Stunt Driving PDF
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Stunt Driving RACE CAR LEGENDS C O L L E C T O R ’ S E D I T I O N A.J. Foyt The Allisons Dale Earnhardt Jr. Danica Patrick Famous Finishes Famous Tracks The Jarretts Jeff Burton Jeff Gordon Jimmie Johnson Kenny Irwin Jr. The Labonte Brothers Lowriders Mario Andretti Mark Martin Monster Trucks & Tractors Motorcycles The Need for Speed Off-Road Racing The Pit Crew Rockcrawling Rusty Wallace Stunt Driving Tony Stewart The Unsers Stunt Driving Tara Baukus Mello Stunt Driving Copyright©2007 by Infobase Publishing All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information contact: Chelsea House An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 ISBN-10: 0-7910-8666-6 ISBN-13: 978-0-7910-8666-7 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Mello, Tara Baukus. Stunt driving / Tara Baukus Mello. p. cm. – (Race car legends. Collector’s edition) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7910-8666-6 (hardcover) ISBN 978-1-4381-2282-3 (e-book) 1. Stunt driving—Juvenile literature. 2. Stunt performers—Juvenile literature. I. Title. II. Series: Race car legends. Collector’s edition. TL152.58.M45 2006 791.43’028—dc22 2005021143 Chelsea House books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales Department in New York at (212) 967-8800 or (800) 322-8755. You can find Chelsea House books on the World Wide Web at http://www.chelseahouse.com Series design by Erika K. Arroyo Cover design by Hierophant Publishing Services/EON PreMedia/Joo Young An Printed in the United States of America Bang PH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is printed on acid-free paper. All links and Web addresses were checked and verified to be correct at the time of publication. Because of the dynamic nature of the Web, some addresses and links may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. Contents 1 Welcome to the Stunt Driver’s World 7 2 Training 18 3 Behind the Scenes 27 4 Precision Driving 38 5 Stunt Driving 47 6 Putting It All Together 54 Chronology 62 Glossary 63 Bibliography 64 Further Reading 65 Picture Credits 67 Index 68 About the Author 71 1 WELCOME TO THE STUNT DRIVER’S WORLD There is nothing that compares to watching an action- packed scene on television or in a movie theater. View- ers sit on the edges of their seats, just waiting to see what happens next. Will the bad guys outrun the cops? Will the hero crash and be hurt? High-speed car chases, spectac- ular crashes, and thrilling jumps—they are all in a day’s work for a stunt person. It’s a job that may seem glamorous to the casual observer. Others may think that to perform stunts, a person must be a daredevil or have a death wish. Yet both are untrue. Being a stuntman or stuntwoman requires train- ing and solid skills. Everything is calculated carefully so that no one—the stunt person, the crew, or other ac- tors—gets hurt. The job is far from glamorous. A stunt person often spends hours waiting to be called to perform. That can be pretty boring. Although the action may last just a few moments, the thrill of performing a stunt well is exciting. 7 Stunt Driving Stuntwoman Debbie Evans makes a dramatic motorcycle jump through flames as she doubles for Jamie Lee Curtis in a cell phone commercial. DOUBLE, SO THERE’S NO TROUBLE Debbie Evans has been a stuntwoman for more than 28 years and she specializes in car and motorcycle driving stunts. If you’ve seen Herbie: Fully Loaded, Spider-Man 2, Mission Impossible II, any of the Fast and Furious mov- ies, Inspector Gadget, or A Cinderella Story, then you’ve seen Evans at work, although you probably didn’t know it. Most of the time, Evans is a stunt double. A stunt dou- ble is a person who performs action scenes for one of the characters in a film and is dressed up to look like the ac- tor he or she is portraying. That means wearing the same clothes and hairstyle, or donning a wig if necessary. It may also mean wearing extra padding or even gaining weight if Welcome to the Stunt Driver’s World the actor weighs more than the double. Evans is just one of many stunt people you will meet in this book. In Herbie: Fully Loaded, Evans was the stunt double for Lindsay Lohan, who plays the main character in the movie. Herbie, the Volkswagen Beetle car, has a lot of racing ad- ventures in the movie, and Debbie is behind the wheel in most of them. In one film scene, or sequence, Herbie is competing in a car race. This sequence is really many dif- ferent scenes that were filmed over several days and put together for the movie. Some of the racing scenes were filmed during the laps of two real races: one that is called the Target House 300, and another called the Pop Secret 500. In these scenes, the real professional racers were driv- ing their own cars. This is why race car drivers such as Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, and Rusty Wallace have credits as actors in the movie. The Herbie sequence is also mixed in with shots that appear as if these professional racers are driving the cars, Fearless, Not Foolish Stunt performers are not daredevils. Stuntmen and stunt- women work hard to be sure the stunts are performed ac- cording to a strict plan. Whether they are falling out of a window, crashing a car, or being set on fire, people who perform stunts profes- sionally have had many hours of training and experience. They want to make sure that they not only do their jobs well, but also without serious injury. “I always take the fall that’s going to be the toughest, which means I always ex- pect to come home from work sore, but I never expect to come home broken,” explains stuntman Gary Davis.
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