Pezo is known as one of the best freestylers
in the sport. He excels at keeping up momentum and performing
huge jumps. Typically, he is also able to finish the run with
his truck intact, although he does perform stunts which have a
high degree of danger. His cartwheel crashes in Jacksonville,
Florida in 2004 and Indianapolis, Indiana in 2005 were among the
most spectacular moments of their respective years.
Prowler/Pouncer drivers Dale Mitchell, Larry Jaruzel, and Dave
Pezo are less spectacular and more consistent, but still post
high scores often.
The Predator team also has the reputation of being formidable
racing opponents. Both trucks rarely do not make the semi-final
rounds of stadium events, and Pezo and Predator usually score a
major stadium win at least once every winter season mainly due
to the driving by Stephen Parry.
About Allen Pezo Allen Pezo has
been on the monster truck circuit since he was 15 years old. He
got the idea for building his own monster truck when he went to
a truck pull at the Ponitac Silverdome in Michigan. There, the
idea for his first monster truck, the Lone Eagle, was born. It
was a 1984 Chevy Silverado pickup, purchased brand new (stock
truck) and modified. It weighed 16,000 lbs. Allen started
booking shows with SRO Motorsports. He did 20 shows per year to
start. Allen’s Lone Eagle was a special attraction which was
used as filler for the truck pulls and custom car shows. During
these shows, Allen strictly crushed cars. There was no racing,
no freestyle, no doughnuts or getting major air off the jumps.
The monster truck was only for riding over cars. Allen hauled
Lone Eagle around on a flatbed pulled by a 1 ton dually pickup
truck. There was just enough room for the monster truck tires
and the truck itself. Very few spare parts were carried. This
first truck was run on gasoline. Five gallons lasted a month.
Allen ran Lone Eagle for 5 years, until 1988. Allen, with the
help of his family and a few friends, built this first truck.
One of these friends was Larry Jaruzel, who currently shares
driving responsibilities in Prowler with Allen’s cousin Dave
Pezo. These same people helped Allen with each of his trucks,
and are still around helping him out today.
In 1986, SRO was interested in having another truck, a Ford, to
be more specific, so the White Knight was born. It was all a
Ford-Chevy battle back then. The White Knight was 1986 Ford
Ranger single cab short bed truck. This truck was built from all
junkyard pieces. This truck weighed only 13,500 lbs. The fact
that it was a smaller truck accounted for the weight difference.
Allen still used the flatbed trailer with his 1 ton dually to
haul this from show to show. This truck was only booked for 10 –
15 shows per year. SRO did not use this second truck as much as
they said they would. Allen was running both Lone Eagle and
White Knight at the same time, but could only haul one at a
time. White Knight was still only used for between show
entertainment to crush cars. Nothing more. This was also a
gasoline-powered vehicle. This truck was run for two or three
years and then was sold in 1989-1990. The person who bought it
still owns it today.
In 1988 Lone Eagle was redesigned. Chevy had changed body styles
so the Lone Eagle got a new body and a new name. It’s new name
was Predator. This body was blue with orange and yellow stripes
down the side. This body was a single cab with long bed. Allen
was still booking shows through SRO. This first Predator monster
truck was booked for 25 – 30 shows per year. This was still
hauled on the flatbed using the 1 ton dually pickup truck. This
was still just a car-crushing exhibition.
In 1989, the second Predator monster truck was born. The chassis
was different on this new truck, but everything else was the
same as the first, including body style and paint job. A friend
of Allen’s from Detroit did the paint jobs for all the monster
trucks. By this time, Allen had acquired an enclosed trailer to
haul one of the trucks around. He also built his first motor
home to pull this trailer. The motor home was a Chevy Kodiak.
The flat bed and dually pickup still hauled the other truck. At
this same time, Allen also acquired a tank that he brought to
these exhibitions to crush cars. It was also called Predator and
had the same paint job as the two monster trucks. This tank was
booked at roughly 15 shows per year. The other two Predators
were booked at 15 – 20 shows per year. Larry Jaruzel drove the
second Predator. Both trucks had their own schedules and rarely
traveled together.
In 1991, Allen built his first race truck. This truck was white
with neon accents. This was 10,000 lbs – the light-weight tube
chassis, fiberglass body vs steel body, lighter axles, and all
lighter parts made up the weight difference between this and the
previous trucks. This truck was also called Predator. Around
this time, Allen bought his first tractor-trailer and retired
the dually pickup. He could fit two trucks into this
tractor-trailer, and still hauled one truck in the enclosed
trailer being pulled by the motor home. This new truck was
booked for 25 – 30 shows per year. Big Foot, Carolina Crusher &
Grave Digger were also part of this new monster truck racing
circuit. The show formats were as varied as they are today with
Chicago style (roundy-round) racing, straight drag racing, "U"
turn racing and freestyle. They raced over rows of cars with no
dirt ramps before or after the piles of cars. The lone promoter
of monster trucks was Pace Motorsports, which bought out SRO
some time in the 1990's.
The second blue Predator was torn apart and redesigned into a
new race truck. This was the first truck with the panther body.
The paint scheme was black with a neon orange and yellow logo.
This truck was built in 1992 and started racing in 1993. The
first race truck, the white one with neon accents, got a black
panther body put on it. These two trucks were the only ones he
raced. At the same time, the first blue Predator truck was
turned into a ride truck with a new black panther body. The ride
truck was only out when booked and was taken with the race
truck. In 1993 Allen bought the infamous black trailer with
living quarters in it. In 1994 he bought another tractor to pull
this new trailer…a 1991 Kenworth, which he still owns today.
Allen’s cousin Dave Pezo started driving in 1993.
In 1995 a third Predator was built. These three were run until
1997 before the first race truck was sold. He then just ran
these last two until 1998 when the second one was sold to one of
Allen’s friends, along with the tractor-trailer. This friend
still races the truck today under a different name. In 1998
Prowler was built out of all new components, including a new
frame. The objective was to have two identical trucks (except
for the paint job) that traveled together in one trailer. Today,
Larry Jaruzel & Dave Pezo share driving duties with Prowler
while Allen Pezo still runs Predator.
During the 4th Quarter of 2002, Allen & Diane purchased their
original third monster truck and trailer back. It has been run,
up until this point, as a Predator black cat. We have a new body
and paint scheme that we will introduce in May 2003 at the
Conyers, GA show. Keep an eye out for pictures! Also in 2003,
Allen decided to build a ride truck. It is still under
construction in May 2003 but will soon be finished for the
summer season. This ride truck will run with a black Predator
body on it.
Predator Racing,
Inc. Monster Truck Team
The Team consists of the trucks Predator, Prowler and Pouncer,
all of which currently compete primarily on the USHRA Monster
Jam circuit.
Prowler On Monster Jam
Predator Monster Truck on Wikipedia
Allen Pezo built his first monster truck, the original Lone Eagle, out of a
brand new 1985 Chevrolet Silverado at the age of 16.
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