Galion’s ‘Madman’ soars to success at the county fair

By Matt Echelberry

mechelberry@galioninquirer.com

After the dust set­tled, The Mad­man emerged from his hot rod wear­ing a jump­suit resem­bling some­thing out of Evel Knievel’s closet and walked toward a grand­stand full of cheer­ing fans. He removed his hel­met and waved to the crowd, com­pletely unharmed after land­ing a jump that spanned the dis­tance of seven mini­vans. For Michael “The Mad­man” Porter of Galion, his stunt on July 16 was a dream come true.

At the fair on Mon­day evening, Porter pre­pared to do some­thing he had never attempted. Before the antic­i­pated stunt, he thanked his brother, Dave, for build­ing him his first ramp. “That’s what got me to this point,” he said.

With his lucky bob­ble head doll beside him, Porter drove his car around the race track sev­eral times, and each pass he made sent the crowd into a roar. They won­dered when he would climb the ramp and launch through the air to the ramp on the other side. When he finally had enough speed and the vehi­cle was lined up just right, he made the jump and landed safely, with plenty of clearance.

A trail of dust spit out behind the car as Porter eased to a stop on the track. He then did a vic­tory lap and coasted back up the ramp, then let the car roll down to a final stop.

Porter walked to the front of the grand­stand with his bob­ble head and, after being checked by para­medics, was greeted by a wave of ador­ing fans. He signed auto­graphs and posed for pic­tures amid the hugs and praise.

He announced that he felt great. “I just did what my mechan­ics told me to do. I had to tuck in my body for the land­ing and every­thing went right,” Porter explained.

It is impor­tant to note that numer­ous safety pre­cau­tions were taken for the event. The angles and dis­tances of the ramps were care­fully mea­sured and Porter tested the ramp with the car to cal­cu­late the nec­es­sary speed for the jump. Fire trucks and EMS crews were stand­ing by in case any­thing went wrong.

When asked what was going through his head while going up the ramp, he said that before get­ting there, he was wor­ried about the sur­face of the track being too slip­pery. After he passed it and pre­pared for the jump, he told him­self “Let’s do it.”

A grand­stand packed with fair goers wit­nessed Porter’s mad­ness. But for him, the mad­ness was sim­ply liv­ing a dream.

Matt Echel­berry is a reporter for The Galion Inquirer.

Posted by Acres Admin on Aug 5 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.