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Carl Van Horn (born August 19th, 1968) is a retired driver out of Elizabeth City, North Carolina.

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 3.

Between 2003-2004, he would then go on to drive Blacksmith, Pure Adrenalin and Power Forward.

In 2005, Carl drove Blue Thunder again in Stafford Springs, and had a short tenure as a Digger pilot in 2005, before going from Sudden Impact Racing, to Steve Sims' team and back to Sudden Impact Racing from 2006-2011. He would drive Excaliber for Sudden Impact Racing and would win the racing competition in Jacksonville 2010. Any other trucks he drove for them are unknown. For Steve Sims' team, Carl drove Pure Adrenalin in Charlottesville in 2007. He then drove Stone Crusher in Wildwood, New Jersey & Charlotte in 2009 & Paducah in 2010. He drove Mopar Magic for certain events in 2010. In Sunrise, Florida, he drove El Toro Loco.

In 2011, Carl returned to team Grave Digger; he started driving the all new Grave Digger #23 and would drive that truck until the end of first quarter 2016. He would drive Grave Digger 28 in Lafayette, Louisiana and Son-Uva Digger in Glendale, Arizona, and also drove Batman in North East, Pennsylvania in 2011 & for Norm Miller at World Finals 14 in freestyle. In Philadelphia of 2011, he drove Monster Mutt.

In 2012, Carl drove El Toro Loco in San Jose and Costa Rica, and drove Captain America in Mexico.

At World Finals 14, he drove Batman in 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 15 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 16 encore.

2016 would mark his final full-time season. For the World Finals 17 encore, he drove Air Force and announced his retirement at the end of the 2016 season. His retirement was short lived however, as he returned in 2017 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 on Stadium Championship Series #3. His final event would be in 2018 to fill-in for Morgan Kane's Grave Digger in Tampa, due to his wife having a baby.

Carl retired for good after 2018, 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 Monster Mutt at least once. (Unknown year & 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.
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