Andy Slifko Is One Proud Papa

By Scott Douglass
Jul 6, 2010

Eradicator driver Andy Slifko is one of those people who seems quite serious most of the time to me. Don’t get me wrong, Slifko has a great sense of humor, is well liked by his peers, and has been known to give an enthusiastic interview after a great Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam performance. But for the most part, Slifko is soft spoken, dedicated to his craft, not really one to do a lot of boasting or calling attention to himself. He’s been that way for all of the years I’ve covered his participation in the sport. Slifko, though, seems to have a big ol’ smile on his face a lot more often these days, and it has nothing to do with his own performance. No, that big smile is in evidence when he is talking about his son Jeremy or watching the budding superstar nail another big time performance in his team’s Backdraft truck, like the still talked about freestyle he blasted through last month in Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field. 

Andy Slifko’s participation in the sport goes back more than a decade. He had bought and operated the Eradicator ride truck for a few years, then in 1996 he moved the Eradicator name onto a truck to actually compete, getting into the competition side of the sport along with fellow Pennsylvanian John Seasock in the two-time World Racing Champion and current Batman driver’s days piloting Sudden Impact. Slifko, a native of Pottsville, PA, driver may not have World Championships on his resume, but he is considered to be a dependable, consistent performer, one who can be counted on to be competitive in any race and one who will always hit some big moves in freestyle to thrill the fans. That’s why over the years Andy has been a part of so many televised events, because those who put the line-ups together have always been able to count on Slifko to bring his best each time out. 

Still, it has been putting his son in a truck that seems to have pumped more enthusiasm into the veteran driver than anything. As soon as Jeremy started competing in Backdraft a couple of years ago it was obvious how much pleasure the elder Slifko was getting out of his son’s performances, especially since Jeremy has made a splash from the start, going big in Backdraft since day one. “I have more fun watching my kid go out there and tear it up than anything,” Slifko told me. “ You know, they’ve changed up how they do freestyle now, how they do the line-up, but it seems like almost as soon as he started doing good, which was right out of the box, they moved me up early in the freestyle line-up. I don’t know if they thought that was going to irritate me, but I have the attitude that I have two trucks, one better make money, but one can be torn up. On the other hand that part can get under my skin”. That’s understandable since Jeremy has attacked big stadium courses in freestyle with a vengeance, a no holds barred attitude that often leaves Backdraft in need of big repairs for the next time out. And even if Dad cringes a little if the truck has to be towed back to the pits in pieces after Jeremy rocks the house, it’s only a brief cringe. Slifko clearly loves being able to put his son in a piece where he can let the kid use his immense natural talent to thrill millions. 

As excited as he is to still be in competition while his son is starting out on a career that so many have big expectations for, Andy says the Slifko camp may have more expanding to do in the near future. “He (Jeremy) has a brother too. The only problem with me putting his brother in a truck is that I’m going to have two disasters. Because one’s not going to be able to outdo the other one. I really feel that Jeremy’s brother could drive as well as him,” Slifko continued. “Now he and I are like oil and water, but he’s starting to come around. He’s getting older, he’s 21 now, and he’s realizing ‘hey, I’m missing something here’.” Slifko really beamed in talking about the potential of three Slifko’s in Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam competition somewhere down the road. 

He says the plan to get another Slifko behind the wheel is in the works, basically to create a team set-up where the truck will be there when they’re ready to expand the family team. “I’m building Jeremy a brand new truck. That will be out later this year,” Slifko confided. “But I’m not getting rid of the other truck. I’m keeping that truck as a spare, which I’m told that you can’t do that in this industry. Well, I’m going to start another precedent here. The spare truck will be called, now get this, it will be called the “Double-O-Slifko”. So it won’t matter which Slifko is driving it, it’s a Slifko. I want to do it with a Magnum body, give it a James Bond look. The name will jibe with that.” 

Clearly Slifko is looking forward to his next generation taking the team that he started to the next level in the sport, and 20-year old Jeremy has been blasting forward toward that goal at breakneck speed, rocking several stadiums these past couple of years with freestyle performances that have seen him grow a huge fan base in a very short amount of time. The long term plan is that the Slifko’s will expand into the future with the sons competing with the best new stars in the business tooth and nail for wins every week, and their proud papa will be right there with them every step of the way, making sure they have everything they need to take the Slifko operation to even greater heights. 

It’s a great legacy for Andy, to see his sons join the like of Ryan and Adam Anderson as second generation stars advancing the sport into the future, and Andy loves having his hand in the sport’s history. During our conversation he proudly detailed to me a story of how he helped move the popular Thunder Nationals format forward to the action packed series it is today. As you can understand, in the early days of that series, especially some of the first times that those events were contested on smaller floors without dirt, the rules were understandably restrictive. To this day those rules still place the safety of the fans, the facility, and the competitors’ number one, but Slifko explained that the first Thunder National events were much more restrictive than they are today, take for instance, a rule that required the trucks to come to a complete stop before hitting an obstacle. Andy Slifko had a hand in changing that, most would say, for the better. “We did the Pepsi Arena in Albany, it was my first Thunder Nationals show. I came from a TV show (in a large stadium) to a Thunder National show,” Slifko recalled. “Nobody told me that I couldn’t hit the cars going both ways, and that I had to stop before I hit the cars. So I was the one to start a new precedent at a concrete show. Because I kept whipping it around, shooting over the cars both ways, hitting them big. The next morning Blake Hardy (the Event Director) came out and apologized for not letting me know the old rules, but said it would be a new precedent because of what I did, and that changed Thunder Nationals.” Andy showed how you could bring more great moves, action, and momentum into the events without compromising safety. 

Andy Slifko has been a key player in the sport for more than a decade, and plans to take that crowd pleasing attitude into the future driving his Eradicator machine. Make no mistake about it though, despite all the thrills that he gets from performing in Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam, and all the things that he himself has done in the sport, it’s what Jeremy is doing now, and what the future holds for his family team, that are bringing him the greatest joy.