24/12/2025
We are incredibly proud to share that the man who started all of this with one crazy idea has been inducted into the Australian Monster Truck Hall of Fame!
For younger fans, Stress Factor might just look like an old truck — but in the 90s and 2000s it was legendary, and so was Mike. His larger-than-life personality made him unforgettable; he was always up for a yarn and made friends everywhere he went.
Mike was a true trifecta in this industry — builder/mechanic, driver, and promoter. He built Australia’s first tube-chassis monster truck, created Shattered Silence and Big Red with Aaron, and even made history by jumping a plane in one of the wildest stunts Australia has ever seen.
Alongside Sam Xuereb, Mike stood as one of the true monster truck builders of Australia. Their knowledge, craftsmanship, and standards have never been matched — no one else has built trucks in Australia to the same level.
His innovation, passion, and unmatched skill shaped the industry, and his legacy will live on. ❤️
Thank you to the team from Aussie monsters for all your hard work and dedication to the sport and its history!
We want to acknowledge and congratulate the family of Mike Tuana on his induction into the Australian Monster Truck Hall of Fame, forming part of our inaugural class. Mike’s involvement in monster trucks began after he attended the 1991 Motor Mania II event at Perth’s Burswood Dome, in which he was given the opportunity to sit inside the cab of the American-import Ta**us.
Prior to his involvement in monster trucks, Mike was the owner and operator of the Perth-based company Mole Craft 4x4 Conversions, which he would later cease operations with, in order to pursue the construction of his own monster truck. His extensive mechanical and fabrication knowledge enabled him to construct the country’s first full tube frame monster truck chassis, Stress Factor, from the ground up in 1995. The truck, complete with nitrogen suspension - another Australian first, was a mechanical feat that greatly advanced the local industry from rudimentary builds to ones that utilised advanced monster truck technology.
In 1999, eight years after Tuana sat inside the cab of Ta**us, he would return to the same venue, this time marking the debut of Stress Factor in front of a packed crowd. In 2008, after having toured extensively across Australia and New Zealand for years, he would begin constructing his second truck, Shattered Silence, to accompany Stress Factor. Between 2010 and 2012, Tuana and his team would commence working on the film Mad Max: Fury Road, in which Shattered Silence and Stress Factor would feature, both redesigned to appear as identical versions of Mad Max’s ‘Bigfoot’.
Mike’s technical innovation enacted the advancement of monster trucks in Australia and pushed the industry to a new standard. During a time in which many Australian trucks were imported from overseas, Tuana showed that Australians had the know-how to match international standards. It is all of these accomplishments that make him one of our proud inductees into the Australian Monster Truck Hall of Fame.
