Bigfoot monster truck visits Kennett

Lawrence and Colin Landess of Kennett take a look at the Bigfoot monster truck at Plaza Tire in Kennett Friday morning as monster truck racer Dave Woodcock places a sign on his truck. [Click to enlarge]

The tenth of the Bigfoot fleet of 16 visited Kennett with racer Dave Woodcock.

Woodcock said he came from a race in Oregon and will leave Saturday to prepare for a race in Nebraska.

Each of the 16 takes about three months to one year and $150,000 to $250,000 to build.

The #10 truck was built using a 2003 Ford F250 Super Duty truck with a 572 alcohol injected and blown motor to produce about 1,500 horsepower.

A standard F250 Super Duty truck uses 16-inch tires. The #10 monster truck uses 66-inch Firestone tires at a cost of more than $2,000 each.

Bigfoot has attracted crowds to public appearances like the one scheduled at Plaza Tire since the truck was created in the mid-1970s.

The monster truck was conceived when Bob Chandler of St. Louis discovered there was no place in the Midwest to get parts for this 4x4 Ford F-250.

To fill this void, Chandler and his wife, Marilyn, opened the Midwest Four Wheel Drive and Performance Center.

Their Ford F-250 became the company's promotional tool as they used parts they sold to make the truck larger and larger.

The truck quickly grabbed attention and later began making paid public appearances. The truck was named Bigfoot and its popularity quickly grew.

The Chandlers attracted additional fans when they began driving Bigfoot over junk cars during public appearances. Bigfoot later led the monster truck industry into monster truck racing.

Vernon "Pee Wee" Rhodes opened Plaza Tire Service as a hand-operated car wash in 1963 in Cape Girardeau, Mo., and later expanded into tire service and sales.

The tire services were conducted along the sidewalk outside the car wash to provide fast, convenient customer service.

Local regulations ended the practice, so the car wash converted into an exclusive tire and automobile service.

Plaza Tire is now a 40-store tire retailer with locations in Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky and Arkansas.