If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again – that’s certainly a mantra Rhys Millen has lived his life by.
The inaugural Red Bull: New Year. No Limits had been planned as a double header with Robbie Maddison and Rhys welcoming in 2007 in sensational style. While Aussie Maddison had his sights on jumping further than ever before on a motorbike, Millen was determined to become the first man to backflip an off-road truck.
But the New Zealander, who made his name as one of world’s top drifting stars, was injured in testing, leaving Maddison to steal the limelight in Las Vegas, leaping 322 feet and seven inches over a football field to smash Evel Knievel's world record.
Undeterred, Millen returned to the Nevada desert 12 months later to finish the job. The backflip – at 36 miles per hour, over a distance of 80 feet and a height of 50 feet – went without a hitch, the landing not so, and Millen landed off-balance and rolled the truck.
“You come as prepared as you can, knowing all your numbers - speed, distance and height,” said Millen. “But you get only one opportunity to get it right. I landed, but I landed with a twist.”
And Millen emerged unscathed from the truck, he was greeted with uproarious applause from the crowd.
Visit the official Red Bull: New Year. No Limits microsite.
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