Before tragic Shockwave crash, I rode fastest semitruck on Earth: What it was like

I sat securely belted into the passenger seat of a truck that happened to have three jet engines strapped to the back of it. 

It was the mid-1990s and we waited at the end of an airport runway in Bloomington, Illinois. I had an idea of what was to come, but not a clear, realistic understanding of it.

It was summer in central Illinois. A heavy, fireproof suit weighed on my work clothes underneath it. The truck's team required that I wear the suit and the heat was stifling. As a young TV reporter, I was rather naive when I signed a waiver to ride in the Shockwave. 

An airplane appeared above us and the driver, Les Shockley, reached across, pushed down the face shield on my helmet, hit the throttle with his foot and my life would never be the same. The world went white.

Shockley built and designed the truck to be a stunt show novelty. And it was just that, successfully performing without incident at air shows across the country for more than three decades. 

On Saturday, that show, at least the one using the Shockwave, came to a tragic end in a matter of seconds when the jet truck crashed on a runway at the Battle Creek Field of Flight Airshow. The accident killed the driver, Chris Darnell, 40, the only one on board this time. Darnell had been operating the Shockwave since 2012, according to the International Council of Air Shows. 

'Living the dream'

The accident Saturday was the result of a mechanical failure, according to a Facebook post written on Saturday by Darnell's father, Neal Darnell.

"My youngest son passed away from his injuries at approximately 1:01 pm. No one else was involved," Neal Darnell, founder of Darnell Racing Enterprises, wrote. "We are so sad. He was so well loved by everyone who knew him. Chris so loved the Air Show business. He was 'Living the Dream' as he said."

The Battle Creek Police did not return a call seeking details on the cause of the accident. But a report by Kalamazoo-based WWMT-TV News on Tuesday said a blown rear tire likely set off a chain of events that caused the truck to catch fire and roll off the runway. A severed fuel line likely caused the explosion, Battle Creek Police Chief Jim Blocker said in the article.

In online videos, the crash happened just as pyrotechnics exploded on the airfield, but that fireball did not come from the truck.

“He did deploy his parachute early, so we can surmise from that he knew something was wrong,” Blocker said to WWMT. 

The Darnell family did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But Darnell Enterprises' website shows it owns other stunt trucks, including a military version of the Shockwave: 

• Aftershock Jet Fire Truck: A 1940 Ford Fire Truck with twin Rolls-Royce Bristol Viper Jet Engines totaling over 24,000 horsepower. It holds the Guinness record for Fire Trucks at 407 mph.
• Flash Fire Jet Truck: The Flash Fire has a 12,000 horsepower jet engine and reaches speeds exceeding 350 mph. 

Neal Darnell told WWMT, despite this accident, his other stunt trucks will appear Saturday at a scheduled event in Goshen, Indiana, because his son would have wanted the show to go on.

Fastest semitruck on Earth

I did not know the Darnells. When I rode in the Shockwave, Shockley was the driver and his wife, Donna, did everything else including help me get into the fireproof suit and sign the legal waivers before I climbed on board.

Shockley was in his early 50s at the time. He had custom-built his beast in the 1980s by taking the shell of a Peterbilt cab and attaching three Pratt & Whitney jet engines to it. The result was the fastest semitruck in the world, producing 36,000 horsepower.

I remember Donna told me if they set the truck on its rear end, the jets could launch it straight up into space. 

According to www.shockwavejettruck.com, the jet engines originally were in the USA Navy T2 Buckeye. The Buckeye is a "tandem-seat, carrier-capable, all-purpose jet trainer" used to train Navy and Marine Corps pilots and naval flight officers, according to military.com.

The Shockwave's engines make a total of 21,000 pounds of thrust, "which easily propels this truck to speeds over 350 mph while racing planes at air shows all over North America!" Shockwave also holds the record speed for semitrucks at 376 mph, the website said.

I don't remember the top speed Shockley and I got up to that day, but I know it was close to 300 mph.

He told me our ride elevates the heart rate to the equivalent of running a mile.

The uninformed volunteer

I found myself sitting next to Shockley by a fluke.

Every year, the Friday before the air show at the Central Illinois Regional Airport in Bloomington-Normal, Illinois, there would be a media day.

I was the Bloomington-Normal bureau chief for the Peoria-based WHOI-TV so a photographer and I went. After interviewing a few stunt pilots, the media coordinators asked all the reporters and photographers if one of us would like to ride in the Shockwave.

No one was volunteering. I raised my hand to ask what the Shockwave was and somehow that segued into me being the volunteer.

I remember it being explained to me this way: It's a truck that goes to the end of the runway and waits for one of the stunt planes to fly overhead, then the truck races the plane and wins. That sounded harmless and I was assured that it's totally safe and only lasts a few seconds. 

No one mentioned 300 mph. 

Instant regret

The cockpit was full of black roll bars for safety and bucket seats. I was strapped in by a series of safety belts over my hips and chest. Shockley told me there were three braking systems and four parachutes to stop it.

Despite that, I still did not comprehend the speed we were about to achieve.

Shockley was an extremely nice man. He told me that we'd pause in front of the media audience for a minute so that I could wave to them. The truck was roasting hot, rattling and shaking. The reporters were hollering at me and waving. I waved back, oblivious to the fact that Shockley was revving fire from the jet engines to put on a display for the crowd. 

We slowly drove across the tarmac to the end of the runway, as a calm Shockley kept chatting with me. 

We sat there waiting, and then a plane flew overhead. Shockley reached over and pushed down my face shield — and I felt instant regret.

To describe the feeling of thrust from a standstill to nearly 300 mph is almost impossible.

The most striking part for me was how everything turned white. I lost all vision. We were going so fast, the world was literally a white blur. I also remember I couldn't really breathe because of the pressure of air coming at me. And the G-forces bent my neck back and pulled hard at my face. Just think about going down the steepest, fastest roller coaster and then multiply that by 10.

The worst was the psychological terror. I was certain I was going to die. I could not fathom how we'd ever stop at that speed. I knew that any little thing that could go wrong would kill us at that speed.

The only way I can characterize the fear would be to liken it to what I imagine it would feel like to jump from a building and hurtle  toward the ground. 

The gift

When we finally did stop, the pressure of the safety belts against my chest nearly squeezed the wind out of me. It took me several minutes to recover and feel like I could breathe.

Yet when I looked over at Shockley he was as nonchalant as my dad was when he pulled the family car into our driveway. Shockley asked if I was all right and I remember nodding because I couldn't talk. 

Shockley, who died in 2019 at age 75 from complications from a stroke, had a gift. I imagine Chris Darnell had that same gift. They could do something the average person cannot: They could read their instrument panel, see the road ahead of them and operate the controls at 300 mph the same way you and I can at 45 mph. 

And, for that reason, they both lived the dream. 

Contact Jamie L. LaReau: jlareau@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. Read more on General Motors and sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber.