Sublimity Harvest Festival

Who We Are

Come Join the Fun

It was a Blast

MONSTER TRUCKS

Captain USA
King Krunch
El Matador
Obsession
The Patriot
Tropical Thunder

Captain USA

Driver: Jeff Bainter
Age: 45
Hometown: Yakima, WA
Occupation: Dad to daughter Haley plus owner/driver of the CAPTAIN USA MONSTER TRUCK
Years in Monster Trucks: 26
Hobbies: fishing, golfing, snomobiling
History: Built the “Worlds Largest
Jeeps" HOTSTUFF and HIGH
VOLTAGE monster trucks and
competed from the early eightys
through 1996, then built the
CAPTAIN USA MONSTER
TRUCK in 1997. One of our
favorite stops every year is the
Sublimity Harvest Festival. It’s
a event that is in a class of it’s own,
thanks to the great staff that
organizes everything, the local
sponsors, and especially the fans
that cheer us on there.

Sponsored by:

AWI

King Krunch

Driver: David Smith
Birthdate: March 12, 1969
Residence: Spring, Texas
Marital Status: Married
Children: 2 daughters
Hobbies: Restoring cars
Personal Profile:David got his start in monster trucks in 1996 by helping to build King Krunch 14 in the evenings after work. He travelled with the team from 1997 to 1999. In 1999 he made the decision to go to work full time as the crew chief for the race team. He worked hard to learn all he could about the truck and the sport of monster truck racing and helped take King Krunch to the 2000 World Finals in Vegas. David became the full time driver of King Krunch in the Fall of 2000. His first official show as the new driver was at the 2000 Wings Over Houston Air Show.

The 2001 racing season was his first full season. He worked to find his own driving style which also helped find the weak points in the truck. The team worked hard to improve the strength and reliability of King Krunch 14.

In May of 2002, David and owner, Nels Wickander, decided to expand the team to a two truck race team. King Krunch 15 made it's debut at the 2002 Wings Over Houston Air Show.

The 2003 racing season has been David's best and busiest yet. They easily doubled the number of appearances from those done the year before and in March, David was named Clear Channel Motorsports' Most Improved Driver.

David is constantly fine tuning and looking for ways to improve KK15 so look for even bigger things to happen in the coming years.

El Matador

Driver: Daron Basl
Birthdate: 11/10/80
Residence: Magnolia, Texas
Hometown: Salem, Oregon
Marital Status: Single
Children: None
Hobbies: RC Cars, Off-Roading, Fishing, Boating
Personal Profile: Daron got his start at a very young age. It was a family affair with his father(Gary Basl),older brother Ryan and Daron's twin brother Aaron on the pulling truck circuit. They pulled in the 2wd class running 62' and 63' model chevy trucks.

In 2000 he and his brother Aaron, started working for Jeff Bainter. Daron was a crew guy for Jeff for about a year.

After traveling with Jeff he went back home to work with his dad for a little while. He stayed home until 2002 when he started working for Jimmy Creten, taking the full time driving duties in Jimmy's Bearfoot truck.

In mid 2004 Daron came to work for the King Krunch Racing Team to take on full time driving duties on the El Matador truck. Daron looks forward to an exciting season in the El Matador and many great things to come.

The Patriot

Driver: Dan Rodoni
Residence: Santa Cruz, CA
Years Competing: 3 years
Birth Date: 9-26-1968
Marital Status: Married
Children: 2 Girls
Favorite Music: Country & Rock
Hobbies: Hunting, Fishing, 4 wheeling and being outdoors
Personal Profile: Danny Rodoni grew up in Santa Cruz on a family owned brussel sprout farm where he had his first job of wrenching and fabrication on farm equipment, trucks and tractors. Danny has always had passion for large trucks and is known in his home town for driving some of the biggest lifted trucks most people have ever seen. This passion for lifted trucks and his natural mechanical ability lead him to pursuing a 4 wheel drive business.

Danny left the family farming business in 1995 and started his own 4 wheel drive shop. Danny owned and operated Central Coast Four Wheel drive, a very successful shop for over 10 years.

Danny got his start in monster trucks in 2001 by helping the Team Meents crew in the evenings and weekends when the team was on the west coast. He traveled with the team when he could in 2001-2003 and decided to build his own truck in 2003. In 2003 after a trip to the Texas based Racesource shop and home of Paul Huffaker, plans were under way to build the Patriot. The chassis was finished in the fall of 2003 and he spent the next 6 months getting the truck ready for the first show. The Patriot and Danny made their debut in Yakima Washington in June 2004 for J&K Motor Sports.

In fall of 2005, Danny decided to expand the team to a two truck race team. Tropical Thunder was purchased and heavily modified for the 2006 season by the newest team member, “Factory Phil Foster”. The 2006 season also saw the addition of Andrew Peckham filling in for Phil from time to time. The 2006 season was filled with several racing wins by both trucks and some wild freestyles. 2006 was also the year that Danny sold his 4 wheel drive shop to his good friend Lazo and returned to farming

2007 had a busy 1st quarter with a show just about every weekend. "Factory" Phil Foster was aboard once again driving Tropical Thunder for the first 6 events, Andrew Peckham drove the last show in Fresno and Mike Pappas finally made his racing debut driving Tropical Thunder in Merced.

What in store for 2008? “ I can see us going to a 4 truck team 2 going to the east coast and 2 on the west, stay tuned”

Danny’s thoughts about the team; “My success is only as good as my help! I am privileged and grateful to have Phil Foster, Andrew Peckham , Mike Pappas, Mark Olsen, Allen Scott and Chris Slay as part of this awesome Race Team. To have a team that’s successful takes a good group of people.”

Sponsored by:

Watsonville GMC, Central Coast Four Wheel Drive, South Bay Driveline, Bayside Oil, Ladds Autobody, Gary's Plastic Place, Farben Industrial Finishes

Tropical Thunder

Driver: Andrew Peckham
Hometown: Santa Cruz, CA
Years Competing: 2 yrs
Age: 24
Birth Date: 3-06-1984
Marital Status: Engaged
Children: Not Yet
Hobbies: Anything with horse power (Jet Skis, Boats and of course 4x4
Personal Profile: Bio coming soon!