A front flip is a move/stunt in which a monster truck flips forward in the air, completing a full 360° movement. Essentially, being the reverse motion of a backflip. The move is very rarely ever directly attempted, and is very difficult to successfully perform, only officially being landed once in history.
History of attempts[]
2008:[]
The first known instance of a truck almost performing a frontflip was accidental and performed at a 2008 Virginia Speedway show, where Charlie Pauken filling in for George Balhan, driving An Escalade did a wheelie off an obstacle and rode it down the speedway before clipping another set of cars, and hurling forward. It landed on the tailgate, just before the wheels, and proceeded to do a second forward roll, before coming to a stop on its wheels. The crash would win Charlie Pauken the Crash Madness of the Year award for the season. During the speech for the award, Charlie revealed that he had broken his hand in the crash, leaving him out of the sport for three months.
2015:[]
At East Rutherford 2015, for a halftime encore, Tom Meents would perform the first ever attempt at a front flip in monster truck history. A specially engineered kicker-style ramp was created by Chuck Werner and built by the Max-D team. The stunt was also attempting to make Guinness Book of World Records history. Although almost making the full rotation, the truck landed on only its rear tires and did not land on all tires as required by Guinness, thus making the attempt unsuccessful.
2017:[]
At Monster Jam World Finals XVIII in 2017, Lee O'Donnell driving the VP Racing Fuels' The Mad Scientist would very famously land the first ever successful front-flip in monster truck history after flooring the throttle while doing a slap wheelie and then clipping a ramp, causing the truck to flip forward, where he would make the full rotation and land perfectly on the other side of the ramp. This move would result in Lee winning the freestyle title that year. Also, while the front flip may have appeared to be accidental, Lee O'Donnell states that it was planned, as he had gotten the idea for it from a crash he had in a previous event.
2019:[]
Whiplash Driver Brianna Mahon Best Trick All-Star Challenge
During the "Best Trick" competition, there would be multiple attempts at a front flip at the 2019 Monster Jam All-Star Challenge from drivers such as Cory Rummell, Cynthia Gauthier, and Brianna Mahon. All would use the same technique Lee used to land his, however, all would be unsuccessful. Although Brianna not landing her front flip, she would crash hard, but then get a popular save out of it, which would win the competition.
2022:[]
Monster Jam - 2022 Crazy Moments - El Toro Loco Insane Barrel Roll
Very unexpectedly at San Diego 2022, Kraig Champion, driving the Team Scream ran El Toro Loco (using Brutus's chassis) would attempt a front flip, interestingly, in the skills challenge. Kraig would go up a ramp and get a slap wheelie. Doing the same technique Lee did in 2017, Kraig would floor the throttle into the upcoming ramp. The ramp, however, was not steep enough, nor was the truck lifted high enough. This would cause the truck to fly forward nose-down and sway sideways. The truck would then crash-land two barrel-rolls and would successfully land. He would not be able to compete in freestyle due to damage sustained from the stunt. The move would later win the Crash Madness award of that year.
2023:[]
During the Freestyle competition in Orlando 2023 Adam Anderson was very close to the 2nd ever successful front flip. It was not completely the 2nd ever front flip due to the back tires touching the ground similar to An Escalade. Adam won Freestyle & 2nd overall.
Trivia[]
- Several occurrences have happened where trucks summersault (crash and land end-over-end), which are not officially counted as front flips.
- Not only was the first front flip successfully landed at World Finals XVIII, but the first Reverse Backflip and Mid-Air Backflip were all successfully executed at this event as well.