Monster Truck Teen Takes On The Pros

Ridiculous Rides

SEVENTEEN-year-old Rosalee Ramer is the youngest professional female monster truck driver in the United States. While most teenagers are just learning how to drive, Rosalee, from Watsonville, California, has been jumping and crushing cars for three years. Rosalee, who became pro at just 14, has been interested in monster trucks since she was a toddler.

Transcript

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.

00:59All right, hold it.

01:02I 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.

01:20As soon as I got the opportunity.

01:25I've always been working on trucks alongside my dad, whether that's working on his truck,

01:29helping build my own.

01:30You have that side?

01:34All right.

01:35My dad is like my best friend, you know, it's pretty great getting to spend every weekend

01:41on the road with him.

01:44At age 11 she was driving my truck around in the pit area, getting comfortable with it.

01:48So it was just an ongoing progression and we just added that in.

01:53It just seemed like the natural next step to put her in a monster truck and set up one

01:58that fit her and her style.

02:06This is Wildflower, my 1932 Ford Coupe monster truck.

02:10She runs on 66 inch tall tires, so that's five foot six inches.

02:16That's as tall as I am, but they weigh about somewhere between 600 and 800 pounds depending

02:21on the tire you run.

02:24Back here for our power source we've got 565 cubic inches of blown alcohol motor.

02:30So she's got about 15 to 1600 horsepower and she runs on methanol.

02:35Back here's my wheelie bar.

02:36You can see it gets a lot of action.

02:37Last weekend, wheelie contest, bent it up a little bit.

02:45We've got two nitrogen shocks on each corner of the truck.

02:48So to go along with the two nitrogen shocks in each corner, we run a four link suspension.

02:52Monster trucks are a lot to handle.

02:53It's two different complete steering systems, a lot of horsepower, a lot of responsibility.

02:59But, you know, I think I was definitely ready when I jumped in the seat.

03:07Sometimes 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.

03:24I mean, the adrenaline rush is absolutely insane.

03:27Going 30, 40 feet in the air, you feel like you're flying and sometimes there's a moment

03:32of hang time when you're up there.

03:34Where you just lose your breath a little bit and you're not sure exactly when you're going

03:41to land, but you're still planning for when you do.

03:44It's pretty incredible.

03:45Ready to go, dad?

03:46Ready to have some fun?

03:47Yes.

03:48Alrighty.

03:49Love you.

03:50Love you too.

03:51Alrighty.

03:52Good to go.

03:53I probably competed in over 300 competitions.

04:07I've won multiple competitions from freestyle to racing to donut competitions and wheelie

04:22contests.

04:24I'm studying mechanical engineering at Georgia Tech with a minor in industrial design and

04:38right now I'm going into my fourth year.

04:40I try to keep monster trucks in school pretty separate.

04:42Right now with the build of our new truck, we're working on the chassis.

04:46So getting all the tubes bent and fitted before we weld it up to start putting the rest of the

04:50truck together.

04:53It's a lot of fun.

04:54To be able to share something, a passion, that you have together makes it just so much

04:59more fun and exciting.

05:02Monster Trucks is the only platform really where girls and boys compete on an even playing

05:07field.

05:08There's no girls monster trucks, boys monster trucks.

05:10We're all out there competing against each other together.

05:13I'm doing something I love to do out here and I like to say I put my best into everything.

05:17Who think Rosalie should win the night in the wild?

05:22How are you here?

05:28All right.

05:29All right.

05:30Well, can you guys think let me be a Zusammen, who know what All right him.

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