Good Times For Bad News

By Scott Douglass
May 18, 2010

Bruce Haney's Bad News Travels Fast

Travelling up and down the roads of the Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam circuit there are plenty of faces that always seem to have a smile on them, even when things are tough. One of those faces belongs to the driver of Bad News Travels Fast, Bruce Haney.

Talking with Bruce recently to use this space to let readers get to know the likeable Floridian a little better, I thought we’d start from the beginning. Not from being born in Clearwater, FL, but in terms of his career in motorsports, a ride that has lasted for 33 years and is still going strong. “I have raced since the age of 17. I started out in motocross,” Haney recalled. “Then I did some super bike racing and I did a lot of drag racing. I did a little bit of circle track racing. Actually I raced Daytona International Speedway, that was on a super bike. I fell down, and I didn’t like it. I can’t ever remember not racing. So after this is done I guess I’ll race wheelchairs.”

Well the wheelchairs should be many years down the road since Haney is enjoying being in competition driving Bad News throughout the year. He got into a monster truck for the first time in 1998 when he bought Excalibur from Charlie Pauken. Then five years later he had Dan Patrick build him a new piece to accommodate his lanky frame of better than six and a half feet, and that machine is the one he still campaigns today.

In our conversation it came as no surprise that while Haney is one of those drivers who seems to have respect for all of his peers and enjoys battling them all, team Grave Digger driver Charlie Pauken, the reigning World Freestyle Champion, is at the top of his list. “We have fun at every show we go to, regardless of which trucks are there. Now thinking about some standout guys that really bring my blood to a boil as far as being at the starting line with them, you have to start with Grave Digger of course. Charlie Pauken,” Haney told me. “I bought my first truck from Charlie. He’s one of the guys that I wish that I was 20 years younger and could just travel with him for a season. I’ve watched people who have traveled with him for a season and then seen how far they’ve progressed and it’s just amazing. I was so glad to see him win the World Finals this year; he’s just one of those great guys. But really everyone in the sport that we run with now, they're are all just fantastic people. We go out on the track and we compete against each other. But there are so many things behind the scenes that people don’t see. You break your truck and there are going to be three other teams there after the show asking ‘do you need anything’, ‘do you need any help’, and ‘do you need a hand?’ It’s nice to know that you’ve got somebody behind you if things don’t work out. So many people will do whatever it takes to help you get up and running and do what’s necessary.”

Now a veteran of more than a decade in this form of motorsports, when you ask Haney to list his most memorable moment in the sport, the one that comes rushing to his mind first has nothing to do with donuts or winning races. “The best moment I can remember in my Monster Jam career was the blind children that I met,” Haney stated instantly. “One kid’s name was Omar, out of Okeechobee, Florida. I had never realized what it would take for a person with a visual disability. To be able to take them around the truck and see the truck with their hands and the difference that it makes. We’ve had that opportunity twice. Once was in Okeechobee, Florida, and the other was in Dayton, Ohio. To see the kids reactions to actually being able to get in the driver’s seat, because they can’t see inside the cockpit so you have to let them get inside the cockpit so that they can touch things and get a sense of how everything is situated, and realizing how big the truck is. They’ve heard the blowers before but to be able to actually touch the blower and feel how big that is, so that they get a physical reference of the things that are being announced at a show. That’s what I would say is the career highlight as far as our team goes.”

As we chatted the impact that the blind kids made on Haney did not come as a surprise. Clearly to Bruce it’s a blessing to be in this sport, but what matters to him more are the things that happen away from the track: how you use your influence, how you treat your fans, what you give back to your community. So when I asked Bruce what other athletes he admired it made sense that he answered with names that, while great in competition, made big impacts on him based on what they did before the light went green or the clock started. “I don’t watch a whole lot of football anymore, but I’d have to say as far as past athletes go Tony Dungy is one that I really look up to for everything he does in the community and I think that he is an outstanding leader,” he noted in talking about the Super Bowl winning former National Football League coach. “His leadership style, whether it’s in a football game or his mentoring of other athletes off field who’ve had problems, Tony Dungy is one of the people that I look up to.”

Then that theme moved into motorsports. “As far as racers’ go, but not particularly in our sport, John Force has always been an icon of mine because of the way he treats the people at the drag strip,” Haney continued. “You can go to Force’s camp, every time that I have been to a major drag race Force is right there in the middle of everything. I mean, he’s talking to the people, he’s doing his thing, and that carries a lot over into our sport. It’s what I like to mentor myself as when we’re at an autograph session or a pit party. You look at Dennis Anderson. You look at Tom Meents. It’s one of the things that Monster Jam has that very few forms of entertainment or professional sports have. You can’t do it in many other fields, but our fans get so many athletes to meet them, to talk to them, to get an autograph. And if we ever lose that in this sport I’m done.”

Travelling all over the country most of the year, often with Jami, his wife of 23 years right there with him, Haney says there’s not much time for other interests, unless you want to talk about tearing up vehicles that are much smaller in stature. “I love playing with RC cars. Unfortunately I can tear them up worse than a monster truck,” Haney claimed with a chuckle. “A passion in life that I do not get to do anymore is golf. When you travel as many weeks as we do around the country you find out that they frown on driving the semi into a country club. It’s one of those things that I swore off. My brother’s into golf, but I swore it off and swore it off. But the minute I pick up a club, it’s just a passion. It’s just that I don’t get to play as much as I’d like to. Other than that, tending what little bit of a farm we’ve got is really a lot of fun. We raise a few cattle. And Jami’s got a vegetable garden going right now.”

Speaking of his better half, Haney is amazed that his lovely wife has been not just supportive and a part of his team, but so good natured about things that many other wives might have a big problem with. Like anniversaries. “We’ve had 11 anniversaries at Monster Jam shows and 11 anniversaries at pool tournaments. I used to put on a pool tournament every year. All the proceeds went to the Hayward Retarded Citizens. My wife gave up her anniversary every year to go help me put on that pool tournament. Why she puts up with me, I don’t know. Now we’re into monster trucks and it never seems to fail, April 24^th we’re going to be doing a show. But we are going to go on a cruise. We’ve slowed things down, just a little bit this year, not doing quite as many shows so I’m going to take her on a cruise. She doesn’t know it yet, but I’m going to take her on a cruise.” Sorry Bruce, but now she knows. Enjoy!