00:00Jumping a monster truck is like flying. Now we're going 30, 40, sometimes even 50
00:05feet in the air. It's pretty indescribable.
00:15Some people try and give me a hard time because I'm a girl once in a while but
00:18you know you really can't let it get to you. If you do then that's your biggest
00:22disadvantage.
00:25My name is Rosalie Raymer. I am 20 years old and I am the driver of the
00:31Wildflower Monster Truck and the youngest professional female monster truck driver.
00:35And we're here in Turlock, California today for the Spring Nationals.
00:50So I've been racing monster trucks professionally since I was 14 years old.
00:53When I was 13 I crushed my very first car and then by 14 I was in full-time competition.
01:01All right, hold it.
01:07I think I was too young to remember when I first started working with trucks and cars.
01:13I have pictures at three years old holding flashlights out at monster truck shows while
01:18the guys were working on trucks.
01:24As soon as I got the opportunity. I've always been working on trucks alongside my dad whether
01:28that's working on his truck, helping build my own.
01:32You have that side?
01:35All right.
01:36My dad is like my best friend, you know. It's pretty great getting to spend every weekend on the road with him.
01:41At age 11 she was driving my truck around in the pit area getting comfortable with it.
01:48It was just an ongoing progression and we just added that in. It just seemed like the natural next step
01:55to put her in a monster truck and set up one that fit her and her style.
02:00This is Wildflower, my 1932 Ford Coupe monster truck. She runs on 66 inch tall tires. That's five foot six
02:15inches. That's as tall as I am, but they weigh about somewhere between 600 and 800 pounds depending on
02:21the tire you run. Back here for our power source we've got 565 cubic inches of blown alcohol mode,
02:29so she's got about 15 to 1600 horsepower and she runs on methanol. Back here is my wheelie bar.
02:36You can see it gets a lot of action. Last weekend wheelie contest bent it up a little bit.
02:45We've got two nitrogen shocks on each corner of the truck. So to go along with the two nitrogen
02:50shocks in each corner we run a four link suspension. Monster trucks are a lot to handle. It's two different
02:55complete steering systems, a lot of horsepower, a lot of responsibility, but you know I think
02:59I was definitely ready when I jumped in the seat.
03:11Sometimes I say it's kind of like driving a roller coaster, but I have control over it.
03:19The highest I've jumped is probably about 50 feet in the air.
03:21I mean the adrenaline rush is absolutely insane. Going 30, 40 feet in the air you feel like you're
03:30flying and sometimes there's a moment of hang time when you're up there.
03:33Where you just lose your breath a little bit and you're not sure exactly when you're going to land,
03:41but you're you're still planning for when you do. It's it's pretty incredible.
03:45It's pretty cool. Ready to go dad?
03:51Ready to have some fun? Yes. Alrighty. Love you too. Alrighty, good to go.
03:59I've probably competed in over 300 competitions.
04:15I've won multiple competitions from freestyle to racing to donut competitions and wheelie contests.
04:27I'm studying mechanical engineering at Georgia Tech with a minor in industrial design and right now
04:38I'm going into my fourth year. I try to keep monster trucks in school pretty separate. Right now with
04:43the build of our new truck we're working on the chassis so getting all the tubes bent and fitted before
04:48we weld it up to start putting the rest of the truck together. It's a lot of fun to be able to share
04:55something a passion that you have together makes it just so much more fun and exciting.
05:02Monster truck is the only platform really where girls and boys compete on an even playing field.
05:07There's no girls monster trucks boys monster trucks. We're all out there competing against each other together.
05:12I'm doing something I love to do out here and I like to say I put my best into everything.
05:17I think Rosalie should win the night in the wild.
05:27I think Rosalie should win the night in the wild.
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