Daniel Ball’s Bounty Hunter Wins Daily Driver Concourse at 2007 R/C Monster Jam

We caught up with Daniel Ball this year’s Daily Driver concourse winner at the 2007 R/C Monster Jam. This was Daniel’s first major event other than running R/C trucks in his back yard, and at friend’s houses. He had heard all about the R/C Monster Jam experience from his friends who attended the 2006 event. They had urged him to go last year but he stayed behind. So he wasn’t about to miss it this year. He and his friends talked about the event weekly, planning what trucks to take, what power train would be needed for the event, what truck bodies they would we paint up and run and so on.

Daniel said that he had put in a lot of time into his trucks over the past year. He built the Bounty Hunter’s chassis from the ground up, cut his own tires, and painted the truck body himself. He had also built six other custom clod busters in the last year an a half. Daniel used to run nitro trucks but he found building the electric trucks more satisfying making them look like the real thing. On most any given night or day for that matter you’ll him in his garage working on a new "whatever" or doing maintenance on a completed truck.

Along about the end of March 2007 Daniel decided to build a "tube" chassis scale monster to enter into the static display concourse. He was able to complete the truck in a hurry, and knew when it was completed it would be worth it. He named the truck “Bits & Pieces 5ive” an awesome work of craftsmanship. We say this not to take anything away from his Bounty Hunter truck.

Well it was down to the Wednesday of the week of the event, before he had all the details on the trucks where he wanted them. Registration complete it was time for the concourse judging. Daniel said his heart was pounding as he watched the judges look over the 200 plus trucks. He was ecstatic when he saw Carl Van Horn honorary judge and T-Maxx driver pick up his Bounty Hunter, and lay it in the row for the final judging. At that moment Carl Van Horn became his new Monster Truck hero, just joking he said…

When Dennis Anderson came around and announced the decision, Daniel said he was on cloud nine, but nervous because Dennis was walking toward him with a microphone in hand, and he gasped as he had never spoken in public before. Daniel said, “After only 30 minutes on the track Dennis had already given me the nickname of Bob Chandler Jr.” Daniel said Dennis is a great guy, very personable, and interested in what all the RC guys had done with their trucks.

Two weekends later Daniel, and his buddy RC monster truck enthusiast Robbie Bunting went to a real Monster truck show in their area. Daniel and Robbie saw Dennis and as they walked up to him, Dennis said "well here comes "Hippie" and “Bob Chandler Jr." “Amazing the memory he has with all the fans he sees”, comment Daniel.

In closing there were some final thoughts Daniel wanted to share.

I want to thank RC Monster Motorsports for all their effort, in arranging an event of this caliber. It was the best thing I have even done related to the RC hobby. There was a lot of work put into the event of which the racers never saw, and those things can easily be taken for granted. I would like to praise all the people involved that let it come to pass, and make it go as smoothly as possible.

I would love to attend something of this caliber every month! Hey RC Monster truck racers if you didn't make it this year, you missed a great time, and you need to be there next year, mark your calendars!

The weather was great! The company was great! And early in the mornings the SKEETERS were BIG! Thanks for everything, and see you next year!

For more details and pictures of Daniel’s Bounty Hunter truck click here to view his online truck profile.

Return to Race News | Return to Main Home Page

Recommend this Article to a Friend