About Jeff Cook and his Monster Truck History!

Monster trucks, show trucks, street rods...Jeff Cook knows how to build excitement! Jeff grew up in rural Auburn, Indiana next to his grandparents' farm. At the age of seven, his family got their first ATV 3 wheelers. These ATVs gave Jeff wings and he would race around the 90 acre farm and visit his grandma and neighbors almost every day. At the age of nine, Jeff's dad taught him to drive their truck and after that he was driving anything that had wheels. Jeff helped his father, Jack Cook, in Jack's Auto Body Shop from an early age and learned about cars from the inside out. When Jeff was 14 he got his first car, a 1964 Pontiac Grand Prix. After getting the Pontiac home, he started restoring it.

He worked on the Grand Prix until he was 17. After finishing his car, Jeff and his dad Jack would take their cars to car shows and cruise-ins. After graduating from DeKalb High School in 1989, Jeff attended a leading auto diesel trade school. In 1991, Jeff got the opportunity to work for Kirk Dabney who had the Giant monster truck. In 1992, when Dabney purchased a second monster truck, Jeff got the opportunity to drive Thunder Struck, which was previously Nitemare III. That same year, Jeff and his high school sweetheart, Jody, were married.

In December of 1992, Jeff received a call from team Overkill owner Marty Garza inviting him to drive Overkill for the 1993 season. Jeff drove Overkill until April when Team Overkill had a devastating fire that destroyed their shop and trucks. After the fire, Jeff decided to build his own truck. Wanting something different, he combined his love of hot rods and monster trucks. The War Wagon emerged. Jeff performed with War Wagon 1 in the Midwest from July 1993 until November 1996.

In 1997, Jeff debuted War Wagon 2. He traveled and performed all over the country until August of 2003 when he temporarily retired to run his fire truck business, Wildfire Manufacturing, Inc., now known as 1st Attack Engineering, Inc.

Jeff and his crew never slow down and are always working on something. They have completed the NEW old school truck Shotgun Harry which Jeff started nearly 20 years ago but became outdated before Jeff could finish Harry! But Harry is now standing tall on 73"s and has made several appearances around the Midwest.

Jeff has several new projects in the works and hopes for an interesting 2011!

Influences

Jack Cook, Father
Jeff's dad influenced him by being a hard worker and being honest. He taught him to accept consequences
and to finish things you start.

Great Grandmother Stephenson
Always told Jeff to be himself and that the sky was the limit, and that Jeff could achieve anything he wanted.

Grandpa Cook
Jeff's grandparents taught him to take risks and enjoy life to the fullest everyday. If you put off your dreams until you are older, you may never see them happen.  

George Eisenhart
Jeff's best friend, George always encouraged and helped Jeff keep his head up through many rough business adventures. George helped Jeff look at what good may come from adversities. In January 2009, George was tragically taken from us in an accident. We all really miss him.

Jody Cook
Jeff's wife has always been supportive of his business adventures and has always been a team mate.

Mr. Van Smith
High School Auto Mechanics Teacher
Kept Jeff in school, taught him a lot about vehicle mechanics.

Mr. Walt Goldsmith
Walt taught Jeff that you can built anything and Walt is a very key person in Jeff's projects.

Mr. Roland Seiler
Jeff worked for Seiler Farms for a few years and learned a lot of business techniques that Roland uses to successfully farm 4,000 acres.

Family and Friends
Jeff would like to thank the Lord God above, his family, his friends, and the fans. Without all of your support and help, all of this would not have been possible. To everyone who sacrificed sleep and family time through the years -- THANKS AGAIN!