When I was 5 my mom and dad took me to the Plymouth fair in New Hampshire, there was a traveling thrill show called the Hell drivers and we sat in the grandstands to watch as the stunt men did some crazy things with cars. I was amazed as they drove on two wheels, did some spectacular car jumps, motorcycle jumps, and things that cars were not meant to do. As the show went on and came to an end a dream started to take hold in my young mind. I knew I could do the same kind of things when I got older, I just needed to start practicing as soon as I was home. Upon returning to our yard I proceeded to take out all my Tonka trucks and smash them to bits, when this little task was complete I built a ramp at the bottom of the driveway and climbed into my peddle car to see what she could do. You can imagine how this thrilled my parents.
I was sitting in the basement one day with a friend of mine watching a TV program on stunts and I thought it was about time to do something about my childhood dream. All I had was twenty dollars and a whole lot of determination. Airtime held its first show in a farmer�s field in front of about four hundred spectators.
Over the last few years we have performed for thousands of spectators and that dream has become a reality.
Then came the last stunt of the last show for the 2002 season. I revved the motor and hit the ramp at seventy mph and smoked the three cars we had piled in front of the ramp, the bumper of my stunt car caught just right and flipped the car onto its roof, I broke my top vertebrae in three different places. After a year and nine months of recovery we are back in action and looking forward to performing.
I now reside in Chilliwack BC with my wife Jennifer and our two kids Haley and James. We are fully enjoying organizing and performing auto thrill shows all over North America.
Jim McLaughlin
Airtime Enterprises