Two-time winner Weston Anderson and Grave Digger return to the DCU Center for Monster Jam

When Weston Anderson came to the DCU Center in February 2022, he was a 19-year-old rookie driver on the Monster Jam tour, and also the youngest.

Competing in the Monster Jam Arena Championship Series East in the famous Grave Digger monster truck, "I've been doing pretty good for a rookie," Anderson said of his season so far at that point in an interview with the Telegram & Gazette. As he spoke he was placed third out of the division's eight drivers after competition events that had begun in January.

Anderson would have a pretty good weekend at the DCU Center as he was the overall point-winner at the 2022 event, a feat he repeated at the DCU Center in 2023. He went on to become Arena East Champion in 2022 and Monster Jam Rookie of the Year, and Arena East Champion again in 2023.

This season Anderson is driving in the Monster Jam Arena Championship Series Central, and as fate would have it that series is vrooming in to the DCU Center for an adrenaline-charged weekend from Feb. 16 to 18.

"This year I'm hoping to make it three in a row," Anderson said during a recent telephone interview.

'Born to do what he is doing'

Anderson, now 21, comes across as laid back and quite amusing, and the comment betrayed no arrogance. But he did also seem a little more generally confident than two years ago, seasoned no doubt by winning. That's something that was likely boosted a bit more by the standings in the Arena Championship Series Central this season which as of Jan. 28 had him first.

There are also the underpinnings that Anderson could be said to have been born to do what he is doing.

The Grave Digger truck with its black and green colors and ghoulish images — including including a graveyard and a prominent skull ― was first created by Anderson's father, Dennis Anderson, more than 40 years ago and has become a legend. There have been more than 40 Grave Digger trucks assembled over time.

Meanwhile, Weston's older siblings, brothers Adam and Ryan and sister Krysten, have followed in dad's tracks and trucks and also tour the Monster Jam competition circuit where they've done very well. Dennis was a multi-world champion, as is Ryan.

Now "Teeny" is standing up. Teeny wasn't Weston Anderson's favorite nickname but it was his family nickname as he was the baby of the group. But he has noted that he's now the tallest one out of the Andersons.

For just a short period of time as a child there was a brief period of doubt as to whether he follow in the family tire tracks.

He said when he was 5-years-old he wanted to be a zoo keeper. Then, on a trip to a zoo, "I realized how crazy the animals were and jumped ship."

No more craziness. He determined he world be a Grave Digger monster truck driver instead. At the family home in Kill Devil Hills in rural North Carolina he was well prepared. "Absolutely yeah. We had go-carts. Even before that I was crawling on my hands and knees with a (toy) monster truck."

He raced go-karts, and then Mega Trucks for nearly a decade before joining Monster Jam.

In the short time since 2022, he's come to know the DCU Center. "My dad used race there. It's super cool to see second, third generation fans, and how fans say they remember my dad."

'He was my good luck charm'

Dennis Anderson, who is retired from driving in Monster Jam events, is active back at Kill Devil Hills working on trucks at the Grave Digger compound and the family farm.

Weston Anderson said his father recently attended a Monster Jam event in Kansas City, Missouri, where Weston swept the event. "He was my good luck charm."

Monster Jam has different reginal tours and categories of competition running simultaneously and there are Grave Digger trucks being driven in all of them.

Adam Anderson and Ryan Anderson are both competing in the Monster Jam Stadium Championship Series West this season. Ryan, who has has had his own truck created for him, Son-Uva Digger, was first in the standings as of Jan. 28, and Adam, who drives Grave Digger, was second. Krysten Anderson (who has also been to the DCU Center) drives Grave Digger in the Arena Championship Series East this season and was in second place.

Each division consists of eight trucks and drivers touring the U.S. in competitive events in which they vie for points with the top point earner at the end of the tour getting an automatic bid to the prestigious Monster Jam World Finals to compete for the title of World Champion. The World Finals this year will be held May 18 at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.

At the World Finals in 2022, Weston Anderson did "not too great," he acknowledged. Last year he placed in fourth in free style. What he enjoyed the most was being with siblings who also qualified.

Vrooming into the DCU

In the Monster Jam Arena Championship Series Central that is coming to the DCU Center Feb. 16 to 18, Weston Anderson driving Grave Digger is competing with Jamie Sullivan driving Monster Mutt Dalmatian; Fernando Martinez driving El Toro Loco; Brandan Tulachka driving Just Get Er Done II; Brianna Mahon driving Scooby-Doo; Mikayla Tulachka driving Megalodon; Alex Bardin driving Stone Crusher; and Frank Krmel driving Zombie.

There will be four separate competitive events when Monster Jam is in Worcester — at 7 p.m. Feb. 16; 1 and 7 p.m. Feb. 17; and 1 p.m. Feb. 18.

There will also be two pit parties — which Weston Anderson said he really enjoys — where fans can see the monster trucks up close, meet their favorite drivers and crews, and take pictures, from 10:30 a.m. to noon Feb. 17 and 18.

Within each event there are four competitions: speed; two-wheel skills; donut style (where drivers spin the monster trucks in circles to create a donut-like impression on the dirt); and free-style. The audience gets to do the judging for the two-wheel skills, donut and free-style. The top overall point winner from the four competitions wins the event, which in turns gets the driver points toward qualifying for the world championships.

Driving a Monster Jam truck is not for the faint of heart. Each truck is approximately 10.5 feet tall, 12.5 feet wide, 17 feet long and weighs 12,000 pounds. Built for short, powerful bursts of speed, they are capable of reaching up to 100 mph and can fly up to 35 feet in the air over distances of 125 to 130 feet. But they have a relatively small space to operate in as the drivers wow the crowd demonstrating their dexterity and control doing maneuvers such as backflips and vertical two-wheel skills.

Also, "it's definitely not for anybody who is claustrophobic. You have to be strapped in tight to your seat," Anderson said. But because of that "the truck is keeping us safe" and he's had no major injuries.

He has described his driving style as "Ragged edge and aggressive but controlled."

Overall as he gains more competitive experience, "I feel more comfortable in the the truck and with the boundaries in the arenas. I know what the truck is going to do," he said.

A key to victory is "not trying to get in your own head. Know your points. I know what I'm gonna have to do for my style run, donut run."

Another aspect of Monster Jam that Anderson enjoys is the travel. "Its fun. All the different stops we go to we get to meet the same people and become one big family."

Off season there's a summer tour and at Kill Devil Hills where Anderson lives when not touring "there's always something to do around there." Besides the trucks, the farm has chickens, goats, "anything you can think of."

Anderson, who described himself as "single as a Pringle," would like to keep driving Monster Jam "hopefully into my late 40s, early 50s." Grave Digger has "been around for 43 years now. Hopefully we can go another 40," he said.

"I don't know anything else other than monster trucks. It's been that way since I was five years old."

Monster Jam

When: 7 p.m. Feb. 16; 1 and 7 p.m. Feb. 17 (Pit Party 10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m.); 1 p.m. Feb. 18 (Pit Party 10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m.)

Where: DCU Center, 50 Foster St., Worcester

How much: Starting at $15, available at ticketmaster.com

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Weston Anderson and Grave Digger back at DCU Center for Monster Jam