Meet Rocky Hardcore « Hell Drivers: America’s Original Crash Test Dummies

Meet Rocky Hardcore

Name: Rocky Hardcore
Age: 51
Hometown: Owosso, Michigan
Claim to Fame: Garbage Truck Divebomber Crash
Off-Season Work: Odd jobs. Recently delivered newspapers and donuts to college campuses.
Web Site: Rocky’s MySpace Page

Would you ever try to “fly” a garbage truck off a dirt mound and crash it into a pile of junk cars – even if you’ve never driven one?

Let’s just say that Rocky “Hardcore” Hauri likes to try new things.

Rocky was first introduced to Hell Driving on the day he was born. His father, John Hauri, was a performer for the famous Aut Swenson Thrillcade and Hurricane Hell Drivers in the 1950s and 60s. You can still watch him do his “Human Battering Ram” act in the Clark Gable film “To Please A Lady.”

Rocky started out in his dad’s tire tracks, briefly touring with the Hurricane drivers in the 1970s. He’s long been a solo artist, specializing in “hardcore” stunts such as jumping cars over school busses and smashing through tractor trailer trucks.

His favorite stunts are immortalized in needlepoint. The sewing stuntman brushes off the occasional dolt who suggests that his hobby is for “sissies.” “It’s like well, if you take a look at the picture I’m doing and realize who did it (the stunt), it’s not sissy,” Rocky counters. “You don’t walk up to Picasso and say, ‘Hey, you’re gay because you do art!’”

To kill time on the road, Mr. Hardcore enjoys doing medium-level crossword puzzles (not too easy, but “not the ones you gotta be in Mensa to figure out!”). He also frequently stops at yard sales and flea markets on his way to stunt shows.