Posted on 07/26/2014 11:23:41 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Some people suggested Evel panicked and pulled the ripcord too early.
I saw Evil do a Jump way back when. I think it was either Ascot Park in Torrance or it could have been Irwindale Raceway.
It was a loooong time ago. He milked it for all it was worth, taunting the Crowd by telling them that they were only there to see him get busted up. Everyone played along.
The dirt ramp is still there, visible from the bridge parking lot. The big bullseye target that bikers painted on the rocks below the opposite rim seems to have gone away.
Just speculation on my part, but I think he had a lot of difficulty getting sufficient financial backing for this event. If that was the case, given the disappointing outcome, it would have been that much tougher to find backers for another attempt. I don't know how many people who paid to see it on closed circuit TV the first time would have been willing to pay to see it a second time. Today, some cable channel somewhere might be willing to carry it, but back then, that option wasn't available.
Before Al Capone’s vault there was the Snake River “jump.” I remember it as a huge disappointment.
You can see the chute already opening in that photo and the rocket had barely left the ramp. Very lucky it didn’t get caught and ripped apart. I really doubt Evel would have intentionally deployed the chute at the same instant the rocket fired.
I remember the incident and IIRC the story was when the rocket fired off the force was so great that it pinned Bobby K to the seat and his hands flew off the controls and in the process the chute got activated...
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