Lee O’Donnell and his Mad Scientist Monster truck pulled off the first successful front flip in monster truck history.
If you’ve heard the term Monster Truck before you know they’re synonymous for giant trucks, engines, and loud noises that come together for the sole purpose of jumping over large dirt clodes or destroying used cars. Usually those jumps are with the front tires leading the charge with the entire truck leaping into the air or you’ll have an uncommon backflip, both technically tricky. But according to USA Today on their FTW post earlier yesterday (Mar. 27, 2017) Lee O’Donnell and his Mad Scientist monster truck entered the record books for being the first truck to perform a front flip.
Not only was Lee O’Donnell the first person to ever do this, the front flip maneuver landed him the overall title as 2017 Monster Jam World Champion. Check out the front flip below from several angles. The first video happens to be the best angle we’ve found so far.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=124&v=MUfhQ5lch9U
If you’ve been to a monster truck show, without new tricks and acts from something other than Monster Trucks to break up the monotony, the show can get (for the lack of a better word) stale quickly. The entire run up until that momentous point was your standard fare of jumps and at least one full 180 degree flip off a vertical wall, all very impressive. Then out of nowhere O’Donnell lands Mad Scientist on its rear tires and proceeds to wheelie into the history books. Catching the dirt incline at just the right angle his tires don’t drive over it as much as hit the hill forcing all the momentum and energy to transfer quickly to the front, throwing his truck forward and over.
When he lands, everyone loses their collective minds over what they’ve just witnessed and the rest is history.
Some other trucks and drivers have tried different approaches, like this one from 2012, but none come to the pure organic talent and technical skill that O’Donnell pulled off with his front flip. Check out the 2012 attempt by Tom Meents and his truck “Max Destruction” below. Noteworthy is the fact that Max Destruction was the first Monster truck to land a double back flip. It took Meents three years to land that one.
Hopefully this first front flip will inspire a bunch of other drivers to replicate the awesome stunt. Maybe we’ll even see a double front flip in the near future.
