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Anthony Lee Farrell (March 23rd, 1963 - May 24th, 2015) was a monster truck driver and mud drag racer out of North Vernon, Indiana, best known as the creator and first driver of Wild Thang and the longest serving driver of Blue Thunder.

Career[]

Before monster trucks, Tony was a mud drag racer, competing with the Blue Ribbon Bandit dragster, winning the World Championships in 1993 and 1995. After this venture, Tony moved onto monster trucks, purchasing the Kodiak truck from Mark Bendler and converting into Blue Ribbon Bandit, a truck with the same name as his dragster, which he debuted in 1996 and ran for the year. During this time, Tony also worked as a school bus driver and after wanting to come up with a new truck design, Tony had a sophomore draw up several sketches for bodies and he then hung them up on his bus. Tony then allowed the school students to pick the best design, which would be one based on a skull wearing sunglasses. This body design was then built by Tony and named Wild Thang, running on Blue Ribbon Bandit's chassis.

In 1997, Wild Thang debuted, being notable as the first 3D body monster truck. Tony ran Wild Thang at many USHRA sanctioned events, including Monster Jam, getting a few television appearances.

In 2000, Tony was approached by FELD Motorsports and the wrestler Sting to drive the Sting truck, which needed a driver following Sky Hartley's departure from the team.

In 2001, Tony accepted the offer and sold Wild Thang to Paul Shafer as he took over Sting for the 2001 season. Just before this, Tony had driven Goldberg, another WCW truck, at Salinas. A strong season saw Tony make his World Finals debut at World Finals II, where an incredible freestyle run scored him a 34, putting him in joint-third with Jim Koehler and Avenger. Sting would be retired soon after, and after discussions with Lyle Hancock, Tony joined the Blue Thunder team in mid-2001 to drive a secondary truck alongside Lyle.

From here, Tony would have his longest running identity and arguably turned in some of the best performances of his career. At the first Pontiac show of the 2002 season, Tony had one of the wildest crashes in Monster Jam up to that point, performing a crooked wheelie which led to Blue Thunder losing control and going into a pirouette, crashing into the dumpsters at the end of the track. Tony was uninjured but it took several minutes for him to get out of the wreck.

Through 2002 and 2003, Tony mainly piloted Blue Thunder in arena shows, while Lyle performed in the stadium shows. However, Lyle retired at the end of the 2003 season and Tony was bumped to the main Blue Thunder truck for the stadium shows as a new driver, George Balhan, joined the team. Tony was invited to World Finals V, his second World Finals appearance and his first in Blue Thunder.

In 2005, George left the Blue Thunder team and was replaced by Norm Miller. Both Tony and Norm drove the two Blue Thunder trucks throughout 2005. At World Finals VI, Tony tied Jimmy Creten and Bounty Hunter at the end of the freestyle competition, but would ultimately come up short in claiming the championship after Jimmy won the tiebreaker.

In 2006, Tony continued to drive Blue Thunder alongside Norm until the end of the season when Norm briefly retired. This left Tony as the sole Blue Thunder driver for the 2007 season, which would be a strong one as he claimed racing victories in Detroit and Indianapolis, culminating in a final World Finals appearance at World Finals VIII. In mid 2007, former Iron Outlaw driver Linsey Weenk joined the Blue Thunder team, giving Tony a teammate once more. Both Tony and Linsey piloted the two Blue Thunder trucks through the stadium shows in the 2008 season, with Linsey ultimately being the one to get the World Finals invitation that year.

In 2009, Tony ran his last season behind the wheel of Blue Thunder, as he entered retirement following the end of the season.

Tony's retirement would be brief though as he returned in 2011 following an absence from the 2010 season. For the 2011 season, Tony drove a second Grave Digger the Legend alongside Adam Anderson, this being a last minute decision as Son-uva Digger was meant to debut that year under Ryan Anderson, but was delayed until the World Finals, resulting in Tony being drafted in. 2011 would be Tony's final year as a monster truck driver, as he retired for good at the end of the season.

Death[]

On May 23rd, 2015, Tony, along with several others, were struck by a drunk driver (later identified as Billy Jason Carson) while attending an outdoor concert in Tennessee. Tony was sadly killed in the accident.

In April 2018, Carson was sentenced to six years in prison.

World Finals appearances[]

  • 2001 - Sting
  • 2004 - Blue Thunder
  • 2005 - Blue Thunder
  • 2006 - Blue Thunder
  • 2007 - Blue Thunder

Gallery[]

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