When she was 19, a family acquaintance invited her to participate in a local thrill show,[2] where she was discovered by Charles Samples, who represented her as her manager from that point on.
Charles Samples had previously represented the Astro Jumpers, the motorcycle jump duo Gary Davis and Rex Blackwell.
Just one month later, she crashed at the Ontario Motor Speedway while attempting to clear a jumping distance of 140 feet over 15 Datsun automobiles on a motorcycle.
In June 1976, she provided the television commentary for CBS Sports Spectacular on Super Joe Einhorn's daredevil show as he beat another of Evel Knievel's records by jumping 15 buses at the Lancaster Speedway in Buffalo.
[9] Two weeks after her crash in 1974, Evel Knievel presented her with a pink mink coat on the Mike Douglas Show, to which she appeared in a wheelchair.
In an BBC documentary titled Richard Hammond Meets Evel Knievel, she said that the coat had an embroidered message on the inside: “Happy Landings.
Love, Evel.”[10] In 1974, the same year as her record, toy manufacturer Kenner Products marketed a Debbie Lawler Daredevil Jump Set for girls.
[5] The High Desert Museum in Bend, Oregon dedicated an exhibition to the daredevils Debbie Lawler, Kitty O'Neil, Denny Edwards and Evel Knievel from 2020 to 2021.