A few months ago Power & Performance attended Auto Enthusiasts Day at Angels Stadium in Anaheim, California. Nitto Tire drift drivers Matt Powers, Vaughn Gittin Jr., and Chelsea Denofa and Ultra4 drivers Loren Healy and Cody Currie were in attendance all driving their respective performance vehicles. An epic jump was said to take place but never happened as safety concerns rose after a K-Rail fell during the show.

Matt Powers 240sx at Race Services during video premier | Nicole Ellan James photo

Last night, Race Services, a segment of Donut Media,  played host to a video of the mythical jump – “Hangtime!”

The video was a collaboration between Nitto Tire, The Driving Line, and Race Services. A good friend of mine, Sam Nalven, was responsible for the video and shared that the project took months and months of planning and had started with the idea of an Ultra4 rig jumping over a drift car. Quickly, that idea escalated into two Ultra4 vehicles clearing three drift cars simultaneously.

According to The Driving Line, the location was accessible as the drivers and cars would all be in the same place at the same time for AED. To execute the stunt, Ron Stobaugh, who runs a desert race school where part of the curriculum is jumping, was brought in to plan the jump and manage the different vehicles.

Stobaugh was able to calculate the dimensions of the ramp and project of how it would work. According to The Driving Line, the ramp needed to be adjustable, and it had to have the ability to separate into manageable pieces. Up for the challenge, Chris Begley of weldingsparks.com in Riverside, California built the ramp and said it is the second full-speed 100-110 mph jump ramp he has created.

All of the components came together on the day of the jump. Stobaugh said they began with the Ultra4 drivers practicing jumps, and in this case, the landing could not come up short. “We had to adjust the speed of the rigs and take into consideration the different handling characteristics of each truck to get it right. It took us about a dozen tries before we were ready to jump over the drifters.”

The next challenge Stobaugh faced was getting all three drifters to stay door-to-door within the safe zone close to the ramp, plus the timing needed to be just right.

“The first time we tried the jump with all of the players in action at the same time, it went perfect,” Stobaugh said. He added, “Unfortunately, none of the cameras were rolling yet, and it took another dozen or so tries to synchronize everyone just right.”

Behind the scenes photos provided by Nitto Tire / The Driving Line.