ER nurse crushing it in 5-tonne monster trucks

Rebecca Schnell's regular job is as an emergency room nurse in St Louis, Missouri. But she has a side gig that's even more adrenaline-filled: strapping into a five-tonne, 4m tall Monster Truck and flying it as fast and as far as she can.

The 35-year-old American drives Big Foot in the Hot Wheels Monster Trucks show. The huge modified pick-up trucks used in the arena show carry 66" tyres which weigh between 360-450kg each when combined with the wheel.

She is one of only two women in the touring party visiting New Zealand for the Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live Glow-N-Fire, which kicked off in Dunedin in front of crowds of 15,000 people last weekend.

Other trucks in the show include Bone Shaker, Tiger Shark, and Mega Wrex, all life-size replicas of their Hot Wheels counterparts.

The trucks perform wheelies - where the "pilots" (that's what the drivers are called) stand the vehicle up as straight as they can, and very challenging donuts - getting the monster truck to sit on any kind of material on the ground like concrete or dirt.

They launch the trucks into the air, over 12-car stacks, and Schnell's favourite part, free-style stunts.

“We have a designated amount of time on a clock, and we get to go and hit whatever we want, and do whatever skills and stunts that we're able to do behind the wheel," she told RNZ's Nine to Noon.

Schnell has been driving for six years, getting into the sport through her husband Darren, who has been in the show for 17 years.

“Since 2020, we've been able to travel the world together. And so we don't have to spend too much time apart. We get to navigate two different kinds of relationships of being husband and wife and co-workers and going between the two is actually quite a fun time for us.”

Despite the bone-shaking nature of what they do, Schnell says drivers are safe inside the mega-truck cockpit.

"We get hurt more outside the truck than we do inside the truck.

“....we are super safe, we wear fire suits, head restraints, neck restraints, all the safety specs that you can imagine. My seat is specifically poured to fit me and me and me only.

"... But the parts that we move around, they weigh a lot. So we do have to be physically active, we do have to be physically fit to be able to manoeuvre those around so that we don't have any injuries. Things happen, of course, all the time, but not as often as you would expect.”

Schnell has landed in NZ months after brain surgery in May for a condition she was born with called chiari malformation, which she learned she had in December. The condition causes the lower part of the brain to push down into the spinal cord. It was causing her balance issues, amongst other things.

She said her neurosurgery team believed she was the first to be back out with her condition in this sport.

"Being back behind the wheel with an unknown ... I'm out here trying to break some medical stimga along with inspirating young men and women to chase their dreams."

The huge vehicles, along with lighting rigs, were shipped in 14 containers from Australia to Dunedin. They next head to Wellington’s Sky Stadium on 27 September 27, with the final two shows at Eden Park on 4 and 5 October.