FROM ‘STUPID IDEA’ TO LIVING A DREAM – IT’S THE MINGAY WAY
AMONG Gold Coast daredevil Matt Mingay’s myriad career highlights is doing motorbike stunts for Tom Cruise on Mission Impossible II.
There was a moment on set when he was pinging along at 150km/h and decided – impromptu – to jump off the back, hold the seat and plant his steel-capped boots on the ground. The bike spectacularly drags him along while sparks fly from his boots skidding on the road.
When he did it, the crew went bananas. The director rewrote scenes to have more Mingay motorbike stunts.
He tells the story in an inspiring and emotional documentary about his life, which debuted on Wednesday night. I asked afterwards if he’d attempted that motorbike trick prior and how confident had he been that it would work.
I suggested he must have done it plenty and was “what, 90 per cent sure it’d be ok?”
He laughed and said: “I’d done it on my bike back home. But this was a different bike. I was about 70 per cent,” he said.
It’s emblematic of a man who has spent his life pushing the limits in a bid to thrill not just himself but his fans. And prove his doubters wrong.
That included his parents – his mum openly admits in the documentary Mingay Challenge Accepted that they actively discouraged his dream to pursue being a stunt man from childhood to adulthood.
But his enormous self-belief and determination won out. He has needed every speck of it to battle back to where he is now after a horror Stadium Super Trucks crash five years ago. It probably should have killed him. For a few moments, it did.
His comeback is a lesson in attitude, sheer will and hard work as well as a love story.
What happened at the time is well known – but it never gets less shocking. He rolled on a corner at speed, slamming into a concrete block which unfortunately moved. Instead of a smooth wall of concrete to slide along, the exposed edge of the next block peeled the roof off his truck like a can opener, skinned the top of his head and a metal bar from his truck obliterated his jaw. Blood, teeth and bone swamped his airways.
He died multiple times whilst wife Sheena – who had been waiting at the next corner with a camera to take his photo – anxiously waited to hear if he would survive.
Somehow, he did. From fears he might never wake up, or that he’d be a vegetable if he did, Mingay has pulled off his greatest stunt yet. Recovery.
He is back stunt riding and driving for the masses – and the only sign of what happened is a slight limp and minor speech impediment.
Asked after the screening what lessons she could share from what had happened, Sheena told the audience: “Matt, when he started getting into being a stuntman and following his dreams, he went out on his own and everyone told him it was a stupid idea – and he believed in himself.
“It’s the same thing when he got struck down with all these injuries. He was the one who believed in himself and fought hard for it.
“If you believe in yourself, you can make anything happen.”
Matt added: “What she said.”