mike's career began in 1984 when he debuted Monster Mash in Medford, Oregon.
In 1985, Mike competed and won the first "Battle of the Monster Trucks".
In 1987, Mike built and stunt drove in the movie Rolling Vengeance.
In 1990, Mike and his truck Super Pete competed in Tokyo. This would influence the gaming company Taito to use the likeness of Super Pete in the game Double Axle/Power Wheels.
From the 1990's-2000's, Mike would build many unique trucks and did various stunts. One example was an airplane monster truck.
Mike was known for using large construction tires in his events, due to the nature of the size of the tires and the rebound from the rubber, it allowed trucks to catch really impressive air time, even at lesser speeds and heavier trucks. He built the Red Baron truck to look like an airplane for the sole purpose of crashing it into a makeshift barn. He would use sewer piping on a trailer to simulate a log racing with Super Pete and other trucks. His most famous stunts were Muscle Beach and Breaking The Law being dropped from a construction crane. Mike was also known to be one of the first owners to have self promoted shows with his fleet of trucks.
In 2003, he was knowing to have used Freakshow to make an attempt at the first backflip off a customized ramp. Though the ramp failed to assist the truck in a backflip, the force from the landing and rebound of the truck came close.
In 2010, Mike used freestyle rx ramps as ramps for a monster truck and got 40 feet of air.
In 2012, Mike was inducted into the International Monster Truck Hall of Fame.
In 2024, Mike would return to announcing at Monster Trucks Rally Live! in Bakersfield, California.
Trivia[]
- Mike claims to have done the first monster truck freestyle in 1989. Though this claim has yet to be proven, many in the industry and fans alike believe it to be true. This led Mike to add "Father of Freestyle" on Lucky Logger, and later in his revival of the Monster Mash name.
- Mike has stated that he discovered the 10 foot tundra tires that would later be used on Bigfoot 5 and has photographic proof. However, he was unable to purchase them at the time due to the outrageous asking price of the yard owner. His intent, if purchased, was to put them under the original Monster Mash. Though he would later acquire a set of 8 foot tall tundra tires and put them on Flying Fire and Super Pete.
- While self promoting shows in the mid 1990's through the early 2000's, Mike was known not only for making comments about spectators not seeing this type of action at Monster Jam as a kind of jab towards them, but also chanting "We want air!', as well as even pulling double duty as announcer and driver. A prime example of the latter is when he put on a show with Sam Sturges' fleet, Natural High, and his Lucky Logger truck, driving in street clothes. Photos of this event are on TheMonsterBlog.
- Mike would get inside crush cars with a microphone and would get a monster truck to crush the car with him inside as a stunt.
Gallery[]
