As the country went crazy this week for daredevil TV presenter Guy Martin for setting a world wall of death record, his success was being shared in Wilburton - home to his stuntman trainer.
Motorcyclist and wall of death supremo, Ken Fox, watched with pride as his famous protégé smashed the record and jumped off his bike to lift a traditional British cuppa to celebrate.
In front of a live TV audience, high octane heart throb Guy, 34, brought his bike up to speed and lapped a vertical six metre high wooden wall at a terrifying speed of 78.15mph.
In the background of his success was showman Mr Fox, who trained the presenter for a year.
“Guy was very easy to train,” Mr Fox said, “But he also showed the dedication and discipline that is needed for this.
“He would come to wherever we were in the country twice a week and would train for around three hours at a time. Any more than that would have been too much.”
So while the world watched with baited breath, Ken knew exactly the blood, sweat, tears and hours that had gone into the record breaking success.
As the owner of one of only two wall of deaths in the country Mr Fox and his colleagues built the special giant wall for Guy’s latest speed challenge.
“There have been many claims to a world record at this but really Guy has set it,” he said.
“On our standard wall of death we ride it at 30mph and pull 2.5 to 3G, it would be impossible to ride faster as you would pull 18G which is physically impossible,” he said.
The special giant wall remains in place in Manby in Lincolnshire where Guy’s speed challenge was filmed ready for either somebody to bid for it, use it for filming, or for the possibility of somebody else willing to take up the speed challenge.
“Our eldest son Luke is a regular rider, he is capable of taking up the challenge,” he said.
The Wall of Death attraction has been in Mr Fox’s family for more than 80 years having had the tradition passed onto him by his grandfather and father and now passes it down to his children.
The Cambridgeshire connection to Guy’s challenge included the help of Cambridge University’s Department of Engineering for expert help in making the Channel 4 television series, Speed.
Senior lecturer Dr Hugh Hunt helped with the technical side by exploring the boundaries of physics and the science of speed.
Hugh said: “Guy Martin is completely insane! He decided to break various speed records.
“My approach was to start with small experiments in the hope of learning something before making mistakes at a bigger scale.”
Visit Ken Fox Wall of Death website.
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