Travis Pastrana, a multi-time X Games winner, NASCAR driver and co-founder of the Nitro Circus, successfully accomplished an incredible stunt on Sunday when he jumped 140 feet over the fountains of Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Pastrana used a 340-pound customized Indian Scout FDR750 to make the jump, and his final distance clocked in at 149 feet.
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โ Jeff (@JeffKhoury2000) July 9, 2018
Jump #3@CaesarsPalace pic.twitter.com/iZVldVL4YG
The stunt was famously attempted by legendary stuntman Evel Knievel in 1967 that rustled in him crushing his pelvis and femur, fracturing bones in his hips, wrists and ankles and was reportedly hospitalized with a coma in for 29 days.
Pastrana idolized Knievel growing up, and paid tribute to him by wearing his trademark American-flag themed jumpsuit and using a similar motorcycle to the one he originally tried the jump with. He also named the day’s event after Knievel, calling it Evel Live.
“Man it’s just such an honor to live a day in Evel’s footsteps,” Pastrana said in an interview after the jump. “Thank you all for coming out here. To be here, in Las Vegas, so much of my history has been here. I proposed to my wife here, I had my first Nitro Circus show here, thank you to everyone at History (the channel that broadcast the event live) and thank you to everyone watching.”
Pastrana said there were some slight concerns with the motorcycle just before he took off down the 200-yard ramp.
“The other jumps I was able to keep the bike nice and cool,” he explained. “It’s just so hot in Vegas. I was like ‘Give me the fan.’ We made it so (the bike was) 230 (degrees), I’m like ‘I’m not jumping at 230.’ And it was at 230, and I’m like, ‘all right, just send me, lets do it.’”
Pastrana successfully made two other jumps prior to the fountains, first by jumping over 52 crushed cars and breaking Knievel’s record for the same stunt by two whole cars.
In his second jump he flew a whopping 192 feet as he topped Knievel’s personal record for jumping over the most school buses with 16. All the while his wife Lyndsey Hawkins and their two daughters, Addy Ruth and Bristol Murphy, were cheering him on.
“Man I tell you what, it’s been such an honor. It’s been an awesome career. I’m not done yet, but this was definitely one of the coolest things, the coolest thing I’ve ever been able to do.”
Pastrana ended the event by jumping into the fountain as hundreds of fans on the streets of Las Vegas cheered him on.