Monday, July 23

World's Youngest Daredevil? - Part One

By B.J. Smith

The following is a story about a first in motorcycling - mainly in the stunt department. Sure, we have the Backwards Man, Seth Enslow, Evel Knievel and the late Doug Domokos, but never before a kid. Dare we call him a daredevil? In the new age of freestyle it's not all that shocking but when the story was broke that an eight-year-old kid was going was going to jump 10 cars, the motorcycling elasticity broke and the public cried neglect. But TV came running.

CLIO, MI - Oct. 27, 2000- A nervous Robb Lapeen Sr. runs from the garage to stand atop the mound of dirt where he hopes his son Robbie will land. He kicks away the debris and big rocks and tells the pit crew to pull back the ramp. Lapeen runs back into the garage of his business, Auto Brite Collision. He has washed his son's KX80 a half dozen times while endlessly making sure the gas is turned on and the handlebars are tight.

At the back of the building, Robbie is pretending to be a baseball player. Using a long cardboard tube he took from his dad's shop, he hits an empty pop bottle into the yard narrowly missing a parked truck. Already dressed in his gear, he grows impatient waiting for the crew to prepare. Robbie is ready to break his own record of jumping nine cars.

When the 10th car is rolled into the end of the row, nine-year-old Robbie puts on a helmet and warms up his bike. The crew pushes the six and a half-foot wooden ramp against the last car, a white Dodge Neon. As Robbie heads into the backyard to warm up on his track, the crowd of several dozen people shift toward the landing ramp to be in the camera's lens and have a shot at being on the national television show, "Ripley's Believe it or Not!." The crowd is small compared to the last jump Robbie made.

It all began

At two years old, Robbie Lapeen was riding a PW50 before he could ride a bicycle. Robb Sr., long a motorcycle aficionado, bolted training wheels on the peewee and governed the throttle. By the time he was eligible to race District 14 motocross, Robbie was ready to go. After a couple of seasons on the motocross circuit, he spent a winter ice racing and the next summer he tried flat track. At seven years old, he won the 1999 50cc 7-9 national flat track championship.

Later that year, while practicing on his backyard Supercross track, Robbie was clearing a 55-foot tabletop but he could not clear a 30-foot double. Robb Sr. wanted Robbie to be able to do doubles to keep up with the competition, but he did not want to use too much pressure or endanger his son.

"He could do the distance, but he couldn't clear the gap of a double, sort of like a mental block," Robb Sr. said. "I built a 16' by six and a half-foot ramp to teach him how to clear doubles."

The ramp was butted to the face of the tabletop and Robbie took his first crack at launching from wood. When he became comfortable down-siding the tabletop, the ramp was scooted back in increments of three feet until a 25-foot gap separated the ramp and the face of the tabletop. It was Robbie who suggested a car be put between the two, and Robb Sr.'s Dodge 4x4 served as the test vehicle. Robbie said the cars provided him a comfort zone.

"I like having the cars under the ramp because if I don't make it, I won't land on flat ground," Robbie said.

The ramp was trailered to a local race track for show and eventually it landed in the yard at Auto Brite Collision where it was accompanied by a long, sloped landing ramp with five cars buried beneath the soil.

"People at the motocross tracks got bad vibes when they saw the ramp," Robb said. "Sure, it seems dangerous, but it's an easy jump. The face of it never changes, there are no rocks popping up or ruts developing, and the angle is always the same. People told me I was nuts, but I would never let him do anything that I wouldn't do myself. I've jumped the ramp."

But there was an opportunity to execute. Robb Sr. took his son's love for jumping cars and incorporated it into a car show and grand opening for a new parts and accessories addition to his business. Through heavy advertising and promotion, Robbie built his fame as a daredevil, the youngest ever known to jump cars.

The Flint Journal broke the story on their front page on August 23. The article featured Robbie doing practice jumps, explained his interests in riding motorcycles and invited the public to see the car show and Robbie Lapeen jump 10 cars. The following day, the plans all but crashed.

After reading The Flint Journal article, angry civilians contacted Child Protective Services in Lansing, MI to protest the jump and Robbie's parents for letting it happen. CPS officials came to the site the next day while Robbie was practicing and told Robb Sr. his son could no longer practice jumping and could not perform the stunt on the approaching weekend.

"They came out to the business, served us papers and we were in court the next day," Robb Sr. said. The Lapeen family showed up the next morning with Robbie carrying his national flat track trophy and dressed in his riding gear to prove that he had the skill to perform such stunts.

"When we got to the court, we were treated like criminals," Robb Sr. recalled. "They read us our Miranda Rights, 'you have the right to remain silent' and all that. Then the CPS appointed Robbie his own attorney and wouldn't let ours represent him. It was scary and we didn't sleep for a couple of days."

The CPS tried to charge the Lapeens with child neglect for allowing their son to perform such daredevil-like acts. The case was thrown out of court and the Lapeens proved their son was trained to jump motorcycles.

On August 26, the jump went on as scheduled and Robbie, then eight, successfully jumped nine cars. Though only four were exposed, he landed well beyond the five buried cars. Because of the governmental scare, Robb Sr. decreased the number of cars from 10 to nine. When Robbie easily landed his first attempt, he high-fived the crowd pressed against the sideline barrier. At the applause of the more than 500 people at the show, Robbie did the jump again, and again, and again. On his third jump, he raised his fist in the air and pointed to the crowd. He was out to mock those that criticized he and his family. He wanted to show how easy the jump really was. When he parked his motorcycle, he threw his goggles into the crowd and disappeared underneath a mob of television news cameras, radio DJs, reporters and photographers. The media came to the show to see what the fuss was about. They wanted to see the kid that had stolen the headlines.

"To non-motocross people, this jump is probably a little scary," Robb Sr. commented following the show. "But Robbie has jumped distances like this hundreds of times and so have many other motocross riders his age. I did tell him to keep his hands and feet on the pegsŠ he didn't listen."

What does Robbie think?

"The CPS is stupid. This is just good entertainment for the people, and a lot of fun for me," he said shyly.

Following the jump, The Flint Journal ran an editorial with their thoughts on the ordeal. They said Robbie's parents lacked judgment in letting their son jump a motorcycle.

The editorial stated: "Allowing an eight-year-old to sail 14 feet in the air at 35 mph to clear 50 feet of obstacles is just plain foolish, no matter how much he has "trained" for the event."

They also criticized the Lapeens for exploiting their son, saying they used him to promote their business.

Robb Sr. was fed up with courts and the media.

"What are they going to do next, go out to the motocross tracks and charge all the parents with neglect? These people are just uneducated in our sport and they're too quick to give their opinions. What about all the kids who go out onto football fields to knock each other down on purpose? That is certainly an accepted sport in this country."

Robb Sr. does not deny the danger involved in jumping ramps, but he wants people to realize there are dangers involved in all sports. As far as exploitation, he said that was not in his intentions.

"We are not doing this to try to turn Robbie into an Evel Knievel. Robbie is doing something he loves to do. We didn't really plan for all the commotion. With the freestyle movement in full force, kids coming up are going to be interested in it, but they won't have the experience and that leads to injuries. He's been watching the X-Games and if he someday decides he wants to be a freestyle motocrosser, then he'll have the experience."

Robbie said Travis Pastrana has been a big influence for him.

"I'm going to get Travis' phone number and call him up to see if he wants to come over and jump with me," Robbie beamed.

Continue reading the story here...