Forgot about this movie. Has Richard Prior in it. He was the first black man in nascar. He was a taxi driver then bootlegger than race car driver. Has a lot of old cars in it and a few good laughs as well...mainly late 30`s to late 60`s cars. Youtube, has the entire movie in 10 clips...after you watch part 1, the pop-up screen will have part 2 and so on... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxKMvzbdZUU&feature=related
For the most part the names were changed for privacy reasons, but the characters were still portrayed. Throw in theatrical license, writing finished by Friday, then you have a movie.LOL Off the top of my head I'd say it is in the top 3 all time greatest oval track racing movies I've seen. It's sincere, and Pam Grier stops me in my tracks!
Wendell Scott is one of unsung Nascar drivers in time . If you ever looked at the Nascar races that he attend , you would be amazed in his accomplishments as a Black driver in a White world back then . With a low budget he raced coast to coast with the best of them .
Unfortunately Wendell Scott was born too early. As a man of color in his time ... he raced against guys with way better equipment and ran decent with his lesser equipment. Richard Petty and his family helped the Scott family a lot. He gave them parts ( old used stuff off his cars ... which was better than what the Scotts had ) and money. With todays spotlight on racial differences from Nascar ... things could be different because Wendell Scott had talent and he could drive. .
I recorded this movie awhile back, loved it! One of the things that has stuck by me with this movie, was that in the early 70's an average joe, and in this case a guy with ALL the cards stacked against him could build a car in his garage,and trailer it to a nascar race , and compete. I hope that maybe someday that could happen again.
It was cool back then, now I have absolutely no desire whatsoever to watch it. I'd rather go to a small-town roundy-round track and watch the bombers.
Junior Johnson and the Allisons helped too. The Scotts would come to the track, the whole family, and sometimes pull the engine out of their tow vehicle just to run and stay out of everyone's way. They would just hope it lived, because that was their way home. He was an old 'shine runner, so some of those guys sort of kicked a few bones over that way. The Pettys, ironically, never ran 'shine. But they were just some good people who would do what they could. NASCAR sure has changed. I don't even keep track of it any more.
I just saw a documentary on NASCAR that included interviews with Wendel Scotts sons.everything in the movie was based on FACT names were changed of course.In the NASCAR film Scotts sons say exactly who the people where!At his first NASCAR win they "made a mistake" and flagged the second place white driver as winner because they were affraid he would kiss the trophy queen!The "trophy"they later gave him was a plank with some writing on it not even the real trophy.If I remember correctly they quit trying to wreck him in races when he pulled a pistol during a race and made it clear that anyone getting the idea of "chrome horning" him would pay dearly.Some of Mr. Scotts race cars are still behind his shop.the Pettys and I believe the Earnharts both slipped Mr.Scott money at different times to keep him in racing!One wrecked him when he had a good chance of winning the race swore it wasn't on purpose and handed him 100$ to fix his car.
I watched a film on moonshiners that included interviews including several stock car racers of the time including Jr Johnson and a couple did say Lee Petty ran shine.I have several articles on Mr.Scott and on the making of the film,During filming Richard Pryor did his own driving in the short track scenes on dirt and several times during filming they had to stop it because Richard was pushing that old coupe pretty had and they were afraid he'd wreck and get hurt he "really got into "the racing!
This car has been at the Ducktail Run in Gas City, IN the last few years. I went crazy the first time I saw it! Wish I knew how to post full-size pics on here but I havn't figured it out yet. Here are some pics though.
The Jalopy Journal
