Lyle Hancock (born March 28th, 1955) is a retired monster truck driver out of Barco, North Carolina. He was best known for driving trucks such as Blue Thunder, Wrenchhead.com and Grave Digger. He was known for his power wheelies that he sometimes did in racing, and was the first known driver to do a reverse donut.
Career[]
Hancock began his monster truck career by driving Mike West's Unnamed & Untamed and Nasty Habits.
In 1991, Lyle joined Team Grave Digger. He would become best known for driving Grave Digger III in the PENDA Points Series up until his initial retirement in 1995.
In 1997, Lyle drove Wild Thang in the February Houston show.
In 2000, Lyle would return to driving monster trucks full-time, when he joined PACE Motorsports to drive the recently-introduced Wrenchhead.com. Hancock would also briefly return to driving Grave Digger that year in Anaheim to fill in for an injured Anderson. He drove Grave Digger & Wrenchead.com in freestyle at that show. Hancock would go on to have a strong season in Wrenchead, and would be invited to compete at Monster Jam World Finals I. During the event, Hancock would be eliminated in the semi-final round of racing by Tom Meents in Goldberg and finished second in freestyle, behind Dennis Anderson in Grave Digger.
In 2001, Lyle would become the new driver for the recently-introduced Blue Thunder. He would debut the truck at the Astrodome in Houston and would go on to sweep the event, winning the racing competition and finishing in a three-way tie for freestyle. Hancock and Blue Thunder would go on to have a strong season, as they would be invited to compete in Monster Jam World Finals II. During the event, Hancock would make it all the way to the championship round in racing, but lost to Tom Meents in Goldberg, crashing in the process. He would be unable to compete in freestyle that night.
In 2002, Lyle did a reverse donut in freestyle in Jacksonville because he didn't have front wheel drive. Lyle would again be invited to compete in Monster Jam World Finals III. Despite being unable to compete in racing due to mechanical issues, he would go on to finish fourth in freestyle.
2003 would be Hancock's final year of competition in Blue Thunder. Following his departure from Clear Channel Entertainment-Motorsports, he would retire from competition.
In 2007, Lyle briefly came out of retirement to drive Sudden Impact for an event in Israel.
World Finals appearances[]
| Year | Truck | Results | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Wrenchead.com | Qualifying: N/A | Racing: defeated in Semi-Finals by Goldberg | Freestyle: 2nd (39) | |
| 2001 | Blue Thunder | Qualifying: 4th (16.53) | Racing: defeated in Finals by Goldberg | Freestyle: 15th (DNC) | |
| 2002 | Qualifying: 16th (DNQ) | Racing: defeated in Round 1 by Team Meents | Freestyle: 4th (35) | ||
| 2003 | Qualifying: 9th (18.24) | Racing: defeated in Round 1 by Madusa | Freestyle: 3rd (34) | ||
Gallery[]
