Maddo and Millen Say “Peace Out” to the Laws of Physics
Robbie Maddison did it! The likeable young Australian has defied Sir Isaac Newton’s law, jumping 99 feet, 9 inches vertically, landing on top the mock Arc de Triomphe in front of Paris Las Vegas. He then dropped back down to terra firma, freefalling more than 50 feet onto an extremely skinny quarterpipe-style ramp and into the pages of history, setting yet another Guinness World Record.
Maddo ponders what is to come pre-jump. Easy to see why he was nervous. We were nervous just standing up there, let along having to jump the massive gap. The kid has some guts.
Maddo was far less sure prior to this stunt than he was for last year’s Guinness World Record distance jump, telling us prior to the feat that it had “a lot higher stakes if things go wrong. As far as nerves go, I don’t even know if I can compare them, it’s like 10 times worse. But I just want to do stuff that people see and say, ‘man, this is gnarly’.”
After a typical pre-show and gut wrenching build up, the friendly young Aussie dropped down the ramp, grabbing first, then second, then third gear, launching off the ramp with the throttle pinned to the stop. Just as planned, he made it look easy, landing perfectly on top of the ramp, waving to the crowd before clicking up two gears and dropping back in; a massive freefall to say the least. Such a massive fall, in fact, that Maddo pulled his glove off after to find his hand broken and gushing blood. But it didn’t put a damper on the Aussie’s spirit one bit, just added a quick trip to the hospital to get it wrapped up before celebrating.
No doubt about it, the kid has a talent for making the impossible possible, and making it look totally effortless. He is well on the way to making a name for himself as the modern day Evil Knievel. We were on site to see Maddo make history and have video highlights of it right here, plus an interview with the man right after, so be sure to check it out!
"It’s been a milestone in my life to overcome the fear to do this,” said Maddo, in tears after his historic jump. “It was hard to get myself to even ride off the top. Hopefully this means something to some little kid out there and will inspire him to go big. I think my hand is broken and cut pretty good but wounds heal, I’ve proven that.”
Doing it at night only made things harder...
At the other end of The Strip, Rhys Millen made good on his promise of backflipping a trophy truck ramp-to-ramp, but came up ever so short on the landing. Everything looked to be going perfectly, but at the last minute the track started to rotate, landing off to one side, causing it to swap and roll on the landing. Millen, a multi-time Formula Drift Champion and Hollywood stunt driver, was hurt last year practicing, but came back this year only to come oh so close to doing it perfectly. We were unable to attend due to the distance of the two and their closeness in time, but watching on live TV was absolutely breathtaking.
“It’s nothing unless you drive away,” said a dejected Millen after the jump. “I really don’t know what happened. The speed felt right, it just had twisted to the driver’s side. It almost felt too good. Man, so close but so far. Really is a bummer."
Red Bull’s New Year No Limits has once again delivered; the crowd and viewers at home were on the edge of their seats the entire time.
Millen came oh so close to pulling off the first-ever ramp-to-ramp truck backflip.
