Backwards or forwards, fans still crush on monster trucks at Consol Energy Center

Lots of kids dream about becoming a monster-truck driver. But it takes a certain kind of person to find a way to actually grow up and become one.

It takes another person entirely to grow up to drive monster trucks backward.

Well, sort of. Even among monster trucks — which are, by definition, pretty weird — Backwards Bob is a bit strange.

“It's probably one of the biggest windshields in the industry. I drive from the bed, and look out between the back fenders,” says Bryan Wright, driver of Backwards Bob, who's coming to town from Feb. 13 to 15 with Monster Jam.

“If I've got to turn, the fender stick's in my way, as far as peripheral vision goes,” he says.

Wright had wanted to drive monster trucks since he was a kid. But he didn't imagine he'd be driving Backwards Bob.

“I first looked at it, and it's kind of a silly idea,” Wright says. “But the fanbase is unreal. A lot of kids have played it in the monster-truck video game(s), but have never seen it in person.”

Playing it in a game is one thing. Driving it, though, is a different deal.

Monster-truck drivers take their jobs seriously and definitely play to win.

Wright, who grew up in the monster-truck-driving, “mud-bogging” heartland of rural North Carolina, says he came to Backwards Bob in a bit of a roundabout way.

“I was driving for Stonecrusher, on their team for four years,” he says. “I was scraping by, and not thinking I'd have a ride that year. Pablo (Huffaker, legendary Grave Digger driver) called me and said, ‘Would you like a ride?' I asked, ‘What truck you got this year? (He said) ‘It's Backwards Bob.' ”

“Really? Are you serious?”

Over time, Wright has come to appreciate the oddly shaped truck. Seeing out the windshield is overrated, anyway.

“A lot of the time, we drive looking through floorboard,” Wright says. “Everything at our feet is all glass, and we look at the tires when we're approaching the jumps. I've been driving (monster trucks) for five years, and it's different from anything else you'll ever drive.”

For those looking to start a career in monster-truck driving, Wright says the best place to start is on the crew.

“When I started out as crew, I learned all about the physics of the trucks and the shocks before I had to drive them,” he says.

“I used to race quads. As far as jumping, you need a rhythm. I'm also a heavy-equipment operator — backhoes, bulldozers. I came in with experience driving all kinds of all-terrain vehicles.”

Of course, it's hard to get a bulldozer to jump.

“I like ‘big air,' ” Wright admits. “I like to jump, big stuff, big obstacles — jumping 300 feet in the air. If you're going to do something, you might as well do it big.”

Though hardly what one would call “safe,” monster trucks are built to preserve the structural integrity of their small passengers.

“The technology of the trucks now, you really don't take a hard ride,” Wright says. “You'll have a hit once in a while that will sting you, though. I tell my wife every year I'm not going to do it anymore, but she tells me, ‘Yes you are. You've been saying this for five years.' ”

Michael Machosky is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at mmachosky@tribweb.com or 412-320-7901.