What's Next For Bearfoot ?
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As of October 1, 1997 the name and rights to Bearfoot 4x4, Inc. have been sold to Paul Shafer (no relation to Fred) who owns the
Monster Patrol out of Portage, Indiana. Paul currently campaigns three very successful Monster Trucks of his own, and shares the majority of the driving chores with long time partner Tom Meents.

Todd Frolik, who has been with Bearfoot since 1991, and the rest of the Bearfoot team have been hired by Paul Shafer to continue driving/maintaining Bearfoot under its new ownership. Todd says that a new paint scheme and yet another new race truck are in the works for early 1998. Seeing how Paul did buy 3 of Fred's trucks, this makes him the owner of the second largest Monster Truck race team with a total of 7 trucks in 1998! In case you're wondering Bob Chandler's Team Bigfoot is the largest.

Fred Shafer has not sold Bearfoot headquarters, located in Pontoon Beach, Illinois but has decided to lease the property and shop to Paul for a 2 year term. This will give Paul a more central location to travel from throughout the country. Fred's wild life refuge and all of his animals, including his 2 black bears will remain at it's Pontoon Beach location until arrangements to have them brought to Florida are made, and a safe place can be found for those that can not relocate.

Fred and Kathy Shafer have built a wonderful home in Florida, and will relocate there. Negotiations with Dodge Motorsports are still in the works, and there is talk that Dodge will only come back as a sponsor if Fred is heavily involved with the team, and that may very well mean coming out of retirement to race ! He may even emerge from time to time to grab one more World Record out from under the rest of the competition like he's done so many times before. Don't worry though, after having done this for over 18 years, don't think they will be able to stay away from it completely - you'll see them at a show somewhere keeping an eye on the competition of the future.

Rampage has been sold to Richard and Shirley Patterson of Madisonville, Kentucky. The Patterson's will keep the Rampage name on the truck, but also have plans to campaign it as a Bearfoot for Paul Shafer when they're needed. The Pattersons are looking forward to an exciting and successful 1998 racing season with Richard behind the wheel, and there's already talk of a second race truck in the works for late 1998.





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