Bernard Lyght (Born October 7th, 1985) is a monster truck driver out of Albany, Georgia. He began his career driving Alien Invasion and now drives The Amazing Spider-Man on the International Tour. He was the second African American driver hired by Monster Jam, behind Bari Musawwir who was hired in 2010.
Career[]
Lyght began his first full year of competition in 2017, driving Alien Invasion in the Monster Jam Triple Threat Series Central, finishing seventh in the series standings. He would later compete in the Double Down Showdown at World Finals XVIII, where he would be defeated in round 1 by Tristan England in Earth Shaker.
In 2018, Lyght competed in the Monster Jam Triple Threat Series West and finished sixth in the series standings. He would later compete in the Double Down Showdown at Monster Jam World Finals XIX, where he would be eliminated in round 1 by Brad Allen in Monster Mutt Rottweiler, crashing in the process.
In 2019, Lyght competed on Monster Jam Triple Threat Series East, where he again finished sixth in the standings. He would later be invited to compete in the Showdown and speedster competitions at Monster Jam World Finals XX. During the Showdown, Lyght would be defeated in round 1 by Blake Granger in Max-D. In the speedster competitions on Friday, Lyght would be defeated in round 1 of Speedster racing by Colton Eichelberger in Max-D and was eliminated in the semi-final round of speedster obstacle course by Armando Castro in El Toro Loco. However, he would defeat Matt Cody in Blue Thunder for the third-place race. During the Saturday Speedster competitions, Lyght would again be eliminated by Eichelberger in round 1 of speedster racing, and by Cody in round 1 of speedster obstacle course. He would ultimately finish ninth in the points standings.
In 2020, Lyght again competed in the Monster Jam Triple Threat Series East. During the series, he would win overall event championships in Washington, D.C. and Allentown, and would finish sixth in the series standings. After the series abruptly ended in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Lyght would be furloughed by FELD Entertainment due to budget cuts as a result of the pandemic.
Lyght returned to competition in Alien Invasion on July 23, 2021, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.
Suspension[]
On August 14, 2021, Lyght was competing in Alien Invasion at a Monster Jam event at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California. During the freestyle competition, Lyght jumped over the arena obstacle. However, his truck clipped the obstacle and would perform a somersault before striking the safety barrier, damaging a portion of the arena in the process. Consequently, Lyght would later be suspended from competition for the remainder of the weekend. Dustin Brown would drive Alien Invasion as a fill-in for the remainder of the weekend. Two additional cases of the truck impacting the arena wall were also counted, once during racing and the other while breaking during introductions. This ultimately resulted in Lyght being suspended from competition for the remainder of the season. Bari Musawwir would drive Alien Invasion as a result.
For the 2022 season, it was announced that Lyght would begin driving Megalodon and would compete in the Monster Jam Arena Championship Series West. Bernard finished 6th. He would win entertainer of the year at the World Finals.
In 2023, Bernard competed on the East Arena Series, once again driving Megalodon. Dustin Brown fills in for him on Friday night in Pittsburgh. He would not compete at the Sunday show in Columbus after a failed mini flip on Saturday night. He would finish 5th. In Dresden, Germany, he drove Blue Thunder. For other international events, he drove The Amazing Spider-Man.
In 2024, Bernard drove The Amazing Spider-Man for the international tour. He returned to driving Megalodon in Tucson, Arizona to fill-in for Ashley Sanford. For unknown reasons, Brandon Arthur drove for Bernard starting at show 2 in Zurich, Switzerland. Peter Nyman would drive his truck in Munich, Germany. At World Final XXIII, he would be a professional judge.
World Finals appearances[]
| Year | Truck (Competitions) |
|---|---|
| 2017 | Alien Invasion (Double Down Showdown only) |
| 2018 | Alien Invasion (Double Down Showdown only) |
| 2019 | Alien Invasion (Showdown + Speedsters only) |
Trivia[]
- Prior to Monster Jam, Lyght performed as Spider-Man in Marvel Universe Live! Starting in 2023, he would start driving the new Spider-Man truck.
Gallery[]
