From Evel Knievel to ‘The Flying Angel’: Why Oregon beckoned daredevils

“I’ve walked that walk,” said Lawler. “I’ve said, ‘I can do one more car. I can do one more jump. I can pull the ramps out 20 more feet.’ That is a true daredevil attitude.”

Lawler’s trick of the trade was jumping her Suzuki TM250 motorcycle, from one ramp to another, across lines of parked cars. Her stage name was “The Flying Angel.” Lawler was good at jumping motorcycles. So good, in fact, that at 21-years-old and just a year into her professional jumping career she flew 104 feet — or 16 pickup trucks — briefly taking the indoor jumping record away from Evel Knievel in 1974.

Around the same time, Denny Edwards and his green Yamaha 650 were the top billing at thrill shows throughout the Pacific Northwest. Edwards, better known as “The Flying Irishman” in his day, was another motorcycle stuntman who preferred to jump overloaded log trucks.