Somerville is officially the car cruise capital of Kentucky. So the organizers of the 25th-anniversary Somernites Cruise knew they had to pull out all the stops. Little did they know their General Lee stunt would go completely viral.

Organizers reached out to the Northeast Ohio Dukes with a wild idea. The “Dukes” is an organization of stunt people who do tribute jumps in 1969 Dodge Chargers that are clones of the “General Lee” from the Dukes of Hazzard TV show. Somernites wanted to know if anyone could jump an orange Charger through the iconic turquoise fountain at the center of Somerville. The only problem is that the car would need to clear a 150-foot plaza at the same time.

The Northeast Ohio Dukes had just the man. Stuntman Raymond Kohn had completed 29 General Lee jumps. His record distance was 217 feet. Kohn and his team arrived in Somerville to size up the plaza, build ramps, and begin planning his 30th jump for the late-June cruise.

The 150-foot General Lee jump in Somerville, Kentucky

When the car show came, 35,000 people packed into downtown Somerville to watch the big jump.

Kohn later admitted even after 29 jumps, “This is a very scary situation.” He added, “You’re putting yourself in a life-and-death situation on purpose, and I just need to focus on one thing, hitting that ramp, and that’s it…You get one shot at it.”

The driver lined up the car, raced up to speed, and hit the ramp. The car flew through the air, cleared the plaza, and soared right through the iconic turquoise fountain. Then it hit the ground.

The General Lee replica bounced a couple times and lost a door. It lost enough of its front suspension components that when Kohn attempted to hit the brakes it veered hard to one side and bounced off the safety barriers. When the car finally stopped, Kohn’s team and firefighters leapt over the barriers to check on him. The crowd held its breath.

Then Somernites Cruise Executive Director Keith Floyd got on the PA system. “Praise the Lord, everybody’s safe.”

Kohn later said the landing was “easier” on him than it looked. The stunt actually went as planned, and the team had the barriers placed there for a reason. When he climbed out of the car, there was a special guest to greet him: John Schneider, the actor who played Bo Duke on the original TV show.

Clips of the wild jump took the internet by storm. They of course earned all kinds of comments. But the best might be one spectator’s video title: “People think we don’t have culture.” Well the world certainly knows Kentucky has culture now, and velocity. You can see the jump for yourself in the video below: