A giant 12,000-pound beast soaring through the air of a packed arena of fans watching in awe? It’s likely something along those lines. It’s also probable that most people would consider operating a monster truck team to be a dream job or even a hobby. The latter was the case for Jimmy Creten.

What once started as a hobby for him blossomed into one of the most successful organizations in the monster truck industry for the last 30 years. Simultaneously it sparked the creation of Creten’s family who has helped him build the team into the motorsports staple it is today.

It all started in 1995 when Creten had bought his first chassis. He thought it would be a great way to have fun and make a little money on the side while doing so. While he worked a full-time job at the Colgate-Palmolive plant he would run the truck on the weekends. Doing the math he would make a little more than $15,000 from each show, accounting for the $800 payments he had to make for the truck he would pocket around $800 for his troubles.

What Creten didn’t account for was the running costs for the truck, especially mechanical failures. Creten dubbed it “Some of the worst math I’ve ever done.”

In the first five events he ever ran, he blew a motor in each event. Before he knew it, he had $50,000 go down the drain just from a hobby of his. His yearly salary at the time was $42,000.

It would be at this point in which most people cut their losses and move on, but luckily for Creten, he stuck with it. He eventually went on to buy a second chassis. At the same time he was let go from his position at the plant where he was working. This is when Jimmy made one of the most pivotal decisions that shaped the rest of his life.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do but I’m not going to work for someone else,” he noted.

He was all in on monster trucks.

Now running a motorsports team is no easy task. An old anecdote I got told once by my girlfriend’s grandfather who used to race encapsulates one of the struggles of running a team. “The best way to make a million dollars in racing is starting with two million, the adage goes.

Most people would never know about the constant financial struggles of running a race team, and running a monster truck team is no exception. Creten was locked into a life of hard work getting trucks built, prepped to perform and repaired once the show was over. Also not to mention he’s the one hauling the thing across the country to perform.

A lot of the life of building a monster truck empire was sleepless and grueling on the body. Those parts aren’t light. One of the longtime crewmembers of the team, named Cameron, puts this into perspective best. Asked about what kind of toll working on monster trucks for 20 years has taken on his body, Cameron put in perspective of medical visits.

“Well I’m 48 years old and I’ve had back surgery three times.” he said.

Creten has been no stranger to surgeries either, as he’s had his shoulder reconstructed and hip replaced. On top of that, he’s had some gnarly injuries recently driving the truck. Within the last five years he’s bitten through his tongue and broken the lowest set of ribs after two backflip attempts went south.

While most of this seems like a lot to go through for what started as a hobby, Creten has also built his family through this team. A little after the team’s creation, he met his wife, Dawn, while at the North Dakota State Fair. They met during a concert for the band Alabama, which took place after Jimmy had performed in Bounty Hunter. It was from there that Dawn decided to drop out of college and left the Army Reserves to compete with Jimmy.

The two have competed alongside each other for the majority of the team’s existence aside from Dawn having to go on maternity leave in 2000, 2006 and 2009. All of the pair’s children have held a role in the team at some point and time, now their son-in-law, Sinjan Gergick, has a vital position as the team’s director of operations.

One of the neat things about running a motorsports team of any kind is that there are many different sectors of the business that someone can focus on. This has helped the family stray away from a lot of the issues that can arise when running a family business. Jimmy even mentioned how much it has helped having other people doing things for the team. Something he said he had to work on over time is letting go and trying not to micromanage every part of the team.

“You don’t have enough ass to do everything yourself.” Creten said.

It’s crucial that he has been able to let other people run the team alongside him now due to the team running their own events. While many people would recognize 2Xtreme Racing from its time competing in Monster Jam, this is no longer the case. After collecting a plethora of trophies, including two world championships, and a boat load of notoriety the team had parted ways with the organization following the COVID-19 pandemic.

The team ran their own events during the time that Monster Jam had shrunk down its roster to just the teams that the company owned. It was then that 2Xtreme had found more financial success running the show themselves rather than being an independent contractor of sorts. Creten explained that running Monster Jam is best for a team building up their reputation. The return you would get running for them is really only enough to keep your head above the water but in return you would receive more of a mass following of fans. At the end of the day they’re still trying to run a successful business, and making more of a profit will help them put on a better show for fans.

“Unfortunately the bank doesn’t accept trophies,” said Creten.

The team now has expanded to a five-truck operation with plans to add a sixth in the near future. Members are focused on delivering a family oriented product at a competitive price for those looking to see some monster truck action. This is where Gergick’s role in the business comes in, as he deals with the new challenges that the team has to face with running their own promotion. He’s in charge of getting the facilities that the team would perform at.

He mentions how some of these venues range in terms of how far out in advance one needs to book them on top of the varying prices.

“The price for renting out a venue is anywhere from $500 to $60,000, it just depends on the facility,” he said.

Gergick is in charge of doing this for 48 events a year. He’s also in charge of a plethora of other things with the team. He, too, graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering like Jimmy. This means he always lends a helping hand with designing and building the trucks for the team.

Overall the team has had a successful run for 30 years and continues to grow even with being one of the few icons in the monster truck realm.

The team’s constant hard work and success is perfectly encapsulated by Jimmy’s office at the shop. Filled to the brim with trophies that the team has earned through the years. They mainly sit in there and collect dust as he doesn’t go back in there and relics in the past. Never taking a trip down memory lane with them at all despite it being a symbol of the team’s accomplishments. He’s too busy continuously moving the team forward into the next chapter. Leaving behind a legacy of success while paving a new path of success for the organization. That’s what you have to do in racing to be a successful team, especially for as long as 30 years.

— Landon Quesinberry is a senior at the University of Kansas majoring in multimedia journalism.