Carl Van Horn (born August 19th, 1968) is a retired driver out of Elizabeth City, North Carolina. He drove Grave Digger from 2011-2016 and drove various other Monster Jam, and independent owned trucks.
Early life[]
Before becoming involved with monster trucks, Carl worked as a mechanic for his father's auto repair shop: Van Horn Auto Repair. Carl got involved with monster trucks when Fletcher Lewis, a friend of his, told him about a job opening at local shop to work alongside Lyle Hancock. With his vast mechanical knowledge and hardworking attitude, Carl was a perfect fit for the shop. After only about 6 months into his new job, Lyle got him to do some testing in Blue Thunder, and that is when Carl's natural born abilities took over.
Career[]
In 2002, Van Horn's career would begin driving Spider-Man, although his official Monster Jam debut was in Albuquerque driving Blacksmith as a fill-in for Ryan Huffaker, who couldn't make it. Later that season, he defeated Tom Meents in Tampa. In Oakland, he drove Blue Thunder for an injured Lyle Hancock. Midway through the season, he negotiated with Firemouth and joined Scott Stephens as driver and would drive the truck at World Finals III.
In 2003, Carl drove Blacksmith at the World Finals due to Pablo Huffaker driving for Dennis Anderson.
In 2004, Carl drove Power Forward after Chad Fortune moved to Ameriquest Freedom. He also drove Pure Adrenalin for Randy Brown.
In 2005, Carl drove Blue Thunder again in Stafford Springs & Virginia Beach, and had a short tenure as a Grave Digger pilot in 2005.
From 2006-2011, Carl drove for both Sudden Impact Racing, to Steve Sims' team and back to Sudden Impact Racing.
In 2007, Carl drove Pure Adrenaline, in Charlottesville.
In 2009, Carl drove Stone Crusher in Wildwood and Charlotte. Then drove again the following year in Paducah.
In 2010, Carl would drive Excaliber for Sudden Impact Racing and would win the racing competition in Jacksonville. He drove Mopar Magic for certain events, and drove El Toro Loco in Sunrise.
In 2011, Carl returned to team Grave Digger; he started driving all new Grave Digger 23. He would also drive Batman in North East, Pennsylvania, and drove Monster Mutt in Philadelphia.
In 2012, Carl drove El Toro Loco in San Jose and Costa Rica, and drove Captain America in Monterrey.
In 2013, Carl drove Batman at World Finals XIV freestyle after Norm Miller fell ill, unfortunately he would finish in the dog pound.
In 2014, Carl drove Doom's Day in St. Louis for an encore as well as the two Path of Destruction encores and drove in both World Finals XV encores: Hulk in the racing encore and one of the Doom’s Day drivers in the freestyle encore.
In 2015, Carl drove the female Zombie for the World Finals XVI encore. He continued to drive Grave Digger.
In 2016, Carl would drive Grave Digger 28 in Lafayette, Louisiana and Son-uva Digger in Glendale. he drove Air Force at the World Finals XVII encore, before announced his retirement at the end of the 2016 season.
In 2017, Carl returned as a fill-in driver, driving Monster Energy in Anaheim and would fill-in for Dennis Anderson following his career ending accident in Tampa, driving Grave Digger 30 jointly with Jon Zimmer on Stadium Championship Series #3.
In 2018, Carl would fill-in for Morgan Kane's Grave Digger in Tampa, due to his wife having a baby. Carl retired for good afterwards, via Facebook and enjoys family life with his kids.
World Finals appearances[]
- 2002 - Firemouth
- 2003 - Blacksmith
- 2004 - Power Forward
- 2013 - Batman (freestyle only)
- 2014 - Hulk (racing encore), Doom's Day (freestyle encore)
- 2015 - Zombie (Yellow, encore only)
- 2016 - Air Force (encore only)
Trivia[]
- While off the track, CVH is also a musician who has posted several songs on YouTube, and even performed at the Monster Jam Awards Ceremony.
- He drove Little Tiger at least once. (Unknown year and location)
- After a 9-year hiatus from the World Finals, Carl Van Horn holds the record for having the longest time between World Finals appearances, having appeared in 2004, and not showing up until 2013, but only as a fill-in. 2004 would be his last invite.
Gallery[]
