There’s a Hockey Night in Canada and Football Night in America and now the History Channel is launching Truck Night in America. This series will feature a local racer as one of the hosts.
Glen Plake is a Tahoe native that lives with his wife in Northern Nevada. He’s one of the grandfathers of what became Free Style Skiing, has been called by ESPN a pioneer in extreme sports, has been featured in many Warren Miller films and his involvement in winter sports takes him to Europe every year.
But when he’s home many times you can find him racing a modified at one of our local dirt tracks. His current project is helping bring this new show to the History Channel.
Local racer Glen Plake is one of the hosts on the History Channel’s new show, Truck Night In America.
Photo courtesy – History Channel.
This all came about from his involvement in a Baja race when someone threw out his name. It seems the History Channel were looking for hosts and different people as a new program was planned..
Last year he and his wife were talking about the racing when all of a sudden their phone rang. That started him on this latest adventure.
“It’s a funny story of my life,” he said. “The phone rang then I went from a bio to a Skype interview. After that it was off to L.A. for casting then I had to leave for Georgia the next week.”
Several times he would be on the way to the track with his modified and he would get a call. Well he never made it as he would turn around and fly out to where he was needed.
“I was racing so much it was kind of cracking up, ran 17 features last year,” he said. “The wife and I talked about how funny it was all in racing then all of a sudden phone rang.”
Describing those trucks and Jeeps on the show Plake said, “They’re bringing daily drivers, some drove to and from competition others put on trailers. None of this is pro and they aren’t pro. Got a rock crawler up at moon rocks bring it to truck night and you can prove how good it is.”
He added that some times the vehicle is something a person and his kids built for the weekend and now they are competing to show what it can do.
Some of the competitor’s vehicles gather before running a course for the Truck Night In America show.
Photo courtesy – History Channel.
“There are different challenges all man made except mud. Kind of like a Ninja Warrior track for your truck and I’m like a host,” he said.
Looking at the History Channel press release Plake is listed as an extreme sports pioneer as well as a dirt track racer. “Pistol” Pete Sohren is a desert-racing champion, who has competed in the King of the Hammers and truck builder.
Another is truck builder and master fabricator Abe Wine along with rock crawling champion Rob “Bender” Park. And the hosts just don’t narrate the action but are involved with it as after the 1st challenge they pair up with a competitor.
” They don’t know what challenge is until they see it and we don’t see the trucks until they arrive,” he said.
A host will team up with a driver and kind of give them what is called some tough love as well as some suggestions and hints to help. So the hosts essentially become teammates but if their driver breaks down they jump on board with another team.
“There is a final test as they go head to head to see who is the fastest, goes the farthest and there is some mandatory winching, it’s pretty cool,” he said. “My favorite thing is that people can sit down with the family and watch the show. I’m really proud of it.”
Describing the production he said there are 75 cameras, over a 100 crew people and they went through 50 competitors.
“We have a great production team behind us,” he said. “I’m really optimistic, it was a wonderful experience for everyone including the four hosts and I hope it carries on for a few seasons.”
At the end the winner will pocket $10,000.
Truck Night In America logo.
Graphic courtesy – History Channel.
The show airs on the History Channel beginning this Thursday, March 8 and will continue each week. TV Guide lists the times at 8:04 p.m. with the show repeating starting at 11:04 p.m. Pacific time.
For further information on the History Channel, their website is located at www.history.com.
