CATCHING UP WITH THE WORLD RACING CHAMP: AN INTERVIEW WITH JOHN SEASOCK

During a few moments of peace and quiet on the hectic Monster Jam World Tour in Antwerp, Belgium, I sat down for a short interview with the World Racing Champion, John Seasock, who had just completed a weekend in his Batman truck at the Sportspaleis undefeated in racing, winning all nine rounds of racing he competed in there, something that is clearly important to him – showing every time out that he is the reigning racing title holder. Here’s what the champ is thinking a little more than six months removed form the biggest night in his career when he won the racing title at the Monster Jam World Finals in Las Vegas last March:

My question: At times in the past, because of the way the schedule is so weighted toward the first quarter of the year, the World Champions have not really started defending their titles until January, but this year you are staying really busy competing on the European Tour. Is it an advantage for you to be able to stay so busy this fall?
Seasock: “I always stayed really busy to begin with. I do a lot of Make-A-Wish stuff, visiting schools and hospitals anyway. And being the champion has added on to that a lot more. Things like a fantasy auction back home for the county I live in, I was a part of that. Now we’re over here in Europe. I’ve been really, really busy and really blessed with a lot of things. I really can’t complain. I mean it’s cool being the champion, it carries a little more weight, it has a little more clout. When I go into schools and stuff, everybody watched Speed and knows we’re the World Champion.”

Question: You’re from a small town. How has the reaction been there to you winning the World Championship?
Seasock: “Back home it’s awesome. I live in Frackville, PA, in a small town, 5,000 people. When we got home after Vegas there was a parade in town. My crew had the truck there, they had a big parade in town, a big party at a couple of local restaurants that I hang out in. It was fantastic. I mean, everybody there knows me, my neighbors know what I do. I don’t go around bragging about what I do but I am proud of it. I get to go home and be me. You walk into restaurants and stores back home and they’ve got my posters on the wall, it’s really cool.”

Questions: Looking ahead to 2008, will being the World Champion make it any different for you when you bring Batman onto the floor?
Seasock: “Actually I’ve been kind of thinking about that. In one aspect I have a big target on my back. Everybody wants to try to beat the World Champion. Another aspect is that everybody has to try to beat me. It’s not like before, I was gunning for Tom or gunning for Dennis. Now they have to come after me, so you can go either way with it. I want to be the best champion that I can be. Not only on the track, but off the track, you know, doing the stuff with the fans and with the other competitors. Just being the best person I can be and trying to wear that championship title the best that I can. It means a lot to me. It’s a dream come true without a doubt. It’s something you always shoot for and I definitely want to win every round I can, every race I can. But at the end of the season I want to try and defend my title, but if I can’t for some reason, I want to walk away knowing that I was the best champion I could possibly be.”

Question: Is it important for you to win another championship?
Seasock: “Oh, definitely. You know, Tom is the seven-time champion. That’s impressive, without a doubt. I would love to be able to have that kind of status. You know I want to be able to back it up and prove that it wasn’t a fluke. I mean I had without a doubt the best year of my career (in 2007), winning Atlanta, taking a lot of big wins throughout the whole first quarter, and then winning Vegas. But I want to be able to come back and to back it up and show that it wasn’t a mistake, it wasn’t a fluke, we really are the reigning champions.”

Question: It seems like, thanks to the advances that keep making these trucks safer, that you veterans plan on racing for years to come. How long do you plan to keep competing in Monster Jam, forever?
Seasock: “Doing it forever? Yeah. I feel great. I’m 42 years old. I don’t feel it. Not at all. My girlfriend thinks I’m nine years old. I work out every day, I try to eat right, I try to do things right because I feel really good. All the abuse on my body is from years ago when I first started. You know, when I first started I never thought I’d be where I’m at. Unfortunately when somebody wants to follow a dream that’s unconventional a lot of people don’t believe in you. I had that sometimes. I had people tell me ‘you can’t do that, look at the guys on TV, you can’t be that way, you come from a small town, you don’t have a lot of money’. We didn’t, but we fought and we struggled and we made it through. I never thought I’d be where I am now. You walk into my house and there are awards and on the wall and pictures from my fans and friends. I never thought – I mean I always wanted to win a World Championship but I never thought I’d achieve a championship. It is a dream come true.”

Question: Thinking about how so many of you veterans think you can do this forever, is it the technology that is extending careers, including yours?
Seasock: “Without a doubt. It’s funny. Tom Meents and I were talking about this last week when we were over in Arnhem (Holland). We were talking about how it was years ago, the abuse we used to take in the trucks. I had my first leaf spring truck with the five-ton axles, a truck that when it rained you’d roll the windows up and just go ahead and do your car crush. Coming from that type of school, that type of mentality, to now with the nitrogen shocks, the better seats, better harnesses and stuff, you really do kind of feel that you can go higher, bigger, farther. I mean there is a limit some place, but we don’t know what it is yet. I feel better now than I did ten years ago, 15 years ago. I think the fans are what drives us and keeps us going and we see the smiles on the faces of all those kids, it makes it all worthwhile. It sounds corny, but it’s something we say day in and day out and we actually mean it. The Monster Jam family depends on the fans so much. It’s like when you and the other announcers tell the fans to wave their flags and pennants, that the drivers can see that, well we really do and we feed off of that energy, we really do. We see all of that stuff and they are the ones that keep us going with their support. I really don’t see when I’m going to stop. I don’t want to stop. I can see a lot of years ahead for me still. My sons want to race Monster Jam; they want to try to beat me. Just like Dennis’ kids are doing now, my boys have the same wishes, to try to take me down and they want me to be the World Champion when they do it. If they do beat me it’s not gonna be a waltz in the park. They’ll have to earn it. We say it over and over again but the fans are what this is all about. With them behind me I can’t see stepping away from the truck for a long time to come. Even the win in Vegas. It wasn’t just me, it was guys who helped me back in the shop a long time ago, it was the fans who supported me through the ups and the downs. That win, I was the one getting all the glory, but there were so many people behind it, I wish I could have had millions of them there right by my side, because they all deserved to be there just as much as I did.”