10 backflips in 30 seconds! FMX World Champion Luc Ackermann breaks a 12-year-old world record
Freestyle motocrosser, world champion Luc Ackermann (22) from Niederdorla/Thuringia, has once again written motorsport history: On July 12, 2020, the FMX athlete broke the twelve-year-old world record with the most motorcycle backflips in 30 seconds! Ackermann trumped his idol, the American Travis Pastrana.
For the world record attempt, Germany’s best freestyle motocrosser had a “dirtline” prepared on the deserted Sperenberg military airfield (Brandenburg). The 2.5 kilometer long runway, on which huge transport planes of the Soviet troops took off and landed until 1994, was converted into a freestyle track with 55 cubic meters of loamy sand. Travis Pastrana set the world record on November 17, 2008 at Godfrey Trucking/Rocky Mountain Raceway in Salt Lake City. The American extreme sports legend jumped into the Guinness Book of Records for the MTV show „Nitro Circus“ with eight backwards somersaults within half a minute.
The record should hold for almost twelve years. Then came Luc Ackermann. For three weeks he practiced one backflip after the other at his training ground in Niederdorla. Then the time came. On July 12, 2020 at 1 p.m. he headed for the first dirt hill in Sperenberg. Nine backflips in 30 seconds would have been enough for the world record, but the Thuringian FMX athlete wanted more. His goal: ten back flips in 30 seconds! The clock started counting as we took off on the first dirt takeoff. The reigning FIM World Champion mastered one backflip after the other. After landing the 10th miniflip, the clock stopped at 28.9 seconds! Luc Ackermann broke Travis Pastrana’s record by two somersaults to 10 flips in 30 seconds!
The record should hold for almost twelve years. Then came Luc Ackermann. For three weeks he practiced one backflip after the other at his training ground in Niederdorla. Then the time came. On July 12, 2020 at 1 p.m. he headed for the first dirt hill in Sperenberg. Nine backflips in 30 seconds would have been enough for the world record, but the Thuringian FMX athlete wanted more. His goal: ten back flips in 30 seconds! The clock started counting as we took off on the first dirt takeoff. The reigning FIM World Champion mastered one backflip after the other. After landing the 10th miniflip, the clock stopped at 28.9 seconds! Luc Ackermann broke Travis Pastrana’s record by two somersaults to 10 flips in 30 seconds!
„I’m super happy to have made it. Travis‘ record has been on my mind for a few years now. Now I had the time to train for it and it paid off. It worked right on the first try. Thanks to everyone who supported me,“ says Luc Ackermann after his successful world record in Sperenberg.