LOXLEY, Ala. — OK, it probably takes more guts than most of us have to even contemplate jumping over 42 cars with a motorcycle.

Or, is it a lack of brainpower?

“Well I was dropped on my head at a Harley-Davidson store when I was three,” said Bubba Blackwell. in a telephone interview “from a Mexican restaurant in Ironton, Ohio.”

Blackwell, who grew up in Summerdale and now lives in Bon Secour is planning to jump 42 cars at the Deep South Speedway in Loxley Oct. 4. He says he’ll be riding an American-made Harley XR-750 for the jump.

“That’s my birthday,” said Blackwell, who now works as a rider in the Buell Motorcycle Company Trick Show. “I’ll be 42 and it seemed like a good idea to jump 42 cars.”

That’s pretty ambitious for someone who says that much of his stunt work for Buell is doing a “stoppie,” a sort of motorcycle headstand on the front wheel. To do a stoppie, the rider gets up to speed and applies the front brake while trying to work with the “bounce” in the rear. While the trick is easy on paper, a front wheel skid or letting the back wheel rise too high will cause a nasty crash. Try the stunt on heavy Harleys, and the stoppie is a feat of strength and timing.

Blackwell has many jumps to his credit, including clearing 20 cars on his Harley in 1998. He cleared 15 buses in January, 2000 It is said on his Web site that he is “… the only stunt rider to beat all Evel Knievel jumping records using the same type motorcycle, and the same size ramps.”

“Bubba has been doing this a long time,” said Ozzie Altman, Special Events Manager at Deep South Speedway in a phone interview. “He wanted to do something spectacular. I know that Bubba has broken a lot of Evel Knievel’s records.”

That’s true, and Blackwell has the broken the bones to prove it. According to his Web site, “I’ve broken 42 bones in my body in my career; and I set a prior record of 20 cars in the past. My bad crash happened as I tried to jump 22 cars, so adding those two jumps together my intent is to give all the folks in my home region something to really remember — a 42-car jump in style.”

Motorcycle riding has been a Blackwell family tradition.

“My father raced motorcycles,” said Blackwell.

In fact, Blackwell says his father hoped to scare trick riding out of his son by settling up a stunt in the hopes he would fail.

“My mom came home, and my father told her not to go in, that ‘we’re fixin’ to go to the hospital,’” recalled Blackwell.

Blackwell made the jump (over some trash cans) on his bike, surprised his father, frightened his mother, and the rest, as Blackwell would say, “is history.”

“I’ve been riding motorcycles all my life,” said Blackwell.

While Blackwell has been doing stunts for most of his life, he has a confession to make.

“The scariest part of a jump is right before you’re introduced. You can’t double, triple or quadruple check anything anymore,” said Blackwell.

Blackwell is philosophical about the risks of his profession.

“Some people have a bad day at the office; I fall off and get hurt,” said Blackwell, adding that even a bad fall has its rewards.

“If you have a spectacular crash, you do get a lot of publicity.”

The 42-car jump came about in typical Blackwell fashion.

“The new owners (of Deep South Speedway) contacted me,” said Blackwell. “We negotiated for two months, and finally came to terms.”

As of now the plan, according to Blackwell, is for him to make the jump at 9:30 p.m.

“They are going to stop the program for me,” said Blackwell, who estimated his part of the evening’s entertainment will take “30 to 45 minutes.”

“One of the reasons we wanted him back is that he drew tremendous crowds when he was here in 2005,” said Altman. “He’s an real exciting rider.”

As for stopping the races, Altman explained that the track, less than a three quarter mile, a .4 mile red clay oval should have its program of seven division races over by the time Blackwell jumps.

“We try to be considerate of the fans who need to go home,” said Altman.

And, Altman says, there will be a few surprises for Blackwell at the track.

“We will be using junk cars,” said Altman. “But, it’s his birthday, so maybe the cars will having flaming candles on top.”