Pastrana breaks world record for jump in rally car
December 31, 2009
LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP)—Travis Pastrana shattered the world record for thelongest jump in a rally car on Thursday night, making a nearly perfect flightfrom the Pine Street Pier onto a barge anchored in the harbor.
His jump was unofficially measured at 274 feet, which would smash the oldrecord by 103 feet.
Related Baum: Pastrana, Brack push envelope at X Games
After teasing the crowd of several thousand with a warmup run down the1,000-foot run-in and up the takeoff ramp, Pastrana did it for real, flyingacross approximately 200 feet of water to the landing ramp on the barge just afew minutes after midnight EST.
His Subaru skidded sideways after landing and slammed into a wall at the endof the barge, but Pastrana emerged unscathed, ran to the end of the barge anddid a backflip into the water.
The old record was 171 feet set by Pastrana’s Subaru teammate, Ken Block, ina rally car in November 2006. Pastrana wanted to break that mark by more than100 feet.
The stunt was the latest in Red Bull’s New Years, No Limits series.
Pastrana was the first to do a double backflip on a motorcycle.
A decade ago, he announced himself to the action sports world when at age 15he celebrated an X Games gold medal by jumping his motorcycle into San FranciscoBay in 1999. That stunt got him into a fair bit of trouble, and he lost hisprize money and medal.
