Ivan is a sculptor and metal artist that runs his own business in Northwest Portland. Ivan has a degree in Farm Management and has a diverse range of experience in many different fields. In years past, Ivan has done everything from becoming a Peace Corps volunteer in the Philippines to working a farm in the outback of Australia, where he went mano-a-mano with a perturbed emu! Ivan skills working with marble and metal are second to none, and Ivan's company Delia, Inc. sells furniture and other pieces to hundreds of locations in the U.S. and Japan. Ivan is always on the go and is cheered on by his wife Michelle and three daughters, Celia, Anna, and Molly.

To see some of Ivan's work and products, go to www.edelia.com.

Tom is first and foremost a car guy to the extreme! Tom is nearing completion on the design and construction of his own sports car entirely from scratch (no kit cars for Tom)! When he's not working on his car, Tom is the manufacturing manager at Silver Eagle Manufacturing, Inc. in Portland, OR where he works with Joe Freitas. Silver Eagle is a manufacturer of Class 8 truck dollies and military trailers for HMMWV's. His years of experience racing cars and working as an engineer make Tom a practical, hands-on fabricator with diverse skills from welding to metal working to fiberglass bodywork. Tom's loving family includes his wife Jan and his two sons Cooper and Rory, who go to the same school as Ivan's daughters.

Check out what Silver Eagle does at www.silvereaglemfg.com.

Joe is a mechanical engineer working with Tom at Silver Eagle. When he's not designing military trailers and systems, he's working on projects of his own. A graduate of the University of Portland, Joe participated in the SAE Mini Baja collegiate design competition in 1998 with a group of fellow engineering students. Hooked on off-road racing, Joe has teamed up with his engineering friends to participate in Baja desert racing with Team Powell and SCCA rally racing with Team T-Rex. Besides racing, Joe's other interests include smashing pumpkins (no not the '90's grunge rock band)! Joe, Ivan, and Tom teamed up to build an ancient siege weapon known as a Trebuchet, entirely out of recycled scrap metal. In the fall of 2001, the pumpkin chuckin' machine debuted against a competing wooden trebuchet at the Plumper Pumpkin patch outside of Portland, OR. To the delight of the many children (and children at heart), the metal machine launched the orange gourds nearly 500 feet, only to be smashed to unrecognizable pieces upon impact!

And thus the Big Shots were born. Inspired by Junkyard Wars to build the pumpkin launching trebuchet, it would later land them a spot on the show to build even more wacky contraptions out of scrap.

The expert chosen for us by Junkyard Wars was Tim Glassford, who comes to us from Canada. Tim works for the Canadian Government, but also has a background in racing. Tim participates with several teams in the Canadian version of NASCAR stock car racing called CASCAR. His experience and good humor rounded out our team perfectly, and we worked together like a well-oiled scrap machine!