Travis Pastrana is the closest thing we have today to the iconic daredevils of 1960s and ’70s Americana.

The 34-year-old from Maryland has won multiple world championships and gold medals in supercross, motocross, freestyle motocross, and rally racing but has gained even more fame for his stunts. His Nitro Circus commands 2.1 million fans on Instagram alone, while his personal account pulls in 2.8 million followers. They devour his exploits like jumping out of planes with only a few friends—but no parachuteand combining backflips on motorcycles that send him into the sky for what must feel like eons, letting him hover mid-air like a bird on a gale. They also witness his injuries, including literally hundreds of broken bones over the years.

“Pastrami,” as his fans call him, possesses the kind of steely nerve you’d expect in an assassin or a cryptocurrency trader.

But he still sometimes feels like a wuss. “I don’t think Evel would have even tested out the jump, so I feel like a sissy already,” Pastrana tells me on the phone Wednesday, calling from his home in Annapolis, MD. But, he admits, “The goal is to live through this.”

By “this,” he means a three-hour History Channel special in which he attempts to pull off Evel Knievel’s three most famous stunts one after the other on live television: hurling a motorcycle over 50 crunched cars; again over 14 tour buses; and finally over the Caesars Palace fountain—the jump that resulted in a near-fatal crash for Knievel.

Pastrana is going all out for the July 8 event, filmed live in Las Vegas, including riding a modern-day replica of the Indian Scout motorcycle Knievel used. It will be significantly heavier and more difficult to maneuver than the feather-light dirt bikes Pastrana usually rides. Roland Sands, the architect behind the Super Hooligan crew, is overseeing many of the logistics of the operation, which in the sole nod to modernity will include fitting the 750cc V-twin Scout FTR750 with a Ohlin mono-shock on the rear.

This is more about history than just a jump or two, Sands said. It’s about honoring a legend.

“There’s not a lot of stuff that Travis doesn’t think he can do, and that came from somewhere,” Sands said. “Watching Evel when we grew up, at the time we all thought he was insane, but we also wanted to be him. He gave a guy like Travis the belief the he could do things. He fired all of our imaginations.”

Sands will also be providing the costume—white leather suit, heeled boots, and, yes, cape, all in American-made leather—that Pastrana will wear for the feat. Apparently the man doesn’t exactly go halfway in anything, let alone entertainment value.

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