Bana’s daredevil dream

LONDON: Eric Bana had a back-up plan if his acting career hadn’t taken flight — he wanted to become a daredevil motocross racer. The Australian star grew up building ramps around his home and practising the extreme sport with friends, until a trick went wrong. And looking back Bana admits his dream died — as he would never have become a great racer. He says, “I used to love jumping my mates. I had a very crude ramp at home — a very short piece of steel I used to bang up against two bricks. And I did (jump over) 16 (people), that was my record. It wasn’t like the Evel Knievel record though, where they were lying down. They were skinny kids. It was a pretty good jump... I bragged about it to my father when he got home from work and did it with no kids, and crashed right in front of him. The BMX career stopped right then.”