AGUA DULCE, Texas — Monster Jam fans probably remember El Toro Loco. Corpus Christi native Lupe Soza will be inducted into the Monster Jam Hall of Fame.
"The Lupe Soza, the Dennis Anderson, the Tom Meents. We were the crazy ones at Monster Jam, and we were the ones that paved the way for all of this new talent," Soza said.
25 years after debuting El Toro Loco in 2001, Lupe Soza joins five other people to be inducted into the Monster Jam hall of fame, alongside Dennis Anderson the drive of Grave Digger. The Carroll grad and first Hispanic driver was known for his freestyle stunts.
"Cause when you hear 60,000-70,000 people screaming over the sound of a 1,500 horsepower engine sitting right behind me, and you can hear the people out there, I knew I was doing something crazy," Soza said.
What started out as a hobby to lift up Soza's high school truck, turned into a worldwide live motorsports tour featuring iconic monster trucks. His first big truck "Warrior", before Monster Jam, took 3.5 years to build. It had front and rear steering. "Warrior" made it's grand entrance in 1986 in Corpus Christi.
"You just had to line up on the car, dirt ramp or whatever it was on the course," Soza said. "You just had to put your foot into it, hit high gear and hope for the best on the other side."
The welder and mastermind behind building the parts was his father Lupe Soza III, a Corpus Christi Firefighter that served 40 years. He passed away last fall.
"You know it's something that dad and I worked so hard for. There was no plan like that," Soza said. "We just wanted to build a big monster truck because it was a new thing coming around in the mid-80's."
Soza joined Monster Jam in 2001 as the first full-time driver for El Toro Loco. That was his truck before landing a big time deal in 2010 with Advance Auto Parts Grinder for seven years.
"I did everything. From a shade tree to the biggest sponsorship in the industry it was like I think this is good enough," Soza said. "Let's close this chapter and let's move on."
He's dream drove him across the world. He won multiple times, including a World Finals championship.
"They still remember the things that I did, and they'll even post what I did," Soza said. "That's always the driving force, the fans."
Soza and Tom Meents the driver of Maximum Destruction will be inducted July 4th weekend at the World Finals in Salk Lake City. El Toro Loco started with one truck and one driver, Soza. In 2026 it's fleet now has seven trucks.
