Grave Digger

Grave Digger is a monster truck owned by FELD Motorsports and created by Dennis Anderson. Active for more than 35 years, there are 8 competing Grave Digger vehicles with 7 current competing drivers on the Monster Jam circuit. Grave Digger is in every Monster Jam video game to date.

It is special for being the only FELD owned truck to be hand painted on every single body.

History
In 1981, Dennis Anderson created his mud racer, Grave Digger. The name came from a smack-talking session he had with his rivals ("I'll take this old junk and dig you a grave with it.").

In 1986, Dennis Anderson started racing monster trucks full time. The truck became super popular, despite lack of sponsorship that trucks like Bigfoot (Which was sponsored by Ford) had. His first major victory was in Saint Paul, Minnesota, against the Bigfoot.

In 1989, he switched from a 1951 Ford Panel truck to a 1950 Chevrolet Panel truck. Two years later, he debuted Grave Digger 3, the first four-link Grave Digger.

In 1998, Dennis sold team Grave Digger to PACE Motorsports (now Feld Motorsports). Despite no longer owning the truck, he is still arguably its most popular driver.

In 2000, Debra Miceli, driver of Madusa, was taught by Dennis Anderson to drive monster trucks and drove one of his Grave Digger trucks. Dennis and Grave Digger were invited to the Monster Jam World Finals 1 and won the freestyle championship with a score of 40.

In 2002, Grave Digger celebrated its 20th Anniversary.

In 2003, Dennis Anderson suffered an injury, keeping him out of the Monster Jam World Finals 4. Grave Digger was driven by Pablo Huffaker at the said event.

In 2004, Grave Digger won the racing championship at the Monster Jam World Finals 5, taking out Pablo Huffaker driving Blacksmith.

In 2006, Dennis suffered an injury until the World Finals and his son, Adam, would drive Grave Digger for part of the season in 2007.

In 2007, Grave Digger celebrated its 25th Anniversary.

In 2011-2012, Grave Digger raced against the Shockwave jet trucks at several NHRA Nitro Jam events. Randy Brown was behind the wheel for the majority of these races.

In 2012, Grave Digger celebrated its 30th Anniversary.

In 2015, Charlie Pauken competed in the Fox Sports 1 Series and Colton Eichelberger competed in the More Monster Jam tour. Charlie finished 4th in his series while Colton finished 2nd. They both got automatic bids to the World Finals hence, three Grave Diggers competed in World Finals 16, with Dennis driving the normal Grave Digger, Colton driving a purple Grave Digger, and Charlie driving a green Grave Digger. At the Path of Destruction Tour, "Steve Brynes" a former Nascar announcer who passed away on April 21, 2015 was written On the Grave Digger tombstone instead of the usual "Dennis Anderson".



In 2016, a new chrome paint scheme debuted with Dennis Anderson driving. Dennis's son Adam joined team Grave Digger and competed in the Fox Sports 1 Championship Series. Lifelong friend of the Anderson boys, Morgan Kane joined the team after a switch from Max D to Grave Digger was made, hence, Colton Eichelberger was moved to the Max-D team. Adam's long time crew chief Cole Venard also joined the team and competed in the More Monster Jam (2016) series along with Kane which they would eventually win. Charlie Pauken, Pablo Huffaker, Randy Brown, Carl Van Horn & Jon Zimmer all continued to run their own Grave Diggers. At World Finals 17, Morgan Kane and Cole Venard debuted new paint schemes on their trucks. Kane would receive an orange scheme while Venard drives the purple scheme. Kane later won racing while Adam Anderson won freestyle, both in their Grave Digger trucks. A new Hot Wheels Grave Digger mold was also released, the first time in 16 years that the original mold, created in 2000 as one of the original 4 toys, was altered. This new design which went unnoticed at first until fans found the differences, being a more round body, new front clip, and overall, a more realistic design. The problem was that the design never showed the "New tool" deco on the packaging, and it shared the exact same packaging as the old style. Another version of Grave Digger was released, but this time, the roof artwork is different.



In 2017, Grave Digger celebrated its 35th Anniversary. Tyler Menninga joined the team and ran the More Monster Jam tour along with Cole Venard. Morgan Kane and Adam Anderson competed in the Fox Sports 1 Series. Dennis Anderson and Charlie Pauken ran the two Stadium Tours while Randy Brown and Pablo Huffaker competed in two of the other Arena Tours. The truck also received its first official female driver, Krysten Anderson, Dennis' daughter, who competed on the Central More Monster Jam Tour. In the first stop of Dennis' Stadium Tour in Tampa, Florida, he would suffer a career ending injury after a failed backflip attempt. Carl Van Horn and Jon Zimmer filled in for the rest of his tour. On September 18, 2017, Dennis announced his full retirement from Monster Jam, stating he would still be behind the scenes at events and in the pits.

In 2018, the team ran eight trucks. Former Son-uva Digger crew chief Brandon Vinson joined the team to take the place of Cole Venard. Adam Anderson takes over as the main driver due to Dennis Anderson's retirement. Jon Zimmer left the team to drive Dragon full time, as he was supposed to in 2017 before Dennis's injury, while Carl Van Horn served as a fill-in for the team. Adam Anderson, Charlie Pauken, Randy Brown, and Morgan Kane each ran a stadium tour. Three drivers once again competed at the Triple Threat Series, Krysten Anderson on the west series, Tyler Menninga on the central tour, and Vinson on the east series. Pablo Huffaker runs an arena tour. Pauken and Kane won their Stadium Championship Series while Menninga wins his Triple Threat tour, earning them invites to the Monster Jam World Finals 19. Adam Anderson wins the World Finals 19 Racing Championship against Menninga. Pablo retired after his final event in Florence, SC on the weekend of May 5-6, 2018.

Trivia

 * Grave Digger is one of 4 trucks owned by FELD that was sold to them, rather than created by them (The other 3 being Bulldozer, Carolina Crusher, and Son-Uva Digger).
 * The tombstones on the side of Grave Digger represent different trucks that Grave Digger has beaten out in racing finals throughout the years.
 * Pablo Huffaker and Dennis Anderson are the only Grave Digger drivers to create their own versions of the truck as all other Digger's are created by FELD.
 * Pablo's Grave Digger's can be simply identified by its often red shocks, purple rims and a shorter wheelbase than other Grave Digger's.
 * Grave Digger 27 is currently the oldest Grave Digger truck being used for competition.
 * Whilst FELD owns most of the Digger trucks, Racesource owned Pablo's trucks and Randy Brown Motorsports owns Randy Brown's trucks, both in association with FELD.

Versions
There have been 34 versions of Grave Digger to date. There is no Grave Digger XIII due to superstition about the number 13. The number of the truck is often displayed on the front of the hood.

Championships

 * 1999 - Dennis Anderson (Points)
 * 2000 - Dennis Anderson (Freestyle)
 * 2002 - Dennis Anderson (Points)
 * 2003 - Gary Porter (Points)
 * 2004 - Randy Brown (Points)
 * 2004 - Dennis Anderson (Racing)
 * 2006 - Dennis Anderson (Racing)
 * 2010 - Dennis Anderson (Racing)
 * 2016 - Morgan Kane (Racing and AMSOIL West), Adam Anderson (Freestyle and FS1 Series), Cole Venard (AMSOIL East)
 * 2017 - Cole Venard (Triple Threat- West), Tyler Menninga (Triple Threat- East), Randy Brown (Arena Tour #4), Pablo Huffaker (Arena Tour #5), Charlie Pauken (Stadium Tour #4)
 * 2018 - Charlie Pauken (Stadium Championship Series 2), Morgan Kane (Stadium Championship Series 3), Tyler Menninga (Triple Threat- Central), Adam Anderson (Racing)

World Finals Bodies

 * 2002 - 20th Anniversary Grave Digger
 * 2006 - "Green Ghost" Grave Digger (won racing with this version)
 * 2007 - Chrome 25th Anniversary Grave Digger
 * 2010 - Red "Retro" Grave Digger (only used in the encore, driven by Ryan Anderson)
 * 2010 - Blue and Silver "Retro v2" Grave Digger (only used in the encore, driven by Adam Anderson, but it was turned into a full-time truck named Grave Digger the Legend in the following year also driven by Adam.)
 * 2012 - Chrome Green 30th Anniversary Grave Digger
 * 2012 - Chrome Purple 30th Anniversary Grave Digger
 * 2015 - Purple Grave Digger (driven by Colton Eichelberger)
 * 2015 - Green Grave Digger (driven by Charlie Pauken)
 * 2016 - Chrome Grave Digger (driven by Dennis Anderson)
 * 2016 - Purple Grave Digger (driven by Cole Venard)
 * 2016 - Orange Grave Digger (driven by Morgan Kane, won racing with this version)

World Finals Appearances

 * 1999 - Dennis Anderson
 * 2000 - Dennis Anderson (won freestyle)
 * 2001 - Dennis Anderson
 * 2002 - Dennis Anderson
 * 2003 - Pablo Huffaker
 * 2004 - Dennis Anderson (won racing)
 * 2005 - Dennis Anderson
 * 2006 - Dennis Anderson (won racing)
 * 2007 - Dennis Anderson
 * 2008 - Dennis Anderson
 * 2009 - Dennis Anderson
 * 2010 - Dennis Anderson (won racing)
 * 2011 - Dennis Anderson
 * 2012 - Dennis Anderson
 * 2013 - Dennis Anderson
 * 2014 - Dennis Anderson
 * 2015 - Dennis Anderson, Colton Eichelberger (purple), Charlie Pauken (green)
 * 2016 - Adam Anderson (won freestyle), Dennis Anderson (chrome), Morgan Kane (orange) (won racing), Cole Venard (purple)
 * 2017 - Adam Anderson, Morgan Kane, Randy Brown, Tyler Menninga (DDS: Krysten Anderson)
 * 2018 - Adam Anderson (won racing), Tyler Menninga, Morgan Kane, Charlie Pauken (DDS: Krysten Anderson, Brandon Vinson)

Digger's Dungeon
Digger's Dungeon in North Carolina serves as the official home of Grave Digger. It houses various Feld vehicles from time to time. It features a gift shop and museum of various Grave Digger parts, trophies, and merchandise.