Local man hopes to set a new world record by pushing a car 70 miles in 24 hours
Javon Champman used to push his family’s Jeep Grand Cherokee through his neighborhood for fitness. One day, he says he came across an article about a guy in Croatia who set a world record for pushing a car for 24 hours. “I thought I could probably take this record myself. Why not try it? It’s worth a shot”.
According to Guinness World Records, the current title is held by Tomislav Lubenjak from Croatia, who pushed a SmartCar 106.938 km (66.448 miles) in 2019. Chapman’s goal is 70 miles. If he can do more, he says he will – just to make it harder for someone to break his record.
Chapman, 41, is a network engineer for LexisNexis Risk Solutions. He says he started volunteering for Special Olympics years ago. “It made me extremely happy, like, seeing the joy on the kids and the adults with disabilities, on their faces. It brought me as much happiness as it did them, and I just always wanted to give back to that.”
Chapman has a GoFundMe set up to raise money for Special Olympics Florida. A link to it can be found on his website, pushin70.com. Donors can also contribute directly on the SpecialOlympicsFlorida.org web site. Chapman has a few people donating per mile to his cause. He has two sponsors' logos on the car. Hurricane Mike’s Saloon has pledged to match everything he brings in and Local 7433, a community volunteer organization, is making big donation to Special Olympics.
To train for this challenge, Chapman purchased a similar 2008 SmartCar. The car weighs about 1,800 pounds. He plans to put the car up for auction after the record attempt.
Chapman has practiced pushing the car in the Gulf Gate neighborhood, around the big parking lot at Robarts Arena and around Suncoast Technical College. “I’ve done 30 miles pushing the car and I still felt pretty good, so I’m pretty sure I can knock this out. When I have the energy of people around me, that will be good as well.”
When he doesn’t have a driver to help when he pushes the car, he spends a lot of time at the gym doing "dead-mill" workouts. “That’s when you unplug the treadmill, and it’s way harder than pushing a car. It’s really good at building your endurance.” He also does a lot of hiking and running.
Skyway Classics has made room for a track in its showroom so Chapman will be protected from the weather. It created a loop that will have to be measured by a surveyor. Witnesses will count laps. Chapman said it would have cost $12,000 to have a representative from Guinness present to authenticate the record. As an alternative, you can have two witnesses present at all times. Since Chapman is doing this as a fundraiser, he said it didn’t make sense to pay the $12,000.
Chapman will start pushing the car at 3 p.m. on Saturday and end at 3 p.m. Sunday. “We have to have a driver in the car at all times. I can stop as many times as I want to, but the clock doesn’t stop. It has to be 24 hours and that’s it.” He’ll have friends and family on hand for support. The Haven will also have a group of Special Olympics athletes there to cheer him on. Skyway Classics is at 10420 Portal Crossing in Lakewood Ranch.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Raising funds for Special Olympics, by pushing a car for 24 hours
