On New Year’s Eve, action sports icon Travis Pastrana made history in Long Beach, ringing in 2010 with a bang. The four-time Rally America Champion and nine-time X Games Gold Medalist broke boundaries and accelerated himself into the history books by accomplishing an amazing feat of skill and calculated risk at Red Bull: New Year. No Limits.
At approximately 9:00 p.m. local time (midnight ET), Pastrana launched his Subaru Impreza STI rally car off the Pine Avenue Pier in Long Beach at 91 miles per hour, soaring 269 feet over Rainbow Harbor and successfully landing on a floating barge.
The jump put Pastrana almost 100 feet over the former record, which stood at 171 feet. Red Bull: New Year. No Limits. was telecast live on ESPN/ESPN HD to a worldwide audience and was witnessed live in Long Beach by more than 75,000 fans, according to authorities.
“I was really nervous all day long, but when I got in the car I felt really calm,” said Pastrana. “It was definitely a lot more fun than any of my practice runs, and when I landed, man did that retaining wall come up fast! I’m just happy the car and I didn’t end up in the drink. What a way to head into 2010!”
Pastrana is a pioneer in his sport – he completed the first ever double back flip on a motorcycle, has jumped out of an airplane without a parachute, and now officially holds the world record for the longest jump in a rally car. After successfully completing the record jump, Pastrana celebrated by performing a back flip off the landing ramp into Rainbow Harbor.
Pastrana’s successful feat follows in the footsteps of fellow motorsports athletes Robbie Maddison and Rhys Millen, who rang in the last two New Year’s Eve celebrations by pushing their physical, mental and technical limits to break boundaries and records, in front of thousands of fans in Las Vegas and millions of viewers on ESPN.
