WHEELS ON FIRE
X Games Hot Wheels Double Loop Dare
This article is from our archives and has not been updated and integrated with our "new" site yet... Even so, it's still awesome - so keep reading!
Published on Sat, Jul 7, 2012
By: The LACar Editorial Staff
Additional LA Car coverage of X Games Los Angeles events: • Early Glimpes • BMX Freestyle Park • RallyCross Greg Tracy and Tanner Foust completing the Hot Wheels Double Loop Dare at ESPN’s X Games HOT WIRE—Rally car driver Tanner Foust and Hollywood stuntman Greg Tracy set a world record by driving two Hot Wheels all-wheel-drive advance rally spec coupe cars through the 66-foot tall Hot Wheels Double Loop Dare track at X Games LA. "That was unbelievable," Tracy said after finishing first through the loop in the Team Green car and making the jump into the finish ahead of Foust. "I tell you what, I'm at a loss for words. That was absolutely the coolest thing I've ever done. It was a handful trying to land it and get it slowed down. I knew Tanner was right behind me and I was just hoping we weren't going to tangle before we got to the end."
The track, two football fields long, was modeled on Mattel's Hot Wheels Double Dare Snare toy racetrack set. Foust and Tracy broke the previous record for the largest loop in a car, set at 42 feet in September 2011 by Chinese driver Li Yatao in a Lotus 5 Sportback for Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile Co., Ltd. in Shanghai. Foust and Tracy hit 52 mph in the track and experienced approximately 7Gs going through the loop. To avoid passing out from the force of seven times gravity, Foust's strategy was to "grunt, tighten your core and try to make your eyeballs and veins pop out." After the drivers shift from first gear to second gear, the hand control takes over and, Foust said, "It's a matter of following the black line and not passing out." Said Tracy: "It doesn't just happen on the day, it's something we've been working on for a year. When I heard the countdown, I was ready to go."
Additional LA Car coverage of X Games Los Angeles events: • Early Glimpes • BMX Freestyle Park • RallyCross For the full X Games Los Angeles schedule, click here.