Yahoo Autos Watch Travis Pastrana Nail His Crazy Evel Knievel Tribute Jumps
On live TV yesterday, Travis Pastrana paid tribute to legendary stuntman Evel Knievel in the best way imaginable; topping two of his records, and jumping the Caesar's Palace fountain-something Knievel never managed to pull off. If you missed the History Channel special where this all went down, Evel Live, we've got the videos of all three stunts here.
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Pastrana's first jump saw him sail over 52 crushed cars beating Knievel's record of 50 cars. This was probably the simplest of the three, but he still traveled 143 feet through the hot desert air.
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A little under an hour later, he soared over 16 Greyhound busses, also beating Knievel's record by two. Pastrana made it look easy, even though he was riding a big, heavy Indian V-Twin bike, which was not meant to fly. But, Knievel did all his stunts on big bikes like this, so Pastrana figured he should as well. Pastrana wore dress boots, too, just like Evel.
If you can't view the YouTube video above, click here.
The final stunt was the big one-the Caesar's Palace fountain jump. Knievel attempted this jump in 1967 and crashed hard, breaking a number of bones and falling into a coma for a month. It was the jump that made Knievel famous, but the one that almost killed him. Despite a very short run-up, Pastrana nailed it.
Pastrana put on an incredible display of talent and showmanship here, especially when you consider he did all three jumps in one night on the same bike. Evel would be impressed.
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