Friday, October 18, 2013

Today in motorcycle history, October 10,1999

            

           


  Doug "Danger" Senecal breaks Robbie Knievel's 17 semi-truck record jump by one truck in Las Vegas, Nevada.

 

  Doug Danger first began making a name for himself in 1979 when he successfully jumped 10 cars in Palmer, Massachusetts.  After 10 years of jumping assorted vehicles and obstacles in various venues  up and down the East Coast, Danger finally makes the big league when he breaks Evel Knievel's record for the longest car jump , by clearing 20 cars in Toronto, Canada in 1989.

  Two years later, Doug would break the longest ramp-to-ramp jump by an American, by clearing 38 cars at a total distance of 251 feet at the New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire. The jump lands him in the Guinness Book of World Records for the farthest jump ever completed.  The fame is coming, now for a little rent money...

 

  ... just prior to a 1992 Robby Knieviel vs Doug Danger jump-off with a purse of over *$750K Doug misses an 11 car jump at Hudson Speedway in Hudson, New Hampshire, and suffers 17 broken bones including a fractured skull, ribs, femur, tibia and fibula.  Doug remained in a coma for more than a month.  The right side of his brain was found to be damaged and it would be over 3 years before he completely regains his memory.  (*Eddie Kidd would step in and beat Robbie Knievel in the jump-off.)

 

  On March 18, 2000, Doug Danger jumped an L-1011 Jumbo Jet wing tip-to- wing tip. The jump was filmed for the "I Dare You" television show. The jump was 160' across. The takeoff ramp was 4 feet wide and 20 feet high. The fuselage of the plane was 27 feet off the ground. Doug had to reach a height of 30 feet in the air. 

  Doug "Danger" Senecal, one of the greatest motorcycle daredevil you've probably never heard of.