Near miss for veteran stuntmen

Old-timer stuntmen Enrico Schoeman and The Citizen’s André de Kock had a narrow escape last Wednesday, when they took a quadbike for a test run through a fire tunnel at the Carnival City complex on the East Rand.

The run through a 30m tunnel was in preparation for an onslaught on the official Guinness World distance record for riding a quadbike through a fire tunnel.

Things went wrong when the 400cc Honda engine cut out – probably due to air starvation. That led to the rear wheels locking up momentarily, causing the quad to pull sideways and hit the side of the tunnel.

Luckily it happened right at the end of the tunnel and the riders fell outside the inferno, sustaining no more than bruises and cuts.

They are not overly perturbed by the incident and will continue the programme, to hopefully reach a tunnel distance of about 100m in the coming months.

Schoeman and De Kock are the current holders of the

Guinness World Record

for riding a motorcycle through a tunnel of fire, set at a distance of 120m in 2012.

“To find out which things go wrong is exactly why we go testing,” Schoeman later said.

“We will modify the quadbike and do exactly the same test run again. Then, if that goes well, we shall expand the tunnel length until we eventually start thinking the risks are too great,” he said.

Schoeman and De Kock are the current holders of the Guinness World Record for riding a motorcycle throug a tunnel of fire, set at a distance of 120m in 2012.