Travis Pastrana cleared the fountain at Caesar’s Palace, 52 crushed cars and 16 buses to successfully complete all three of his planned Evel Knievel tribute jumps for the History event “Evel Live.”
Riding an Indian Scout FTR 750 with a V Twin engine, Pastrana first cleared the 52 crushed cars and later 16 Greyhound buses in the Las Vegas heat — and he pulled each off with flair and room to spare. Oh yeah: Pastrana did it in Knievel’s iconic red, white and blue leather jumpsuit.
Watch the Caesar’s jump — Sunday’s main event — in the video above.
Knievel’s own car-jumping record was 50 automobiles. The legendary daredevil’s personal best bus sum was 14. Knievel crashed badly — and famously — at Caesar’s. There, Evel suffered a concussion, a crushed pelvis and femur, and fractures to his hip, wrist and both ankles. Knievel later blamed a speed error of about 5 m.p.h. for the 1967 failure.
Pastrana had no such issues on Sunday, though practicing proved a challenge. Because of the sheer size, weight and makeup of his Indian motorcycle, Pastrana could only truly test the runs on his trusty dirt bike, which is lighter and has much better shock absorption.
Read our preview interview with Pastrana here, where he laid out his entire plan to not die Sunday. It worked.
As promised, here is his car stunt:
And Pastrana’s bus jump: