For me, my trip started with a seven & a half hour flight from
London to New York, then a hour & a half hour bus journey from New
York to Allentown, Pennsylvania.
It was there, some 20 hours after leaving my home in London, which
was some six thousand miles away, that my behind the scenes trip finally
started.
Wednesday 8th July 98
John picked me up from the Airport in Allentown. I was quite surprised
that his street pick-up is actually a Chevy, as his Sudden Impact Monster
Truck is a Ford. It looked pretty cool though, as it had a
6 inch lift, 35 inch tires & tinted windows.
First port of call was to the home of Sudden Impact for a few
more hours work, before shutting up for the night. John runs the Sudden
Impact truck out of the back of his partner, Andy Slifko's, Auto
& Truck Repair shop, which is located in Pottsville, PA.
" I've known Andy since I was 12, but we've only been in the monster
truck
business together, for past 4 years. Even though I've been doing it for 8 years"
The front of the shop is for regular customers & in the back,
they run the Sudden Impact, Eradicator & Eradicator Ride truck. They
are also in the process of building another Eradicator ride truck. They will then transform the old Eradicator Ride truck into a Sudden Impact Ride
truck.
"We don't have a fancy shop like some of the other Monster Truck
teams, but we do have a Swimming pool, a gas grill barbecue & a great
bunch of guys!"
John & Andy where getting both the Sudden Impact & Eradicator
trucks ready for the 11th
Annual Summer Jamboree in Bloomsburg, PA. The Sudden Impact was going
to race, & the Eradicator would be on display for Trail Master, who
is one of their sponsors. The Bloomsburg show was a fairly close
show for them to travel to. And even though the show didn't start until
the Friday they would be taking the trucks to the fairground on the Thursday.
Andy Slifko had quite alot of work to do on his truck
John had rebuilt the shocks on the truck & was in the middle of putting them back on the truck, when he had to pick me up from the airport.So after putting them back on, John was finished for the night. We left Andy & the other guys
working away on Eradicator. We all met up again later for some therapy with
a few drinks !
 
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