Daredevil Falls Short in Bid to Break Limo-Leaping Record

Daredevil Michael Hughes fell short -- literally -- in his bid to break the world distance record for jumping a limousine Saturday night.

His 3-ton, six-passenger Cadillac zoomed up a 30-foot-long, 6-foot-high ramp at the Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino but flipped over before reaching the mountain of tires that was to cushion his landing.

Hughes was unhurt, officials said. Many in the crowd of 1,700, growing impatient as they waited for Hughes to gun his engine and take off, walked off grumbling as emergency workers freed him from the upside-down limo.

Hughes, 47, of Ontario, began his dash to the ramp from a parking lot one-eighth of a mile from the stadium, hitting 65 mph on a steel ramp, flying over a fence and crashing short of the 500 tires piled in the middle of the speedway. Bubble wrap covered his car seat and body.

Hughes earned a Guinness Book of World Records ranking last September at the Perris Auto Speedway by hurtling a Lincoln Town Car stretch limousine 103 feet, beating his previous 75-foot jump in Las Vegas.

But during that jump, Hughes seriously injured his back when the car tires intended to catch his limo separated and he crashed into a wall.

Footage from Saturday’s stunt will be included in “Stretch,” an independent feature Hughes is starring in about his renegade stint as a Las Vegas limo driver during the late 1990s.