As an expectant crowd of around 1,500 watched, young Shropshire stuntrider Kirk Owen surveyed the jump he was about to attempt over the River Teme at Ludlow on his 250cc Suzuki motorcycle. And realised he wouldn’t make it.
The date was December 8, 1985, and 20-year-old Kirk from Ludlow was looking to create a new European record with the charity jump which was in support of an ultimately unsuccessful campaign to save the town’s Clifton Cinema.
Here, with the help of his recollections of that day of disaster in an interview years later, and pictures from the Star’s photographer on the spot, is the story of his spectacular exploit.
- Have you read the story of Little Billy Lloyd, the Shropshire character everyone remembered? Read it here
- You can enjoy this and more with our weekly FREE Nostalgia Newsletter - with scores of archive pictures and exclusive features on the history of Shropshire and Mid Wales - all sent to your inbox every week. Sign up here
1. Gearing up for a fateful takeoff
"The jump was at 3pm and it was £1 to get in. I should have charged more! People started arriving at half ten in the morning. We should have cancelled it. It was a really dark, dank day. I remember seeing all the people lined up on the run-up to the ramp - this gives me goose pimples every time. I went up the ramp and looked at the jump and where I was supposed to land, and I knew then that I was not going to make it." In third gear, and heading towards the ramp, Kirk thought: "Wind it right open and hope you make it." | Shropshire Star
2. Sailing through the air
"I remember leaving the ramp. I knew I was going to hit the bank. I had three choices. I could bail into a swollen river and drown; I pull the front end up and try to catch it with the back wheel and hope it will throw me in the right direction; or nosedive, and be thrown over." He chose the latter. | Shropshire Star
3. Impact
"I dived it in like a plane, the chances being that the momentum would throw me forward. Then darkness." The impact was taken on his pelvis and chest. The chest guard saved his life. Without it he would have been impaled on the fork ends. Kirk had hit a rock on the bank. He would return to the spot afterwards and find it still there, with the indent of the bike in it. | Shropshire Star
4. All he could hear was the river running
Kirk rolls off his stricken machine. "When I came round, all I could hear was the river running. This is why it was one of the most fantastic days of my life. There was nothing - it was quiet, like being in a graveyard at 11 at night." | Shropshire Star