Paul "Pablo" Huffaker (born July 3, 1963) is a retired monster truck owner, driver and fabricator out of Tomball, Texas, who is best known for driving Grave Digger and Jus' Show N Off as well as being the owner of Blacksmith. He is also the owner of Racesource, a metal fabrication company that specializes in chassis building (similar to PEI). They're credited with building three Grave Digger chassis.
Early life[]
Pablo’s interest in monster trucks began in the mid-1980’s, around 1982, while he attended Southwest Texas University, eventually working and driving for Scott Stephens driving Coors Light Silver Bullet, a truck he himself helped design.
In 1988, he left the team to run his own truck, Jus’ Show N Off.
In 1990, he acquired sponsorship from Ralston Purina and changed the paint scheme to accommodate the Purina Mainstay Dog Food signage.
In 1993, Pablo began running for Dennis Anderson, running Grave Digger on his Jus’ Show N Off chassis, which is often confused with Grave Digger 4, which was built by Jack Koberna.
In 1995, Pablo would debut his first official Grave Digger which was Grave Digger 10, which was custom built by himself.
In late 2000, Pablo created Blacksmith, which debuted in Oklahoma City.
In 2001, Pablo was invited to World Finals 2, where he would infamously flip into a dumpster in his round 2 race with Blue Thunder, Pablo would drive Ragin’ Steel in freestyle as a result.
In 2002, Racesource’s first two of three official Grave Digger chassis debuted: Grave Digger 15 and Grave Digger 16, 15 was driven by Charlie Pauken until 2009, and Huffaker drove 16 until 2014. (Grave Digger 10 was built prior to the inception of Racesource and is labeled as a custom-built truck).
In 2003, Huffaker would replace an injured Dennis Anderson at World Finals 4, he was meant to drive Dennis’ truck however would run in his own chassis after crashing it in practice.
In 2004, he would serve as a fill-in for Hot Shot, and at World Finals 5, he made it to the championship race, but would lose to his boss, Dennis Anderson.
In 2005, Aaron Basl would fill-in for Huffaker in Lancaster as Pablo was surveying the damage to his hometown following Hurricane Rita.
In 2006, Pablo would drive Blacksmith at the Saturday and Sunday shows of Santa Rosa 2006 after Grave Digger blew a motor.
In 2007, Pablo debuted Captain’s Curse at World Finals 8, and would win the freestyle championship, which would be his only World Finals championship. Blacksmith retired at year's end.
From 2009-2010, he ran Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on his Grave Digger chassis at both World Finals.
In 2012, Pablo would drive Captain’s Curse again at World Finals 13 but was not able to recapture the same success. Later that year, Pablo was inducted into the International Monster Truck Hall of Fame.
In 2013, Pablo would drive Blue Thunder at World Finals 14.
In 2014, Racesource would construct their final Grave Digger chassis: Grave Digger 28, that year Pablo drove Wolverine at World Finals 15. He drove the truck again in New Weston, Ohio.
From 2015-2016 (although unknown at the time), Pablo would drive Doom’s Day at both World Finals respectably.
In 2017, Pablo competed in Arena Tour 5, finishing first with 1,030 points.[1]
In 2018, Pablo competed in the Arena Championship Series, finishing second with 1,111 points.[2] Pablo retired after his final show in Florence, South Carolina on the weekend of May 5-6th, 2018, but continues to run Racesource with his wife Tina Huffaker & stepson Ryan Huffaker.
In 2024, his Grave Digger 28 would be used for displays at various Walmart's to promote the relaunch of the Fire & Ice series.
World Finals appearances[]
| Year | Truck | Results | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Blacksmith (racing) | Qualifying: 11th (19.29) | Racing: defeated Blue Thunder in round 21 | Freestyle: 10th (27) |
| Ragin' Steel (freestyle) | ||||
| 2002 | Blacksmith | Qualifying: 3rd (16.32) | Racing: defeated in semi-finals by Bounty Hunter | Freestyle: 3rd (35) |
| 2003 | Grave Digger | Qualifying: 3rd (17.21) | Racing: defeated in round 1 by Maximum Destruction | Freestyle: 11th (20) |
| 2004 | Blacksmith | Qualifying: 12th (20.28) | Racing: defeated in the finals by Grave Digger | Freestyle: 7th (26) |
| 2005 | Qualifying: 7th (18.06) | Racing: defeated in round 3 by Grave Digger | Freestyle: 17th (18) | |
| 2006 | Qualifying: 6th (16.93) | Racing: defeated in semi-finals by Bounty Hunter | Freestyle: 20th (13) | |
| 2007 | Captain's Curse | Qualifying: 11th (16.75) | Racing: defeated in semi-finals by Grave Digger | Freestyle: 1st (34) |
| Grave Digger 16 | Encore only | |||
| 2009 | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle | Qualifying: 4th (16.56) | Racing: defeated in round 2 by Brutus | Freestyle: 18th (17) |
| 2010 | Qualifying: 11th (16.66) | Racing: defeated in round 2 by Blue Thunder | Freestyle: 7th (26) | |
| 2011 | Qualifying: 4th (16.23) | Racing: defeated in round 3 by Mohawk Warrior | Freestyle: 13th (20) | |
| 2012 | Captain's Curse | Qualifying: 2nd (16.201) | Racing: defeated in round 2 by Wolverine | Freestyle: 21st (15) |
| Grave Digger 16 | Encore only | |||
| 2013 | Blue Thunder | Qualifying: 4th (16.496) | Racing: defeated in round 3 by Grave Digger the Legend | Freestyle: 2nd (30) |
| 2014 | Wolverine | Qualifying: 20th (17.347) | Racing: defeated in round 3 by Grave Digger the Legend | Freestyle: 12th (26.5) |
| 2015 | Doom's Day | Qualifying: 9th (16.558) | Racing: defeated in round 2 by Max-D (Meents) | Freestyle: 32nd (6) |
| 2016 | Qualifying: 15th (16.337) | Racing: defeated in round 1 by Zombie | Freestyle: 29th (14.5) | |
Notes[]
1Crossed the line first, however flipped over and couldn’t return.
Trivia[]
- Up until 2016, most trucks Pablo Huffaker drove could be easily identified by the uniquely purple colored rims that he used. Trucks that were part of this include Blacksmith, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Wolverine and Grave Digger 16. This wasn't always the case. He originally had white rims on his truck in the 1990's. He also ran red colored shocks on each of his Grave Digger trucks, as opposed to the usual black, easily making his trucks distinguishable from the others.
- Pablo & Dennis Anderson are the only drivers to create their Grave Digger's as all other Grave Digger's are built by FELD.
- Grave Digger appears in There Goes a Monster Truck & Pablo was driving at the event shown, which is Salt Lake City in 1995.
- He has driven the most trucks at the World Finals, that being 8.
- Pablo Huffaker is currently the winningest Grave Digger driver in the truck's history and one of only two Grave Digger drivers to accumulate over 1,000 wins in the truck, the other is Randy Brown.
- He was uncredited in an episode of Nitro Circus in 2009.
- His name was misspelled as Paul Wuffaker on the 1991 Pomona episode. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avUwuuV-YSY
- https://web.archive.org/web/20111202065451/http://www.monsterjam.com/Bios/Drivers/Pablo_Huffaker/
Videos[]
Gallery[]
