Hart Attack

HART ATTACK

Forget the caped wonder with his fountains and double-decker buses. Forget Seth Enslow and the Glamis dunes. And forget motorcycling’s circus act, Robby Knievel, and his prime-time television specials. America has a new daredevil, and his name is Carey Hart. Last July, the freestyle motocross star pulled off what is arguably the greatest individual feat ever executed on a motorcycle. In front of more than 30,000 spectators at the second-annual NBC-TV-produced Gravity Games in Providence, Rhode Island, the Honda CR250-mounted rider completed motorcycling’s first-ever backflip. A former Pro motocrosser who once managed to qualify for the Daytona Supercross, Hart went into the event hoping to duplicate the media splash (groan) created last year when Travis Pastrana launched his Suzuki RM125 into the San Francisco Bay at ESPN’s X Games. So, will the backflip become yet another perilous weapon in the freestyle pilot’s arsenal, or will it be relegated to one-off myth status? “I hope he never does it again,” declared fellow FMX rider Trevor Vines, who placed fifth in Providence. “I don’t want the bar to be set that high for the rest of us.”

Eric Johnson