The 1,400-Horsepower Love Story that Started Behind the Wheel of Bigfoot

You don’t get into driving a 5,400-kg, 10-foot-tall behemoth that was literally designed to crush smaller vehicles if you’re afraid of breaking barriers. Rebecca Schnell, a driver on team Bigfoot and the first woman to ever drive in the Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live series in 2020, is certainly not afraid of breaking anything.

That’s not to say she’s a maniac, though. Darron Schnell, another driver on team Bigfoot who helped train Rebecca and happens to be her husband, recently told AutoTrader that his wife’s background as an emergency room nurse means that she’s quite analytical.

Because “of her nursing background, [Rebecca] likes to have everything explained in a very organized fashion,” Darron said, adding that his brain is wired a little differently, which made teaching her how to drive a little tricky. 

“To look at your wife and say, ‘Well, put on a helmet, make sure your belts are tight, and go drive into the side of that car, and the truck will take care of you,’ and she looks at you like you have three heads,” he explained.

A native of North Carolina, Rebecca grew up with a healthy appreciation for monster trucks, but, like most of us, she never thought she’d be behind the wheel of one. It wasn’t until she met Darron in 2009 that things started falling into place. Darron was in town helping to display an older version of the truck, Bigfoot 8 (we’re currently on Bigfoot 23), and she decided to take a look. The daredevil in Rebecca quickly revealed itself.

“I might have snuck myself into his monster truck, which I don’t encourage anyone reading this article to do,” she told us. She said, however, that she and Darron connected instantly and had a lot of chemistry, so she followed him around the country for a few years while she got her nursing degree.

While on the circuit, she realized she could sit around in the pits or help out. The latter option sounded much more interesting, so she got to work. She said that her background in nursing and her history of horseback riding were very helpful to her in the world of monster trucks.

“There’s a lot of similarities between those three items that really triggered me to have a love for doing this,” Rebecca said. Eventually, she wanted to climb back up into the cockpit to drive and asked the truck’s owners for an opportunity.

Bigfoot is owned by the Chandler family out of Pacific, Missouri, and Bob Chandler is credited with inventing monster trucks in 1975 when he put the biggest tires he could find on his 1974 Ford F-250. Although some dispute the claim that it was the first monster truck in history, there’s no doubt that Bigfoot 1 made monster trucks popular and that it was the first monster truck to appear on film in 1981’s Take This Job and Shove It, and again later in 1989’s Roadhouse.

Over time, as the wheels under Bigfoot got bigger and bigger, so did the team behind it. Although Rebecca was the first woman to drive in Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live, she was not the first to drive Bigfoot. That honour goes to Marilyn Chandler who, in 1985, became half of the first husband and wife duo to pilot Bigfoot alongside her husband Bob. In so doing, she also became the first woman to drive a monster truck professionally.

It should come as no surprise that when Rebecca asked to get behind the wheel, the Chandler family obliged in 2019. Naturally, she didn’t start by crushing cars. Instead, she started by driving display vehicles — older versions of the truck that need to be moved around to be displayed at auto shows and other events where the truck won’t compete. Indeed, that’s the route that most drivers, including Darron, take.

Although the details are different, Darron’s path to driving Bigfoot was pretty similar to Rebecca’s. Originally from South Dakota, he was studying in Montana when he first dipped his toes into the world of monster trucks. Arguably, the Schnells might never have found each other if weren’t for Canada. While at university, Darron spent his weekends crossing the border to volunteer for a monster truck team from Lethbridge, Alberta, and started on the path to fulfilling his childhood dream of driving monster trucks. However, driving would have to wait. To start, Darron says he was only allowed to wash windshields and wipe off tires.

“It was something fun to do on the weekends and [a way] to be involved with the sport. From there, it spiralled out of control,” he said wryly.

After four years of volunteering, he got the opportunity to work for Bigfoot. His first chance to get behind the wheel was also as a display driver on Bigfoot 8. That was his role in 2009, when he met Rebecca, and it wasn’t until 2011 that he finally fulfilled his childhood dream and drove Bigfoot 11 in front of fans — something he describes as an honour and “a whole lot of fun.” Rebecca, on the other hand, told us that her first drive caused her some anxiety.

“When you become a driver, you have a seat that’s fitted around you and all of the safety equipment, and I didn’t know if I was going to have a liking to that,” she explained. “You have to not be claustrophobic at all. Our cabs are pretty small. So, for belting in the first time, I was very, very nervous. It’s a thing that I joke about a lot because the first time I hit a car I actually closed my eyes. It’s a thing you have to train your brain on to be in a car crash every time you get in it.”

Despite her concerns, Rebecca said that her first drive was one of the best experiences of her life. It should hardly come as a surprise that someone who’s comfortable dealing with traumatic injuries in an ER and being one of the few women in her sport acclimated quickly to the challenge of driving a monster truck. Fortunately, while she remains one of the few women in her field, she’s by no means alone, and she said that she was warmly welcomed into the pits and the paddock.

“The guys have always been super supportive,” she said. “It’s really nice to be able to showcase that we can empower not only, like the little girls and the women, but the little boys, too. It’s very surprising to see, and it’s such a movement now. I’m very honoured to be able to do it."

Adding to the honour is the legacy of the truck both she and her husband are driving. Now celebrating its 50th anniversary, Bigfoot is being celebrated by Hot Wheels with an exclusive die-cast version of the truck that hit store shelves last month. In addition, the toy brand helped design a special edition of the full-size monster truck that Rebecca and Darron, whom some might call the ultimate power couple, will both drive during the Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live: Glow-N-Fire show series later this year.

While the special truck and history-making career are both great, Rebecca said the greatest honour of all is being allowed to perform for the fans.

“I get to go perform for the amazing Hot Wheels fans that we have. They’re so excited every time we bring out the trucks,” she explained. “It’s about bringing the trucks to them, performing for them, putting the lights and the fire on, and we get to have a great time.”