Mark Kariya | June 4, 2018
Travis Pastrana Gearing Up For Evel Knievel Tribute Jumps – Travis Pastrana vividly recalls the first—and only time—he met Robert “Evel” Knievel. Pastrana was a 16-year-old motocrosser who’d just won his first supercross (at Daytona, no less), and the famed stuntman, Knievel, was basically retired but still able to draw crowds. So, a local establishment had asked him to be a judge for a Miss Hawaiian Tropic bikini contest.
Travis Pastrana Gearing Up For Evel Knievel Tribute Jumps
“When I saw him, he wasn’t young,” Pastrana recalls. “He looked like his knees and everything were hurting him, but he was sitting there judging a Hawaiian Tropic [bikini] contest in Daytona Beach, Florida. I’m like, ‘That’s exactly how I expected to see Evel!’
“I’d just won my first-ever supercross the day before so I had a great introduction [to him], but all I got was, ‘Sounds good, kid—get me a beer!’ ”
But there’s more to it, as Pastrana explains. “He left a lot of marks on the world. But I think the biggest impression on me was, if you believe you can do something—even if there’s no precedence set for it—kind of follow your heart and push the boundaries of what’s possible. If you say you’re going to do something, you do it, and that’s one thing that he always did.
Travis Pastrana Gearing Up For Evel Knievel Tribute Jumps
“Evel started this whole stunt movement and this stunt movement led to more professional [events], if you will, where action sports kind of came over. It wasn’t about doing one, big thing—and it still is at times—but it’s about continually practicing and not just distance jumps. It’s more about the technical aspect.”
So, when the History Channel approached Pastrana’s Nitro Circus team about coming up with an event suitable for an extended, live television show, Nitro Circus’ Global Head of Events Dave Mateus immediately came up with the idea of recreating one of Knievel’s jumps. As they brainstormed, the ball kept rolling until they decided to recreate three of Knievel’s most iconic jumps. And they’d do so in Las Vegas: one over approximately 52 crushed cars, one over 16 Greyhound buses parked side by side (both at Planet Hollywood) and the final one over the Caesar’s Palace fountain that is, perhaps, Knievel’s most famous leap due to the spectacular crash captured by ABC TV cameras.
Travis Pastrana Gearing Up For Evel Knievel Tribute Jumps
The jumps will take place consecutively, about an hour apart, giving Pastrana time to refocus, hydrate and—in the case of the Caesar’s Palace jump—follow a police escort to the final venue.
To keep things more closely tied to Knievel’s feats, Pastrana will forgo a modern motocrosser like his usual RM-Z450. He will instead employ an Indian Scout FTR750 flat tracker that’s been modified (remarkably little, by the way) by noted custom builder Roland Sands. In fact, Sands and company built four identical bikes in case spares are needed because there are no retakes on live TV.
Currently the dominant bike in the American Flat Track series, Sands talks about the FTR750. “It wasn’t about increasing the performance as much as it was about modifying the performance for what the bikes had to do. These bikes weren’t built to jump distances, so you’re having to look at valving the [stock Ohlins] suspension correctly for Travis and building a suspension setup that’s going to work for him, get the bars in a good position for him to be comfortable on the bike.”
“It’s faster and lighter than what Evel had, but it’s still a tank,” Pastrana quips.
None of the three jumps will be easy, but the Caesar’s Palace one provides added challenges due to the building that’s taken place in the area since Knievel’s spectacular performance in 1967. Thus, Pastrana will have just over 200 feet to accelerate to his desired speed and a similarly abbreviated distance to stop before ending up in a wall.
Travis Pastrana Gearing Up For Evel Knievel Tribute Jumps
But he believes he can accomplish the tasks and will be practicing all week at a private venue in Southern California to build muscle memory. After that, other commitments will prevent him from even sitting on the bike until the day of the performance in Las Vegas on July 8, the live show slated to begin at 5:00 P.M. PDT.
“It’s going to be scary. It’s going to put me out of my wheelhouse for sure,” Pastrana admits. “But at the end of the day, I think it’ll be really cool to kind of show the next generation who Evel was and, through Nitro Circus, build up from Evel in his stunt days and how it’s progressed to what it is today with action sports.
“My goal in life is to have a lot of fun, to push myself and to be able to help build action sports for the next generation. I think we can do all those in this [feat].
“If it wasn’t Evel Knievel [we were paying tribute to], my dad would probably smack me upside the head and be like, ‘Dude! When’s enough, enough?’
“But he’s like, ‘All right, I get this. This is pretty cool.’
“I think that’s what’s cool about this: It’ll bring in my father’s generation and also, my kid’s generation and hopefully cover [everything] across the board.”
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