Danny

Danny Rodoni grew up in Santa Cruz on a family owned Brussels sprout farm where he had his first job of wrenching and fabrication on farm equipment, trucks and tractors. Danny has always had passion for large trucks and is known in his home town for driving some of the biggest lifted trucks most people have ever seen. This passion for lifted trucks and his natural mechanical ability lead him to pursuing a 4 wheel drive business. Danny left the family farming business in 1995 and started his own 4 wheel drive shop. Danny owned and operated Central Coast Four Wheel drive, a very successful shop for over 10 years.

 Danny got his start in monster trucks in 2001 by helping the Team Meents crew in the evenings and weekends when the team was on the west coast.   He traveled with the team when he could in 2001-2003 and decided to build his own truck in 2003.  In 2003 after a trip to the Texas based  Race Source shop and home of Paul Huffaker, plans were under way to build the Patriot. The chassis was finished in the fall of 2003 and he spent the next 6 months getting the truck ready for the first show. The Patriot and Danny made their debut in Yakima Washington in June 2004.

In 2005 Danny was nominated and Won “Rookie of the Year” in Las Vegas by Monster Jam officials. In fall of 2005, Danny decided to expand the team to a two truck race team. Tropical Thunder was purchased and heavily modified for the 2006 season by team member, “Factory Phil Foster”. Andrew Peckham started filling in for Phil from time to time. The 2006 season was filled with several racing wins by both trucks and some wild freestyles. Danny also sold his 4 wheel drive shop in 2006 to his good friend Lazo and returned to farming.

From my hobbies listed above you read that I am a avid hunter. I mostly like to hunt deer and elk although I also hunt ducks and other water fowl when I get envited.  I try to take a least one hunting trip per year. In 2009 I went on a trip with a friend to Idaho. On this trip I met Sparky Sparks. Sparky is the owner of M2D Camo an awesome Camo company based in Chattaroy, WA. I have tossed around a new name for Tropical Thunder for a long time as I bought Tropical from someone and had nothing to do with the name.  When I met Sparky it was just obvious what we should do.  Sparky and I are good friends and I wish we had more time to hang out.

We have made several modifications and upgrades to our trucks over the years and continually strive to be as competitive as we can be. I love this sport and am grateful to be a part of such a great group of people. My success is only as good as my help! I am privileged and grateful to have Phil Foster, Andrew Peckham, Mike Pappas, Mark Olsen, Allen Scott and Chris Slay and most recently Kevin Lewis as part of this awesome Race Team. To have a team that’s successful takes a good group of people.