Evel Knievel 1972. On January 7 and 8, 1971, Knievel set the record by selling over 100,000 tickets to back-to-back performances at the Houston Astrodome. On February 28, he set a new world record by jumping 19 cars with his Harley-Davidson XR-750 at the Ontario Motor Speedway in Ontario, California. The 19-car jump was filmed for the movie "Evel Knievel." Knievel held the record for 27 years until Bubba Blackwell jumped 20 cars in 1998 with an XR-750. In 2015, Doug Danger surpassed that number with 22 cars, accomplishing this feat on Evel Knievel's actual vintage 1972 Harley-Davidson XR-750. On May 10,
Motorcycle land-speed record new category "thrust-powered" vehicles to its world record listings. Further, most people think of the tricycle "Spirit of America", now part of the permanent collection of Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry, as a "car" and not a motorcycle. a. At the time, it had been the accepted practice that the F.I.M would require the American Automobile Association to carry out official timing for any run in the USA. However shortly before the record attempt the A.A.A. had withdrawn from controlling motor sport, leaving no official body representing the F.I.M.. Although every effort had been made to show the impartiality