Charlie Pauken

Background Information

Name

Charlie Pauken

Hometown

Maumee, Ohio

Date of Birth

February 6th, 1967

Career Information

Driving Since

1987

Trucks Driven

Excaliber (1987-1998)
WCW Nitro Machine (Minneapolis 1999, WF I)
Grave Digger (1999-2021, 2024 fill-in)
Firemouth (2002)
Spider-Man (Pontiac 2002 show 2)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle (Antwerp 2004)
Taz (2005)
Batman (2006 Monsters on Mainstreet)
Monster Mutt (WF VII-XV, XVII-XVIII, XXI, Mexico 2010, 2012 POD tour, 2022 season)
An Escalade (Saluda 2008)
Dragon (East Rutherford 2014)
Doom’s Day (East Rutherford 2014 encore)
Pirate's Curse (2016 International)
Stone Crusher (2021)
Megalodon (2023-2024 International)
El Toro Loco (2023 fill-in Stadium Tour Blue)
Lucas Stabilizer (Houston January 2024)
Fortnite (World Finals XXlll encore)

Charlie Pauken (Born February 6th, 1967) is a monster truck driver out of Maumee, Ohio. He is most famous for piloting Grave Digger, as well as his signature "Chuckie Dance" after winning and/or after putting on a successful performance. He is also known for driving Monster Mutt at some shows, mainly at the Monster Jam World Finals, as well as for the 2022 season. He was a member of Team Grave Digger the longest out of every current driver. He also owned the Excaliber ride truck. Early in his career, he went by Charles/Chuck Paukens.

History[]

Before driving, Charlie had a paper route. Mike & Dave had street trucks, who were close to Charlie's brother, who also had a street truck. He would ride by Mike Nichol & Dave Marquart's house when they were building Excaliber. In 1987, Pauken started driving Excaliber. He would be successful in the truck, becoming a three-time champion in the Thunder Nationals series in the 1990's. His first racing win would be at Pontiac, Michigan. He would often take the steering wheel off & hold it out of the window while he did a donut.

At the 1993 Monster Wars/Jam World Finals in Pontiac, Pauken defeated Andy Brass in Bigfoot in the Monster Truck Challenge bracket.

In 1998, Pauken would sell his Excaliber truck to Bruce Haney and joined team Grave Digger to drive Grave Digger 8 for 1999.

In November of 1999, he drove WCW Nitro Machine in Minneapolis.

237 — Aftermath of Charlie Pauken's lost World Finals 1 freestyle run.

In 2000, he would continue driving Grave Digger 8 and later be invited to compete at the inaugural World Finals in Las Vegas in WCW Nitro Machine. He would lose to Tom Meents in Goldberg in the first race of round 1, making him the first driver to lose a race at the World Finals post 1999. He would come out third to last in the freestyle competition and score a 19 after one hit. The run would become infamous for being lost, as it was never shown on the PPV broadcast, the TNN broadcast, the home video release, or anywhere else, such as official montages or compilations that feature Prowler and Reptoid's unaired runs. The only media of the run available is multiple photographs of the aftermath of the run, as any other footage of the run remains unreleased to this day and currently remains as the only fully lost World Finals freestyle run. That year, he also drove Bulldozer at the last Monster Jam event of 2000 in Saginaw, Michigan in December, as well as Grave Digger 7 and Grave Digger 12.

By late 2000, Pauken became the full-time driver of Grave Digger 7 and drove it for the 2001 Monster Jam season. He drove Goldberg as a fill in for Friday freestyle in Hagerstown, Maryland, for Tom Meents, who had the wind knocked out of him in racing. He also drove Spider Man at the second Pontiac, Michigan show that season.

In 2002, he would debut Grave Digger 15, though he drove for a few shows in Firemouth, including Jacksonville, where he won racing. Firemouth was at the World Finals that year, but Carl Van Horn drove it instead. He also drove Spider Man that year, again in Pontiac.

In 2004, he drove TMNT with Bryan Winston in Antwerp.

In 2005, he debuted Taz in West Lebanon. In Montreal, Pauken drove Taz before Adam Anderson was chosen to drive the truck. He tied with Bounty Hunter and Maximum Destruction for the freestyle lead, but lost the cheer-off.

In 2006, he made his second World Finals appearance at Monster Jam World Finals 7, this time driving Monster Mutt where he would perform strongly in freestyle, finishing 3rd with a score of 32. This would be his first of many World Finals appearances in Monster Mutt. He also drove Batman at the Monsters on Mainstreet event in Sylva, North Carolina and won the freestyle event at that show.

0b0ac8ea-b0be-4c6f-a5de-4d10f0f329ff — Pauken famously jumping over the ice cream van.

In 2007, he was invited to compete at Monster Jam World Finals 8. Although not winning, he did famously launch Monster Mutt over an box truck perched on top of a stone ramp. It would notably be featured as the cover of the World Finals 8 DVD box. According to Charlie, the crash left him mildly wounded for three weeks.

Escalade frontflip — Pauken almost completing the first monster truck frontflip.

In 2008, Charlie would continue to drive Grave Digger, as well as get an invite to World Finals 9 where he would get a score of 27. However, during a show at the Virginia Motor Speedway, he would drive An Escalade. During that show, the truck would do a slap wheelie off an obstacle, which Pauken rode down the track before catching the back tires on a set of cars, causing the truck to violently roll forward and somersault twice. The move was similar in setup to the front-flip that Lee O'Donnell would later successfully complete nine years later in 2017 in The VP Racing Fuels' Mad Scientist. The moment can be seen here, though it is in very low quality. The crash would also win him the Crash Madness award the following year. Charlie would reveal in his speech that the crash had broken his hand in the wreck, which left him out the sport for three months.

Monster_Mutt_Freestyle_Monster_Jam_World_Finals_XI — Monster Mutt Freestyle Monster Jam World Finals XI

Charlie's winning freestyle run at World Finals 11.

In 2009, Charlie was given the new Grave Digger 22, a rebuilt version of the previous Batman chassis.

In 2010, he was invited to compete at Monster Jam World Finals 11, where Pauken would win his first and only freestyle championship, driving Monster Mutt on Grave Digger 22 with a score of 39, the second highest winning score in World Finals history. It would also not only be a popular victory among fans, but also a popular and emotional victory among the drivers and crew, as Charlie was a well-respected driver among his peers. Lastly, the run would notably drop a common nickname for Charlie, formerly being considered "the best monster truck driver to never win a world title" until this night. In Guadalajara, Mexico, Charlie drove Monster Mutt for the first time outside of the World Finals.

In 2011, at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Charlie drove Dennis Anderson's Grave Digger at that event as a fill-in, due to Dennis filming the History Channel Series Around the World In 80 Ways. Charlie won the freestyle competition with a score of 31.

In 2012, He showed Conan O'Brien how to drive his Grave Digger for a stunt at Dodgers Stadium in Los Angeles. Conan drove the truck through a small camper trailer. He was chosen to drive Monster Mutt at the inaugural Path of Destruction Tour. It was notably not driven on his Grave Digger chassis.

In 2013, at Phoenix, Arizona, Charlie drove his own Grave Digger truck. During semi-final racing, Pauken beat Monster Energy driver Damon Bradshaw. However, once Charlie attempted to back into his parking spot off the track, the truck started smoking from the engine. As it turned out the truck's engine blew out a cylinder and could not come back for the final round. Unfortunately for Charlie, the truck he beat, Monster Energy, got to come back and ended up winning the racing competition. Charlie and his team were thrashing to fix the truck, but weren't able to get it fully fixed for freestyle. Instead, Charlie's team decided to run the truck's freestyle on 7 cylinders, instead of the typical 8. It turned out to work fine for them, as Charlie won the freestyle competition with a score of 31 and won the 2013 Stadium Freestyle of the Year Award.

In 2014, four new Grave Diggers were revealed. One of them were Charlie's new Grave Digger 27, which would be replacing Grave Digger 22. That same year, Charlie debuted the new Dragon truck for an encore in East Rutherford. He also drove Doom's Day at the same show for second part of the encore.

586d6bf2e3ace — Charlie's special green Grave Digger for World Finals 16.

In 2015, Pauken competed in the Monster Jam FS1 Championship Series where he would finish fourth in the series, getting him an invite to Monster Jam World Finals 16^[1]. He also drove a special green version of Grave Digger at the World Finals, being the first World Finals since his first appearance in 2000 in the WCW Nitro Machine where he didn't drive Monster Mutt. He used the green body again in Ocala, Florida for the Team Grave Digger vs Team Bad Boys events.

In 2016, he was inducted into the International Monster Truck Hall of Fame.

In 2017, he would compete in Stadium Tour 4 where he would become the champion finishing in first place, getting him an invite to Monster Jam World Finals 18^[2]. He also notably drove Pirate's Curse for the International Tour.

In 2018, he would compete in Stadium Championship Series 2, and just like last year, he would become the champion, finishing in first place and getting him the first invite to Monster Jam World Finals 19^[3]. Around the end of the year, Grave Digger 38 debuted along with two other Grave Digger trucks, which would be replacing Grave Digger 27.

In 2019, he competed in Stadium Champion 3. However, unlike the previous two years, he would finish in 3rd place and would end up missing out on the World Finals for the first time since 2005. He was, however, a part of the Fire & Ice encore where he debuted Grave Digger Fire. He later competed in the first Monster Jam All-Star Challenge for Team Fire in Grave Digger Fire.

In 2020, he competed on Stadium Tour Yellow, once again driving Grave Digger. He would go on to be coined the champion of the series after all events until April 30th were cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, beating Camden Murphy in Bakugan Dragonoid by only one point.

In 2021, he would be on hiatus for a while after all events in early 2020 were cancelled and he would not be scheduled for any Monster Jam events for the first half of 2021. However, in May, Charlie, Mike Nickel, and Tomfoolery Motorsports announced they were going to revive his original ride Excaliber for the year. It was said that Charlie might drive the truck when it is complete. His son would end up being the driver, along with Michael Pagliarulo for certain shows. Charlie would then run select Monster Jam shows in 2021, temporarily driving Stone Crusher.

In 2022, Pauken took over the driving duties for Monster Mutt and competed on Stadium Championship Series Yellow, marking his first time driving the truck since 2017 and his first time driving the truck outside the World Finals since 2012. During the series, Pauken and the truck would win multiple racing championships such as the first racing win in Oakland and two freestyle victories in Houston and Glendale. He would finish fourth in the points standings and would receive an invite to World Finals XXI, getting his first invite since 2018. He would notably finish in 2nd in the freestyle competition, coming close to winning the title before being beaten by Tom Meents. Charlie drove Monster Mutt Rottweiler in San Juan, Puerto Rico & the Dominican Republic in November. In late August, his son Chuckie made his debut driving Elliott Miller's Sinistar.

In 2023, Charlie drove Megalodon for international events. He would drive El Toro Loco as a fill-in for Mark List at the Indianapolis, Anaheim Feb. 18 & 19 events, El Paso and Arlington for Stadium Championship Series Blue. In July, his son debuted Tomfoolery's version of Excaliber in Mansfield, Ohio.

In 2024, he will continue driving Megalodon for international events. He drove Lucas Stabilizer at the January Houston shows in favor of Linsey Read. This made Charlie the first male to drive the truck. At the Arlington show in March, Charlie returned to Grave Digger after 4 years because Adam was injured after Detroit. In El Paso & Birmingham, he drove Grave Digger again for Adam. In Hamburg, Germany & Zurich, Switzerland, he drove Matt Cody's Grave Digger while Matt competed in the US in Brandon's truck. He made an appearance on Inside Monster Jam. Although he did not get an invite to the World Finals, he would drive the new Fortnite truck for an encore, where he jumped & then crushed the Battle Bus. He would use different cut tires in Glasgow, Scotland. They would be quite effective as he would win 3 out of 4 racing competitions.