Growing up Coty Saucier dreamed of driving a monster truck. Now, he races them while backflipping over 60 foot jumps. We talk monster trucks, racing and more. Then, a special vehicular Top 5.
Interview with Monster Energy Monster Truck Driver Coty Saucier
Nick VinZant 0:11
Hey everybody, welcome to Profoundly Pointless. My name is Nick VinZant. Coming up in this episode, monster trucks and ridiculous cars,
Coty Saucier 0:21
it's everything from being on a roller coaster that you are in control of the track direction mixed with standing at the edge of a cliff with about 1000 foot drop off in front of you. So all that combined is just it's intimidating. It's exciting. It's it's just a rush like no other. we'd stop at a red light and I'd shut the truck off so wouldn't get hot and there's people pulling up next to me like the hills, a monster truck tune in and turning way,
Nick VinZant 0:51
can you look back on a spot on a moment in your life, where you could say I should have made a different decision here. I screwed my life up here. I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you get a chance, like download, subscribe, share, we really appreciate it, it really helps us out. So our first guest has one of these jobs, that I think anybody who's seen this on TV or in person thinks for at least a second. Man, it'd be cool to drive one of those things. He is the driver of the Monster Energy monster truck. This is monster truck driver, Cody Saucier, what's it like driving a monster truck,
Coty Saucier 1:35
it's tough to put into words. But the best explanation that I can give. It's everything from being on a roller coaster that you are in control of the track direction, and what loops it takes and what high speed curves it takes. And if it's going to go forward. And if it's even going to go backwards, mixed with standing at the edge of a cliff with about 1000 foot drop off in front of you. So all that combined is just the ultimate adrenaline rush. I've rented ridden dirt bikes before and I've jumped big on those things. But it just doesn't compare to the size and the power of the trucks because it's it's deceiving. You know, they're not supposed to do what we do with them. And then to get inside and strap in and do the things we do. It's it's intimidating, it's exciting. It's, it's just a rush like no other.
Nick VinZant 2:29
Is it because of like the raw power the horsepower? Is it because of like, this thing's hard to control? Is it because of the jump or just kind of like all of the above? Um,
Coty Saucier 2:41
They do you have big power. To me, they don't have enough power. But what they can be dangerous. I mean, it's not sugar coated, they can be very dangerous to the driver. So you got to respect the and and drive it with some respect and, but just to think like, Man, I'm getting ready to hit this jump that's in front of me, that's four times the height of the truck itself and send this thing, easily 100 feet in distance, that's nothing, and it's gonna go 60 feet in the air. And that's nothing. So just to think about what you're doing in the trucks is just, it's pretty impressive.
Nick VinZant 3:16
I didn't realize he was that those jumps with that hire that far. Like, he doesn't know quite like that on TV.
Coty Saucier 3:23
It doesn't, but you go to some of the events, you know, and they have these pit parties that are out on the track before the event. And you know, you could walk around and see the trucks up close and actually walk on the track and I get it all the time from from a lot of newcomers obviously like man, I jumped in look like that on television. I'm like, Well, welcome to our world. It seems like they get bigger every weekend for us. But yeah, man, they the dirt crew that that Monster Jam has is those guys are also man, they they try to nail it every weekend given us the same faces. I say faces the other the face of the ramp every weekend and things change. And especially during the freestyle events, you know, the first guy to go out can kind of make or break how the rest of the field is going to perform. Because if he goes out there and knocked all the ramp down will now you get to work to do to make yourself look
Nick VinZant 4:17
I would have assumed like guys like 15 feet high and maybe like two cars long. I did not read that's Damn.
Coty Saucier 4:25
Yeah, there's some big stuff out there, man there, you know, the piling up school buses side by side and stack and cars inside of them. And then they're piling dirt beside it. And they're like, Okay, good luck.
Nick VinZant 4:38
Have you ever gone up to one and been like, Hey, man, I don't know about this jump. I don't think we should add the lava and the flaming hoop and the alligators all the same time. Have you ever had like an instance where I don't know if I want to do this one?
Coty Saucier 4:51
Often Yes, but it's not to say that we don't go for it. Anyway, we'll make some changes. We'll tell the dirt crew like hey, Man that that that just looks a little too steep, you know, it's just not going to, it's not going to have the effect that you're looking for, you know, take it from us, we're behind the wheel, if if the dirt is cut out, then it's just it's not going to make for what you think it's going to do. So we constantly make changes and you're in control of vehicles. If there's something out there, you don't want to hit and by all means, you don't have to hit it. Some things are extremely intimidating. I, you know, I see it all the time. It's like, Man, that's, that's a straight up wall right there. I'm gonna go drive around that.
Nick VinZant 5:32
Is this something that you set out to do? Or is this something that just happened?
Coty Saucier 5:36
As a kid man, I have always been intrigued by the trucks in particular, I mean, I'm a gearhead my whole life, I've followed all forms of Motorsports. But just something about the trucks. I don't know as a young kid, if it was like a cartoon come to life kind of thing. And, you know, the trucks are big, they're loud and intimidating and scary. As I grew older, and like, you know, I got more mechanically inclined and knowledgeable. like, Man, these things really are frickin cool. So, at an early age, I just fell in love and like, man, I would like to try that one day and my love for that in baseball. I wanted to be a pro baseball player and make enough money to have my own monster truck. Well, that no none of that ever happened. I had to go work for somebody that had their monster truck and I could go play there. So here I am.
Nick VinZant 6:26
Do you fill out like a job application to be the driver? I mean, how does that you just work your way up? Or how does that process work?
Coty Saucier 6:33
You know, kind of like other forms of motorsport you work your way up from the bottom I literally started just kind of volunteering my time when the events would come around me I would just I would just go and hey, do you need any help doing anything? I've I've got two hands I'm willing to work I've got my work boots on let's let's do something so it was slow at first you know all I got was like a yeah kid Yeah, you can you can wipe the truck off if you like or at the end of the show you know come back and you can roll up extension cords for us and help us pack the trailer that went on for the longest of times. And finally it just it it picked up enough to where I got my face recognized and my name known so whenever the guys did come back to my area like oh hey man, call that one kid up Cody, you know you can come help us change that transmission or something that we get a knockout before the event even starts so little by little it led to a part time gig to a full time position to man 24 seven kind of thing you know, living and breathing out?
Nick VinZant 7:36
Is this the full time living like you could you can do this and someday retire just off of it or do you have to supplement in other ways?
Coty Saucier 7:44
You know, I know some guys that what they're considered in the industry privateer or independent teams guys that you know i footed their own bill doing this stuff. Their entire monster truck career, like for example is a gentleman that lives right here near me in Florida. Scott heartsong, he has The Gunslinger truck. And he's been in the industry since the late 80s. And he's just made a huge name for himself and I respect the guy so much because it's always been just the name of the truck on the side and not a sponsor sticker to be found. And he's still out there taking names and you know, kicking ass with TV trucks and he's got to figure it out, man. So to answer your question, there's definitely money to be made. Absolutely.
Nick VinZant 8:28
Like when when you're driving the truck, do you do everything else too? Like are you the mechanic? Are you the I don't know enough about mucking around with any other hidden mechanic? Um,
Coty Saucier 8:40
it used to be that way. Yeah, my first few years driving I started competing in 2014. And for the following three years or three tours, I guess you could say 1415 and 16 Yeah, I was the kind of built my own truck maintain it going up and down the road, I'd stay out on the road with it, you know, we'd pack and leave for three months and that that truck was priority. So every day you know, you had to be hands on it there was something that need to be adjusted and fixed and it's like a full time babysitting job with the trucks
Nick VinZant 9:16
are a lot of people kind of long time drivers or is this something that somebody like you're going to come in you can do this for two to five years and get go on to something else like is do a lot of people stick with it?
Coty Saucier 9:27
There's probably more guys that have been with it for you know, several years if not decades. Then there are newcomers that are just you know, fly by night here one weekend go on the next there's there's probably more guys that have been involving industry 1010 plus years versus guys that are here for a season or two for sure. Yeah.
Nick VinZant 9:49
All right. Correct me if I'm wrong here, I'm gonna reveal my my ignorance about the subject. So are you guys racing racing? Are you like racing like, yeah, we're racing, but really, we just We're just gonna hit the jobs
Coty Saucier 10:02
it says heads up as it comes man we really nobody out there wants to lose we're all out there to help one another when the helmets off when the helmet goes on it's I can't wait to kick that guy's ass and then buy him a beer later tonight.
Nick VinZant 10:16
What? What's kind of the strategy then when when when you're racing does it like depend on the track the dirt, the truck? The
Coty Saucier 10:24
Yeah, man, you nailed it a little bit, everything you got to know, you got to know what your your own equipment is capable of. So a guy like myself, mechanically inclined, I like to think that I have a one up on somebody that may not be in the shop all weekend long, maybe one of these flying guys that just braces, monster trucks on the weekend or something like that. So we can always kind of sneak in there just just like any other form of motorsport, do your little tricks to set up the chassis just the way you like it to compensate for what type? Of course it is. What's the dirt doing? Is it sticky? Is it too low? Me is a dry is it? What is it? So you take all that in consideration. And then a lot of times, man, you just got to drive accordingly. And drive your own race. Because if you if you look at the other guy, if the race course gives you an opportunity to look at the other guy in the other lane. And you just record yourself, you don't ever want to look at the other guy. So I try to always just run my own race and, and stay consistent. It's kind of like bracket drag racing. Austin trucks. Monster Truck racing is like record drag racing, you always just want to hit your marks. And you got to be fast, of course. But as long as you hit your marks, you should make it to the final round. No problem.
Nick VinZant 11:40
How come you don't want to look at the other guy just because that the moment of distraction or because maybe what he's doing on his side isn't the same as yours. Or
Coty Saucier 11:50
for sure. Just that moment of distraction almost like a jinx kind of thing. Like, oh, man, I looked at him now. No, I'm flustered and I'm ahead of him. Maybe I can back off a little bit, or I'm behind him not gonna catch up. Now I'm driving way too hard. I'll just crash the truck because I'm trying to play catch up. So I don't don't look at the other guy.A lot of times, I don't even know if I want like I'm telling my crew. I'm like, Wait, are we good? Can I stay strapped in? or? Yeah, no, you're good. Like, you went six rounds, right? You're going to the final like, okay,
Nick VinZant 12:21
we actually have a ton not a ton. A good amount of like listener submitted questions. So are you ready for some harder slash listener submitted questions?
Coty Saucier 12:30
Oh, yeah, man, bring it on. I love to hear that kind of thing.
Nick VinZant 12:33
Who is more who is generally more interested to find out? You're a monster truck driver, kids or adults?
Coty Saucier 12:39
Ah, man, that's a good question. I would probably tend to say lean a little bit more towards adults. I'm 35 years old. I guess I don't look my age. I look younger people say I'm trying to toot my own horn or anything, but I look younger. So whenever I'd say I do this, I've traveled to excuse me. Almost 30 countries, racing monster trucks professional and they're like you do What? Are you ever going to grow up kind of thing? I'm like, No, I get paid well, and I love what I do. And it's a blast and travel the world and I represent, you know, a huge household name or household brand and the kids just kind of they see it, you know, they come up to me at an event and they just know that I'm the driver of that truck. Like oh, that's him. That's Monster Energy. I don't know his name, but that's how
Nick VinZant 13:33
they're they're more the truck. The adults are more like me. And that's a current job.
Coty Saucier 13:38
Correct? Yep. He's like, man, how do you land this gig? Or? Oh, he's like, did you go to school for this? And then it's like, the adults the adults are always more intrigued by the driver. You know his backstory than anything.
Nick VinZant 13:52
Could you or could somebody else right like can some another professional driver for the NASCAR driver that I can think of right off the top of my head like Dale Earnhardt, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Could he come in? And like, I got this I can take this truck or is it a very specialized kind of driving,
Coty Saucier 14:10
he could probably run the throttle, no problem and get the hang of that pretty quick. But everything else man, it's, it just comes with time. If you have some motocross background or even some like dirt track experience, something that's you know, a lot of RPMs and a lot of drifting and, you know, with the late the round track, late model stuff and then this motocross stuff, the jumping and knowing the position or the attitude of the vehicle in the air. combine those two things. That's kind of what monster trucks is it's Supercross mix with late model mix with Top Fuel or top alcohol drag racing all in one. So it takes a it takes a different breed of cat so to speak to figure these trucks out. And I've noticed if there's a newcomer coming In, you can always tell if they do well, the very first time that they get in the truck, you know, they do well, I mean, they can operate the front rear steering, clearly, you know, in a controllable manner, they know when the hit the throttle and when not to hit the throttle. If they got that kind of fundamental stuff, they're golden. A lot of people man the first time in, so you can see him struggle. And right off the bat, I can say he or she is not gonna make it. He is she's not going to make it he's gonna have poor performance or they're just not going to like it and just OPT themselves out. That happens.
Nick VinZant 15:36
It's really like it's one of those things you can do it or you can't.
Coty Saucier 15:38
Exactly it's kind of like playing guitar. I wish I could play guitar. I'm a huge guitar fan, but I can't
Nick VinZant 15:44
how much horsepower? Does your monster truck have
Coty Saucier 15:47
horsepower, um, my particular truck is roughly at best and at best meaning you know, right conditions, you know, not high in altitude. Not too much humidity. I think the best we've ever gotten man out of our dyno guy Richard midges, our engine builder, is right at 1400 horsepower at the crank. Port horsepower can kind of multiply a little bit with the gearing that we have in the trucks, you know, their gear, there's so many gear reductions in the monster truck to make the huge tires turn that you could probably add a couple 100 horsepower, just to the gearing so we're close to 1500 horsepower as the truck sets race ready? It's a stick shift, right? No, it's a it's manual valve body. So you have to shift it high low gear. Most common is a Chevrolet based powerglide transmission, which is you know, low and high, fast and faster, I call it so manual valve body, you know, it's got a foot brake, there's no clutch foot brake you holeshot you take off. Click second. And that's it.
Nick VinZant 16:59
That kind of leads us into this question. What is your favorite sound that the monster truck makes?
Coty Saucier 17:05
Favorite sound? It's probably there's so many sounds I come from, but I'm just old school with it. There's nothing like just a big blown alcohol injected motor motor with just as gnarly can just Rob Rob Rob at idle you know, I mean, that's it sounds so healthy. It's so macho. I think that's the coolest thing. Just hearing those trucks idle.
Nick VinZant 17:30
What do you what do you do with the old tires?
Coty Saucier 17:33
That's a very good question. I've seen so many different uses with old tires that aren't being able to be used anymore. You know, the they're been cut too bad or the beads have broken on the on the bead lip or whatever you want to call it is broken that they can't even seat again on a wheel and hold air seem to be used as landfills. I've seen them be used as like flower pots. I've seen them be used as elephant toys, literally elephant toys.
Nick VinZant 18:00
How do you get them on? Like do you is it take a couple of couple of people to do it or do you have to use like a machine to do it.
Coty Saucier 18:10
We have a pretty gnarly electric over hydraulic jack that we reel around and we put under each axle to lift one end of the truck at a time. So we can put two tires on at a time. I can hire up a truck, you know a guy that's confident and knows what he's doing safely. I can tire up a truck and by myself in 20 minutes. Really? Yeah, you they're kind of you know, you use your use the weight of the truck and weight of the tires to your advantage. So you just kind of push them around where you want it and then use the electric jack to kind of work with you and lift the tire up onto the hub and then spin it to where you got it lined up on the studs and shove it on there. And then and it's it's a lot easier than you think.
Nick VinZant 18:54
But they're heavy as hell though right?
Coty Saucier 18:57
they're very heavy man they're probably around anywhere between seven to 800 pounds per per tire. The entire truck fully tired up culinaire driver in it ready to go racing as they're pushing about 12,000 pounds. This kind of leads into the next question that somebody sent us which aspect of the truck are you most impressed with? engine tires or frame I would have to put this in order I would probably say the chassis design the frame design engine then the tires themselves. I mean, the tires that particular size, the chevron pattern that's been a staple of a monster truck since the very beginning in the late 70s. So the progression of that has come a long ways from them again me wrong, you know, there's spec tires being made anymore, but the motors I mean these engine companies and an engine component companies are always coming out with something new always better and you know, the cylinder has always bettering the the rod and piston And so that's always changing. It seems like usually that kind of makes a change for the better. Put the chasse ease man The chassis is or anymore. That's what's, that's what making the trucks be able to do what we do nowadays, you rewind five, even 10 years ago, there's no way a 10 year old truck could compete with today's trucks safely? And do the crazy stunts that we do. It's just just fatigue, it's so bad that they would not last,
Nick VinZant 20:31
do you have to constantly rebuild the truck or is it basically the same truck.
Coty Saucier 20:37
so we typically get about three full years, which is quite a bit of shows, man, that's probably pushing over 100 shows on a chassis. And after that, we cut the chassis apart, take all the components off of the chassis and put a fresh chassis underneath it, you can only bend and twist metal so many times before it comes brittle. Breaks easy. You don't always want to be welding on the thing because it just becomes unsafe, you know, for the driver, you just, you can't you can't be replaced in bars and all the time. So every excuse me every three years we put a new chassis in it. Good bad doesn't matter. It's just insurance for us. less work in the long run. Yeah, that's that's how we operate? Is it?
Nick VinZant 21:25
Is it safe? Or is it like, as safe as we can get it?
Coty Saucier 21:29
The monster truck industry is, you know, I've never been in any other form of motorsport professionally. So I can't really sit down with their rulebook committee guys and say you're doing this wrong, are you doing this right, but man, I have been involved for many years and have followed for many years. And the progression has come from guys wearing open face helmets wearing a lap belt in these trucks way back in the day to now man we're doing this we're looking at we work hand in hand with like, the Navy and stuff and we're using very similar belts that these fighter pilot guys are using. And that's the kind of thing we're messing with any more containment seats that are built specifically for the driver. You get a suit made you get a tuxedo made for yourself for a big event. That same dimensions of your body were taken into consideration to get these seats built. So the seat and each truck is built for that driver just so he's contained. Archie is contained that much more and is that much safer. We're using seven point harnesses I mean, you know, ever since Earnhardt's accident years ago, everybody wears some sort of neck restraint. I personally use a Honda device you have to wear some sort of neck protection and not just a net collar some sort of neck protection device that is held on to your helmet held on to the restraints in the in the seat. Because man we're pulling some extreme G's when we take these these hits, you know even just a landing off of a big job is is insane. Have you ever been injured? Knock on wood, nothing serious. But I'm sore the next day for sure. Because I made every jump is is a car crash. In the beginning my first few years driving my very first weekend. I'll be honest, I didn't really have a clue what I was doing. But I remember getting in the shower after that night. And just my thighs around my, my thighs down my crotch and my shoulder blades. It looks like somebody beat me with a leather belt just for being strapped in the truck and getting tossed around.
Nick VinZant 23:30
I once accidentally jumped a Buick like a foot off the ground. And I still remember landing and thinking like, holy crap that is not what I thought it would be.
Coty Saucier 23:41
yeah, man I've hit and i've you know, I've driven the truck around like moving it and stuff and I've was totally unstrapped not doing anything crazy. I'm moving the truck and it was fully tired up. Get the shocks were gassed up everything ready to go racing so I just move it. I traveled along first gear. Alright, I'm pretty high in rpm. I don't want to hurt the motor. Click high gear. I'm going maybe 25 miles an hour. And I hit a curb and a parking lot. It literally almost threw me out of this like on the ground out of the truck. Just there's so much tire bounce. And you know it's so it's so rigid doing the little things. It's meant to be jumped in jump big. So it's crazy how much we rely on the belts and harnesses and the seat to keep us safe with E in the truck.
Nick VinZant 24:32
busiest road you've ever taken it on. Like you can't drive that. Can you drive that street?Like that's not legal? not legally
Coty Saucier 24:41
No, not legally without permits and stuff. I have driven them. Yeah, I've driven them quite a ways actually. enough to where we had to refuel and on public road. Oh man, this was years ago like 2008 something like that. We did a display at a Ford dealership in Oklahoma City. And our Big was having some issues so we weren't able to go pick the truck up, take it back to the arena. So we got with like, the local law enforcement, they gave us a police escort and it was like, it was like 10 city blocks away. Back to the arena. We had to obey, you know, streetlights and stuff like that. So I got this police officer in front of me, way in front of me because I told him to stay pretty far ahead of me because I can't see directly in front of his truck so tall. I can't just see over the hood. You need to stay 50 yards ahead of me so I can safely see you. And we'd stop at a red light and I'd shut the truck off so it wouldn't get hot. And there's people pulling up next to me like that's a hell of a monster truck tune in and turning way.
Nick VinZant 25:44
I knew this is the wrong day to drive through down. Yeah, I do it. Yeah. Okay, so obviously your truck is the coolest name truck. But if you had to pick a different truck, like who's got the coolest name?
Coty Saucier 25:56
Oh, man, there's there's some pretty catchy names out there. Man. You know I've always hated when people compare to to wrestling monster trucks and wrestling. I hated that. But there's so you can't help but there's some cool names and wrestling and there's some cool names and monster trucks and it kind of coincides that way. But I mean, how cool is the Grave Digger? Like, that's scary. That's scary as hell and it's like intimidating and the trucks just badass. Look in. It's got this Grim Reaper dude in the side of it. It's like, that's pretty damn cool. I mean, Bigfoot, that's just that's a staple. That's just cool. That trucks look like a Bigfoot. I don't know.
Nick VinZant 26:33
That, that is kind of like, in terms of a viewer to like rank things like that's, that's some of the best names for that thing. Like, great diggers gotta be up there. Right? Like, that's pretty good name for that thing. Um,that's all the questions that we got, man, there's anything kind of you think that we missed or what's coming up next for you?
Coty Saucier 26:56
Oh, man, we could sit here and talk, you know, the past the future reconsider for hours talking about it. But man, it's just, it's hit or miss right now with events with what's being allowed, you know, certain cities and venues as far as what we can do event wise. So it's been slow. It's been, it's been a waiting game for a lot of us, including myself. So I'm hoping by July, we're back out there. I know, there's a lot of events on schedule, without a truck and driver list. So I'm hoping to get back out there sooner than later. I'm working full time at a full drive shop here. I live in Tampa, Florida. So I'm working at a four wheel drive shop here in the meantime. But man anxious to get back out there for sure. I mean, it's been my life. For my entire life. It's been my dream to compete in Monster Jam and monster truck. So you can't come soon enough. It just COVID is messing everything up. But we got to stay healthy. And if it means sitting out for a little while. And that's what we got to do.