One of the sport’s most accomplished drivers on the track and one of the most giving off of the track, John Seasock has more than 20 years of monster truck excellence under his belt in a career that has taken him to victories all over the world. Seasock has won at many Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam’s biggest events, including back-to-back World Racing Championships won driving Batman at World Finals VIII and World Finals IX at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas. Seasock rose through the ranks in his Sudden Impact truck, eventually landing the coveted Batman ride that he drove to that pair of world titles, and now Seasock is a part of the high profile Advance Auto Parts Grinder team. Seasock is also one of the sport’s busiest personalities off of the track with a constant schedule of appearances at schools and hospitals along with his lengthy list of charitable works. John also spends as much time as anyone in the sport communicating with the fans at events, other appearances, and even on line through his vast social network that gives fans direct access to one of the sport’s most popular figures.

Q&A with John Seasock           

MonsterJam.com: How did you get started competing on the Monster Jam circuit?

John Seasock:  I had a big truck back in high school. All of my buddies had Camaro’s and cars like that and on Saturday nights they would be cruisin’ the town, but I never fit into a certain niche. Everybody had fast cars but I was always in a big truck. If everybody was walking down the right side of the street I’d walk down the left. I always stood on my own. So I had my big truck, then I went to the Spectrum in Philadelphia and saw monster trucks and right then I thought it would be cool to do something like that. I waited for autographs like the fans do today; I got my first autograph and asked for a lot of advice. It all started there. So then we started building a truck and then we found Sudden Impact, and were able to buy what pieces were left of it, so we kept building and put it together, and there have been seven versions of the Sudden Impact truck after that.

MonsterJam.com: What do you enjoy doing while on the road with Monster Jam?

John Seasock: I like hanging out with the fans. I like visiting hospitals, visiting schools, and just giving back some of the blessings we receive being in Monster Jam. You know, we get to travel all over the world, and it’s all because of the fans. They are what make us, and I like to spend as much time with them as I can.

MonsterJam.com: Why is giving back so important to you? And list some of your charitable works.

John Seasock:  Charity is really important to me. I have two boys at home, J.R. and Kyle, and I’ve always thought that you pass it forward. If I can help someone else out, hopefully if they ever needed it someone would help them out. We now have the Seasock Cares Foundation, we raise a lot of money for Make-A-Wish and for special needs children. I do a lot of hospital visits, a lot of school visits, and inspirational speaking at different venues all around the world. We try to do as much as we can. Most of my day is spent answering emails, talking to fans and trying to make a difference.

MonsterJam.com: What do you do with your free time?

John Seasock:  The first thing is I like to spend time with my boys. When I’m on the road I miss them terribly. I do a lot of kayaking, mountain biking, motorcycle stunt riding, quads, and I like to ski. I’m a big adrenalin junkie. You get a big rush from monster truck driving and I try to stay on that rush.

MonsterJam.com: What is your greatest memory as a monster truck driver?

John Seasock: There are just so many. I’ve had a lot of phenomenal moments, I could write forever about them. Probably the one thing that was the biggest highlight of my life was when I was racing Todd Frolic in Wildwood, N.J., and we came into a corner together, I had the inside lane and he had the outside lane. We got tangled up and he ended up flipping his truck over and instead of finishing the race to win I stopped my truck and got out to see if he was okay. We were pretty far away from everyone. Then my son came up to me and he thought that it was so cool that I thought it was more important to make sure that my friend was okay then it was to win a race. That meant so much to me that my son saw something like that and appreciated it.  

MonsterJam.com: Do you have any pre-show rituals that you run though?

John Seasock:  I’m by no means a saint but I have my religious beliefs and I always say a prayer before every race. I am deathly afraid of black cats. I drove seven miles out of my way one time. I live in a small town in Pennsylvania and there’s not many roads around there. A black cat crossed my path on my way to dinner and I drove seven miles out of the way just to not go down that road. Besides that I always check on the truck. I’ve been lucky to have fantastic Crew Chiefs but still, I’m old school so I always put a hand on it to make sure everything is good, 100%. Then I just sit and focus. I believe that you can achieve anything if you believe that you can achieve it, so I run lots of things through my head before I run.

MonsterJam.com: If you were not competing on the Monster Jam tour, what career path would you follow?

John Seasock:  I’d be a firefighter. I’ve been big into firefighting all of my life. I’ve been a fireman since I was 15 years old. I actually lied about my age to be able to join a fire company. That was a big part of my life, it was something that I really enjoyed, just helping firemen along the way and all the experiences that I’ve had there. I used to be a 911 dispatcher. I’ve worked on a haz-mat team. I had a choice, my career was going good and I took a test to be a paid fireman in the city of Redding. I had the option of deciding what I wanted to do at that time, I could have been a fireman or I could have gone into monster trucks more than I already was and I chose the monster truck path. Every step that we take leads to our future and I have no regrets with the choices that I’ve made, but if I wasn’t monster truckin’, I’d be a fireman.

MonsterJam.com: What’s your favorite food?

John Seasock:  Steak

MonsterJam.com: What’s your favorite movie?

John Seasock:  Caddyshack

MonsterJam.com: What’s your favorite television show?           

John Seasock:  Scooby-doo

MonsterJam.com: What’s your favorite color?

John Seasock:  Blue

TRUCK INFO

Truck Name:  Advance Auto Parts Grinder

Body:  Ford F-150 Super Cab

Engine size:  540 CI

Transmission:  Coan 2-Speed

Sponsors:  Advance Auto Parts, Arsenault Associates, ARP Automotive Products, Auto Meter, Awesome Racewear, Lucas Oil, Coan, Crower Racing Products, Derale Performance, Energy Suspension, Fel-Pro Performance Gaskets, FK Rod Ends, Hawk Performance, Jaz Products, K & N Filters, King Engine Bearings, Lincoln Welders, Liquid Advanced Technology, Magnaflow Performance, Mechanix Wear, MSD Ignition, NGK Spark Plugs, Optima Batteries, Piloti, TX7, Powermaster, Rockford Rosgate, Speed Pro, Universal Technical Institute, Walker Radiator Works, WISECO, World Products