User talk:National StuntTman

The team was formed in 1977 by three ex-army motor cycle display team riders; Tony, Robin and Alan. Within a few weeks the team started building ramps and preparing motor cycles at Tony's workshop in Catford, S.E London.

New riders were trained for the first show which was at Mallory Park Race Track in Leicestershire. Early in 1978 preparations with George and Elstree Airport (North London) were made for Robin "Smudger" Winter-Smith, to do a jump involving 31 Ford Escort vans. This along with a "full team" stunt display took place on May 14th 1978. The jump was carried out successfully. Later that the team appeared on the ITV network's Saturday Banana Show, hosted by Bill Oddie, in which they performed stunts live on TV.

The team were then called upon to train Michael Crawford for an episode of his TV series "Some Mothers' Do 'Ave 'Em." This episode was titled "The Dispatch Ride," Tony taught Michael some motor cycle tricks, in which Michael Performed very successfully. Tony also acted as a stunt coordinator while filming the show in 1978.

In 1980 team members worked on a film "Silver Dream Racer." The star of this film was David Essex who was a very well known pop-star of this time. This year also saw two new members; John "Golly" Goddard and Frank Welch, who were both training to jump with cars.

In January 1982 the team along with "Tina Roberts' Auto Angels" worked together, for " Not The Nine O'Clock News " which was a BBC TV programme. Both teams had a tremendous amount of fun whilst filming for the show. Tina now known as "Firebird International" now travels and includes Pythons and singing with a band in her act. In May 1982 the team were performing in Brockley (South London). This was where John "Golly" Goddard performed his first spectacular jump. He made a jump over 118 people laid down side by side. Later in the year on July 18th 1982 at the Chester Racecourse, John "Golly" Goddard jumped successfully over 16 double decker buses, clearing a distance of 132ft.

During the winter of 1982/3, Tony was busy working on a Kawasaki Z900 for a world record for " 22 men on one motor cycle ". Once the bike was prepared the team and many friends went for the first practice. before the attempt was carried out many modifications were made. Once ready the team performed the event at the Santa Pod Raceway in Bedfordshire. The attempt was successful and placed the team into the Guinness Book of World Records. John "Golly" Goddard was also preparing his next big jump, this time over 15 trucks. This successful jump took place on June 12th 1983 at Trentham Gardens, Staffordshire.

The team took part in the "Game For A Laugh" show hosted by Jeremy Beedle (amongst others) where the team's stunts were shown. John "Golly" Goddard also successfully rode through 25 Walls of Fire for this programme.

In 1989 Tony met Nikki, Nikki and her son James (9 at the time), they both became actively involved with the team, Nikki acting as a commentator and James began riding motor cycles and learning tricks on his PW 80. Lizzette Daniel and Sue Rees were female members of the team.

In 1990 the team gained 2 World records. Chris "Spin" Simpson set a new World record for 25 walls of fire; also Lee French jumped over 300 shopping trolleys at the Sussex County Showground, Ardingly, setting another new world record.

Team members " Vertical Vince " and Chris Simpson started forming slow wheelies, Vertical Vince is probably the country's top rider performing wheelies.

From 1992 Tony started to prepare a Suzuki Jeep for 2 wheel driving. After practicing for several weeks it was ready to perform in early 1993. Also 6 other Suzuki Jeeps were prepared for the team, for formation driving. This made the team unique as it was the only team performing this type of show. The next Jeep to be built was the " Wheelie Jeep " in 1995. In 1996 the " Endo Jeep " was built and this was driven by Tony for a challenge in the ITV programme " You Bet".

In 1998 Tony received a call from an agent with an unusual request for a motor cycle rider to promote a film by 20th Century Fox called "Waking Ned". What made the request unusual was that they required a rider to to ride around Oxford Street, Trafalgar Square and Soho promoting the film,wearing nothing but a crash helmet and underpants. This was rather a chilly experience on a mid-September morning and this also received some very strange looks from people.

Now the team performs 25-30 shows per year up and down the country. Tony and the team are busy with new ideas for the show. Brandon Bailey (Tony's son) just 9 years old already drives a Suzuki Jeep in the show, along with tricks on a motor cycle and a quad. Daniel Buss the teams "jump" man has recently jumped 21 Suzuki Jeeps at a show at the Kent County Showground at Detling, Kent. The team are also preparing a road safety display for use in schools etc.