We are honored to be a sponsor for this amazing TEAM over the past several years. Rick Swanson's Obsession Racing TEAM has only been a positive experience with us. His drive and passion for the sport of Monster trucks is incredible, as he continues to bring innovative ideas in moving his company and the sport to the next level. However, behind every great Man is a great Woman. Jill is simply a powerhouse! Her abilities to balance both the Personal and business aspects of the company goes without saying. Their son Eric Swanson was still in High school when we had the opportunity to be part of Obsession racing. Eric is also the youngest official monster truck driver and has since made a mark within the industry.
The following is a brief bio that shares the history of the company. Please follow this awesome team @ www.obsessionracing.com and come out to see their incredible shows.
Rick’s Obsession started with building a 1970 Ford Bronco. This was Rick’s first vehicle. He purchased it from his Grandfather while in high school. He fixed it up to take it off road. One day he realized that it cost more than his paycheck to keep up this sport. He decided he would fix it up and take it to car shows. One day Rick was pulled over by a feature editor of Four Wheel Magazine. He wanted to do an article on the Bronco. Having the truck in magazines and showing the Bronco was much more profitable. He acquired sponsors for the truck and progressed from then on. The Bronco was show material only and wasn’t street legal when Rick had finished modifying it. He then purchased a full size Bronco to trailer the 1970 Bronco to shows. He also fixed up the full size Bronco to show. After showing the trucks for many years, Rick decided he wanted to build a Monster Truck. He sold the full size Bronco to pay for the frame, axles and four link bars. This was the beginning of Obsession. At the time Rick managed a printed circuit board shop owned by his father, while building the truck. He also worked for a trucking company to make money for the rest of the parts for the truck. Rick needed a name for the truck. He asked his wife Jill what she thought would be a good name? She said, “why don’t you call it Obsession, since your Obsessed with trucks.” For the color scheme Rick new he wanted yellow, but couldn’t decide what colors he wanted to go with it. They had a party and Jill looked at the plates and the colors were purple, yellow and teal. They thought that they went well together and that is how they chose those colors. In 2006 we changed sponsors and with that we changed the trucks color scheme to blue in yellow and we are currently running those colors on both trucks.
Rick and Jill have been successfully running the monster truck business since 1994. The first year they did about 10 events. They are now up to 35 weekends per year. In August of 2009 we completed our second truck Obsessed. Our first two truck event was in August of 2009. The Obsessed truck was built for our son Eric. His first event in his truck will be in October of 2009. Unfortunately not all promoters can have him drive at their events until he reaches the age of 18. In the mean time Rick will drive Obsessed and our good friend Jeff Jones will be driving Obsession at our two truck events. We are happy and blessed that we are able to work as a family and with great friends. Some people may think they are a little Obsessed, but we are grateful to be fulfilling our dreams. www.obsessionracing.com
