Grave Digger driver charts his thrills and spills.
Creator’s son to take the wheel of Grave Digger
Monster truck driver Adam Anderson was in San Antonio when he attempted to jump a school bus for the first time. It didn’t go well.
“I’ll never forget it because I crashed,” he said. “When you have an obstacle such as a school bus, they change after every truck goes. They said you better not do it, but I said I think I know a way to do it. I definitely did not do it the correct way, and we were there until 7 o’clock the next morning repairing the truck.” “Awesome” is how Anderson, who was driving the Taz monster truck at the time, describes the incident now. Another San Antonio memory: He debuted a retro version of Grave Digger, a blue-and-silver Ford panel truck, at an Alamo City Monster Jam.
Since 2016, the five-time Monster Jam grand champion has been driving the ghoulish green and purple Grave Digger, the iconic truck his father, Dennis Anderson, created in 1982, three years before he was born.
It will be his first time driving Grave Digger in San Antonio when Monster Jam returns to the Alamodome this weekend.
Fourteen trucks, including Black Stallion, Dragon, El Toro
Loco and Stone Crusher, will take part in the high-volume, high-flying monster truck competition. Drivers compete head-to-head, against the clock and for judges — the fans in the stands — in events such as two-wheel skills, doughnuts and freestyle. That’s when things can get wild.
A Youtube video from a Monster Jam last year in Lexington, Ky., shows Grave Digger teetering perilously on its front wheels after a jump during a freestyle run. Anderson does a sort of reverse wheelie to get the truck back on four wheels before it tips over — it looks like a Transformer doing the moonwalk.
“It’s controlled chaos,” Anderson said. “It’s a feat to balance a 12,000-pound truck or to save it from a crash or to do a back flip. It does take a lot of focus, a lot of control.
“Because of the technology that’s in these trucks now, it’s just taken it to the next level. It’s not as easy as driving a passenger car down the road — I definitely don’t have air conditioning in there. But the tools that I have to work with are the best tools within the sport of Monster Jam.”
Monster trucks are more than 10 feet tall and about 17 feet long. The tires are more than 5 feet in diameter.
The drivers sit in what is basically a steel cage attached to the truck frame. The colorful truck bodies — modeled on familiar vehicles such as a Ford F-150 pickup or a classic ‘50s Chevy Bel Air — are made of fiberglass.
Driving one is “very exciting,” Anderson said, “but when I’m in there, man, I feel like I’m a machine, and I have to make that truck go for as long as it can for as wild as it can for the people.” Though he grew up around Monster Jam, Anderson said he didn’t know for sure he was going to follow in his father’s giant tire treads until he experienced competition firsthand.
“Honestly, it took me driving the truck in front of a crowd of people to realize this is what I was going to do,” he said. “To get that adrenaline rush and also to see — it was almost win or lose, people were excited for you, sad for you, just the emotion that people gave you. It was an unbelievable feeling and still is to this day.”
Though Grave Digger, with its horror-movie paint scheme and blood-red headlights, is the star of the show, Anderson said he is occasionally recognized by superfans in the cities where Monster Jam stops.
“I appreciate everything they do for us,” he said. “If they happen to spy us sitting in a restaurant, I don’t mind one bit if they come up and ask for a picture. … When Monster Jam was in the beginning, we were there, my family was there and started what Monster Jam is today. So we came from nothing and we’re very appreciative of where we are today.”
jkiest@express-news.net
“When I’m in there, man, I feel like I’m a machine, and I have to make that truck go for as long as it can for as wild as it can for the people.” Monster truck driver Adam Anderson