The Avenger monster truck, piloted by

Columbus, Michigan Columbus Township is a civil township of St. Clair County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 4,070 at the 2010 Census. Communities *Belle River is an unincorporated community on Gratiot Road, just southwest of where it crosses t ...

native Jim Koehler, was created in 1997. The original

monster truck A monster truck is a specialized off-road vehicle with a heavy duty suspension, four-wheel steering, large-displacement V8 engines and oversized tires constructed for competition and entertainment uses. Originally created by modifying stock pic ...

sported a forest green

Chevrolet S10 The Chevrolet S-10 is a compact pickup truck that was produced by Chevrolet. It was the first domestically built compact pickup of the big three American automakers. When it was first introduced as a "quarter-ton pickup" in 1981 for the 1982 m ...

body style and a teal

chassis A chassis (, ; plural ''chassis'' from French châssis ) is the load-bearing framework of an artificial object, which structurally supports the object in its construction and function. An example of a chassis is a vehicle frame, the underpart ...

and rims. With the exception of World Finals 14, the Avenger truck has always sported at least three flaming skulls (one on each side and one on the hood) and flowing flames running from the wheel wells. As time passed, the S10 body was replaced by a 1957

Chevrolet Bel-Air The Chevrolet Bel Air is a full-size car produced by Chevrolet for the 1950–1975 model years. Initially, only the two-door hardtops in the Chevrolet model range were designated with the Bel Air name from 1950 to 1952. With the 1953 model year, ...

body with bright green headlights, which is the same body style that is run today by "Mr. Excitement." Avenger is out of the Team Scream stable, which also features the Brutus, Mega-Bite, Spike, and Wrecking Crew monster trucks. The original Avenger chassis is currently run as Wrecking Crew by Steve Koehler, Jim's brother.

Body styles

Avenger and Jim Koehler is now the only truck and driver to compete in every

Monster Jam World Finals The Monster Jam World Finals is an annual monster truck event that is the championship event of the Monster Jam series, consisting of racing and freestyle competitions, with the winner of each considered the World Champion in that competition fo ...

Tom Meents Thomas William Meents (born July 10, 1967) is an American professional monster truck driver. He currently drives Max-D on the Monster Jam circuit. He has won 14 Monster Jam World Finals championships during his career (six in racing, six in frees ...

was the other to compete in all until missing World Finals 18 due to a back injury until he returned for the Monster Jam Path of Destruction Tour in Foxborough. The World Finals is the home to various versions of the Avenger truck, which are: *Forest Green Chevrolet S10 *Forest Green 1957 Chevy Bel-Air (Won its first world freestyle title in 2003) *Orange Bel-Air (When he broke a

transmission Transmission may refer to: Medicine, science and technology * Power transmission ** Electric power transmission ** Propulsion transmission, technology allowing controlled application of power *** Automatic transmission *** Manual transmission *** ...

) *Half Forest Green and Half Orange Bel-Air *Chrome Bel-Air (Lawn Dart over the Volcano) *Toxic Green Bel-Air *Neon Green Bel-Air (When he broke a wheel off) *"Scuba" Light Blue Bel-Air (when he ended up in the doghouse after a single jump) *Black "Rat Rod" Bel-Air *Candy Apple Red "Las Vegas" Bel-Air (won its second world freestyle title) *Yellow "Two Time Champion" Bel-Air *"Garners" Apple Red Bel-Air (crashed in Thunder Alley in Racing Fixed for the final episode on SPEED at Monster Jam World Finals XIV Freestyle) *Fox Sports 1 Purple Bel-Air *Garners Style White Bel-Air *Junkyard Blue Style Bel-Air *Dark Green "Celebrating 20 years" Chevy S10 with chrome logo (When he blew a tire after performing a

backflip An acrobatic flip is a sequence of body movements in which a person leaps into the air and then rotates one or more times while airborne. Acrobatic flips are performed in acro dance, free running, gymnastics, cheerleading, high jumping, tricki ...

) *Lime Green Custom Nomad *Red, Blue and White "Avengers" Bel-Air

Monster Jam World Finals accomplishments

Avenger has taken several titles over the years, but none shine brighter than his two Monster Jam World Finals Freestyle Championships. He won his first world championship title in 2003 with the original Forest Green Bel-Air and teal chassis, Jim shocked the Monster Jam World by being the first Freestyle Champion not named

Dennis Anderson Dennis Montague Anderson (born October 24, 1960) is an American former professional monster truck driver. He is the creator, team owner, and former driver of "Grave Digger" on the USHRA Monster Jam circuit. Anderson is from Kill Devil Hills, Nor ...

. The following year in 2004 Koehler was stopped on him. He bent a 4-link bar that caused the transmission to break after he went over the cars, causing him to be frustrated. In March 2011, with his red "Las Vegas" Avenger, Jim tied with Cam McQueen in the Nitro Circus Monster Truck in the Freestyle competition, edging out McQueen to claim his second Freestyle title, making Jim Koehler one of only three drivers to have more than one Freestyle title at the World Finals, the others being Tom Meents and

Adam Anderson (monster truck driver) Adam Anderson (born December 5, 1985, in Norfolk, Virginia) is an American professional monster truck driver. He currently drives Grave Digger on the Monster Jam circuit. Adam is the son of Grave Digger creator Dennis Anderson and the older brot ...

. In 2009, Avenger went places that it had never ventured before with the debut of Aussie Avenger, built specifically for the Extreme Monster Trucks

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

tour. This truck featured a bright orange chassis as well as canary yellow rims, with a classic 1957 Chevy Bel-Air body. Jim traveled "Down Under" for the South Pacific Finals where he continued the tradition of American drivers bringing home the Australian championships with his Freestyle victory. In 2010, Jim returned to

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

for the South Pacific Finals 3 to defend his Freestyle Championship. "Mr. Excitement" held true to his name by taking a second straight championship in freestyle. In 2016, he is driving in the

Fox Sports 1 Fox Sports 1 (FS1) is an American pay television channel owned by the Fox Sports Media Group, a unit of Fox Corporation. FS1 replaced the motorsports network Speed on August 17, 2013, at the same time that its companion channel Fox Sports 2 ...

Championship Series.

Awards

Monster Jam World Finals

* 1999 (Motor Madness World Finals 0, Forest Green S-10) #Driver: Jim Koehler # Racing: Lost to

Bear Foot Bear Foot is a monster truck currently owned by James Trantina of Triple B Motorsports. It was originally built by Jack Wilman and Fred Shafer and, along with Bigfoot and USA-1 was one of the first monster trucks. It won the 1990, 1992, and 199 ...

in Round 1 #Freestyle: Scored 22 * 2000 (Forest Green S-10) #Driver: Jim Koehler # Racing: Lost to King Krunch in Round 1 #Freestyle: Scored 26 - Tied for seventh with

Sudden Impact ''Sudden Impact'' is a 1983 American vigilante action thriller film, the fourth in the ''Dirty Harry'' series, directed, produced by and starring Clint Eastwood (making it the only ''Dirty Harry'' film to be directed by Eastwood himself) and co ...

and

Bulldozer A bulldozer or dozer (also called a crawler) is a large, motorized machine equipped with a metal blade to the front for pushing material: soil, sand, snow, rubble, or rock during construction work. It travels most commonly on continuous track ...

* 2001 (Forest Green S-10) #Driver: Jim Koehler # Racing: Beats Spider-Man in Round 1 due to a broken tire-rod #Freestyle: Scored 34 - Tied for fourth with Sting (Celebrating when he destroyed a mobile Home and Dennis Anderson says: "That was Awesome, Jim Koehler You Rock Buddy.) * 2002 (Forest Green Bel-Air) #Driver: Jim Koehler # Racing: Lost to Sudden Impact in Round 1 #Freestyle: Scored 8 - Tied for last with Bulldozer * 2003 (Forest Green Bel-Air) #Driver: Jim Koehler # Racing: Lost to Wolverine in Round 1 #Freestyle: Scored 37 - First (won its first world title) * 2004 (Orange) #Driver: Jim Koehler # Racing: Lost to Bounty Hunter in Round 1 #Freestyle: Scored 9 - Tied for last with

Blue Thunder ''Blue Thunder'' is a 1983 American action thriller film from Columbia Pictures, produced by Gordon Carroll, Phil Feldman, and Andrew Fogelson and directed by John Badham. The Blue Thunder helicopter itself did exist as two copies of modifie ...

and Team Suzuki (broke its transmission by bending the fore-link bar when Scott Douglass says: "Oh My Goodness", This was wide open for jim to win the thing for a second straight year. * 2005 (Half Orange, Half Dark Green) #Driver: Jim Koehler # Racing: Lost to Escalade in Round 1 (Behind the scenes: Fixing the Hot Wheels Truck) #Freestyle: Scored 25 - Tied for sixth with

Scarlet Bandit 2Xtreme Racing is a monster truck team consisting of the trucks Bounty Hunter, Scarlet Bandit and Iron Outlaw, all of which compete primarily on the USHRA Monster Jam circuit. The team is owned by Jimmy Creten, and includes Creten, his wife Dawn ...

and Escalade * 2006 (Chrome) #Driver: Jim Koehler # Racing: Lost to El Toro Loco in Round 1 #Freestyle: Scored 16 - Tied for sixteenth with Pastrana 199 (Lawn Dart over the Volcano on his third hit) * 2007 (Toxic Green) #Driver: Jim Koehler # Racing: Lost to Brutus in Round 1 #Freestyle: Scored 20 - Tied for fifteenth with Pastrana 199 * 2008 (Neon Green) #Driver: Jim Koehler # Racing: Lost to

Captain's Curse Captain's Curse was a monster truck created by Monster Jam and FELD Motorsports, and competed in the Monster Jam series from 2007 through 2016. Captain's Curse was first seen in 2007 driven by Pablo Huffaker at Monster Jam World Finals 8. Alex Bl ...

in Round 2 #Freestyle: Scored 17 - Fourteenth (broke the right-front wheel off on his third hit) * 2009 (Light Blue) #Driver: Jim Koehler # Racing: Lost to Brutus in Round 1 #Freestyle: Scored 4 - Last * 2010 (Black and White) #Driver: Jim Koehler # Racing: Lost to Grave Digger (truck), Grave Digger in Round 2 #Freestyle: Scored 25 - Tied for tenth with Blue Thunder and Iron Man * 2011 (Candy Apple Red) #Driver: Jim Koehler # Racing: Lost to Batman in Round 1 #Freestyle: Scored 32 - Tied for first with Nitro Circus (won its second world title via a tiebreaker) * 2012 (Yellow) #Driver: Jim Koehler #Racing: Lost to Northern Nightmare in Round 1 #Freestyle: Scored 13 * 2013 (Garners' Apple Red) #Driver: Jim Koehler #Racing: Lost to Spider-Man in Round 1 #Freestyle: Scored 23 - Tied for seventh with Zombie and Son-uva Digger * 2014 (Purple) #Driver: Jim Koehler #Racing: Lost to Maximum Destruction, Max-D in Round 1 #Freestyle: Scored 26.5 - Tied for eighth with Wolverine and Overkill Evolution * 2015 (White) #Driver: Jim Koehler #Racing: Lost to Neil Elliott's Max-D in Round 1 #Freestyle: Scored 22 - Tied for thirteenth with Monster Mutt * 2016 (Rusty Blue) #Driver: Jim Koehler #Racing: Lost to Adam Anderson (monster truck driver), Adam Anderson's Grave Digger in Round 1 #Freestyle: Scored 12 - Last * 2017 (Dark Green Retro S-10) #Driver: Jim Koehler #Racing: Lost to Son-uva Digger in the Semi-Finals #Freestyle: Scored 9.240 - Third * 2018 (Lime Green Custom Bel-Air Wagon) #Driver: Jim Koehler #Racing: Lost to Tyler Menninga's Grave Digger in Round 1 #Freestyle: Scored 2.990 - Last * 2019 (Red, Blue and White) #Driver: Jim Koehler #Racing: Lost to Great Clips Mohawk Warrior in Round 1 #Freestyle: Scored 6.399 - Nineteenth

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Avenger (truck) Monster trucks Off-road vehicles Sports entertainment Vehicles introduced in 1997