Maximum Destruction - Backflip

Backflip

During the freestyle portion of a European Tour event in Arnhem, NL, Meents hit the backside of a 'step up' jump which caused the truck to rotate backwards, land on the roof at the top of the obstacle and then continue to roll backwards back onto the wheels where Meents continued his run. This inspired Meents and a lot of others including sports legend Travis Pastrana to attempt a complete aerial backflip. Travis Pastrana made his attempt during a Season 1 episode of Nitro Circus where he jumped the Nitro Cirus sponsored monster truck up a purpose built ramp in his back yard. Unfortunately the truck didn't get enough rotation and slammed down onto the roof from about 40 feet in the air. Travis was uninjured. Larry Quick, the driver of the 'Ghost Rider' monster truck did however manage to land a complete backflip during a small show. This was rumoured to be the first successful attempt.

In, 2009, at the World Finals, Las Vegas, Meents rolled on to the floor during the encore in Maximum Destruction. Nobody knew what he was up to until he launched his truck off the centre jump which was almost a solid wall of dirt. The truck instantly bounced up into the air and managed to rotate 1 and half times backwards until landing on the roof. Although spectacular, it did not technically count because it was not landed. It was later revealed in a special DVD release about Meents' build up to the backflip at the finals, that he had infact landed a complete backflip in his backyard during testing, before Larry Quick. Therefore Tom Meents was the first to land a successful backflip. In 2010, Cam McQueen, driving the same Nitro Circus truck Travis made his attempt in at Jacksonville, Florida amd landed the first backflip during scored competition.

Since then there has been many successful and unsuccessful attempts from several drivers. Larry Quick now has a truck dedicated to backflips and the 'backflip ramp' (an old semi trailer filled with cars to make it almost solid) has become a familiar sight at the world finals. A few drivers have even completed corkscrew type flips where the truck backflips and lands facing the opposite direction and also Linsey Weenk became the first driver to land 2 backflips in one run in 2012.