A five-man team of daredevils brought their
”
Wall of Death
”
show to the Hollister Motorcycle Rally this weekend and while
they didn’t portray a model of motorcycle safety, they did coax
plenty of screams, shrieks and laughter from the crowds that
watched their hourly performances.
photo gallery of the rally.
Coming soon: a video and an audio slideshow.
There is a long list of things people should never do with a motorcycle. These include: riding without a helmet, riding with no hands and riding completely horizontal on the sides of walls.
The High Rollers Motorcycle Stunt Team has never seen this list.
The five-man team of daredevils brought their “Wall of Death” show to the Hollister Motorcycle Rally this weekend and while they didn’t portray a model of motorcycle safety, they did coax plenty of screams, shrieks and laughter from the crowds that watched their hourly performances.
“You won’t find a motorcycle show that puts you closer to the action,” said daredevil Wahl E. Walker. “Some people think we’re crazy, but I’ve been lucky. Every time I’ve crashed, there has been a paramedic in the audience.”
The show features a 14-foot-tall wooden “barrel” and a pair of motorcycles and go-carts that the team races around the inside circumference of the barrel – working up enough speed and centrifugal force to keep their vehicles pinned to the walls.
On Saturday, about 40 people peered over the barrel’s edge at the four riders on the wooden deck below. Jeremiah Lightnin’ is the newest recruit to the team and kicked off the action by driving a go-cart around the barrel faster and faster until he was racing along its side, 10 feet off the ground.
As the rookie, he’s still far from riding the walls on a motorcycle, but this 20-year-old Canadian said he won’t stop practicing until he’s part of the main event.
“After I got done with school, all my friends were going off and doing their own thing so I just said, ‘I’m gonna come down south and become a carnie,'” he said. “It’s better than drugs. You see those kids and their eyes get huge or you see a little old lady that can’t stop screaming. There’s nothing like it.”
Walker took over the show when Jeremiah finished and after revving up a motorcycle took a few spins around the bottom of the barrel, then – in a second – drove the bike 13 feet high, inches from the audience’s gaping jaws.
“We had a girl who used to ride with us,” Walker said after the show. “She broke her backbone three times, her pelvis, both hips, both ankles and both wrists. The centrifugal force is constantly trying to high-side the motorcycle into the wall. Everyone crashes, and usually it’s the wrists that break.”
The team is led by veteran daredevil Jay Lightnin’. The 56-year-old stuntman has only a black fuzzy mowhawk to protect his head when he performs the team’s climax of racing around the barrel at all angles, occasionally with no hands on the handlebars or standing straight up.
“I love the adrenaline rush,” he said. “I feed off the crowd. I see the kids’ happy faces and I remember why I love this so much.”
Lightnin’ literally built the High Rollers business with his own hands. Constructing the barrel and stage himself eight years ago, as well as managing finances and recruiting riders – the buck stops with him.
Lightnin’, however, was almost stopped himself last year after a long bout with throat cancer.
“In November, the doctor gave me three months to live,” he said, his voice harsh and showing scars on his neck from a recent operation. “I was just lucky to get to go to a specialist. With the regular Medi-Cal treatment, I would have been dead. The doctors want to say, ‘Don’t ride, don’t do that, don’t do this.’ But this is what I love. This is who I am.”
The High Rollers show only lasted about 15 minutes but 50 seconds of each minute was pure thrills for most audience members.
“I couldn’t believe how close they get to you,” said David Planter of Fresno, who brought his family of three to the rally. “I also can’t believe these guys don’t wear helmets.”
Planter’s 8-year-old son, Owen said his favorite part of the show was holding a few dollars out over the edge of the barrel for Charlie Ransom – another daredevil on the team – to snatch out of his hand while he gunned a go-cart around the lip of the barrel.
“I kept thinking he was gonna fall off!” Owen said with an ear-to-ear grin.
For the team of daredevils, riding on walls is a full-time job. Walker said the group performs around 20 shows per year and is constantly on the road. To get where they need to be, Lightnin’ built the barrel and stage to fit on a 40-foot-long flatbed truck. An RV carries the team itself along with a couple of dogs and some bare essentials.
“This isn’t rock star,” Lightnin’ said. “Some people think we live like rock stars because we travel all over but with gas the way it is we barely make enough to keep going. You really have to want to do this. It has to be in you.”
After a full weekend of shows on Sunday, the team was ready to hit the road again.
“This job isn’t for everyone, but the show must go on,” Lightnin’ said. “See you next year.”
