A two-year-long quest to officially break a dangerous Guinness world record came to fruition last week.
On Saturday, 14 September this year, veteran South African amateur stuntmen Enrico Schoeman and André de Kock rode a quadbike through a 36.59-metre-long fire tunnel at the Midvaal Raceway in Meyerton, Gauteng.
This constituted a new Guinness world record, and the pairing sent the relevant documentation to the Guinness world record administrators in London, England for ratification.
The ratification arrived last weekend, in the form of a certificate that cannot be bought. Schoeman, a service station manager and De Kock, The Citizen’s motorsport editor, already hold the Guinness world record for riding a motorcycle through a tunnel of fire, at 120m, set at the Rhino motorcycle rally in Parys in November 2014.
Being credited with the quadbike record distinguishes them among very few people to hold two separate Guinness world records simultaneously.
“Obtaining the quadbike record was a long process,” Schoeman said.
“We do not have a low budget – we have no budget. Every part of the effort, from obtaining the quadbike, to the steel for the tunnel, the diesel, petrol and cardboard we burnt, plus our protective clothing, came from friends and sponsors.
“Without their assistance we could not have attempted any kind of record run,” he added.
Last year, the pairing’s first test run before the record run came to a dramatic end when they hit the side of the fire tunnel and fell, luckily just after the exit of the tunnel.
“If we had fallen 10 metres earlier, we would not be here today,” he added. Schoeman, 62 and De Kock, 65, plan to extend the quadbike record next year, while also attempting the existing record for crashing a motorcycle through a series of burning obstacles.
– news@citizen.co.za
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