Interesting quote I found from Stanley Kallis who was one of the writers: At the end of the day, I don't think you watch this movie for the plot. (Although, to be honest, the father son rivalry is kind of fun.) You watch this movie for the racing scenes... and I actually think they are pretty great. Sound editing is better than most of the period.
I watched the first race featuring Max Balchowski's Old Yeller. They took liberty mixing racing footage from the corkscrew at Laguna Seca with a high desert track.
There's some nice cars there, and some cool racing. Interesting to see these buried tyres on the corner apex's. I wouldn't like to clip them at speed, give me a ripple strip any day.
Back then you stayed away from the curbs regardless of whether it had such "safety" measures or not, it would usually would have ended in going off-track...
Hello, Who didn't want to drive those fast sports cars around a curving road course? Upshifting and downshifting around corners just made it exciting. The power of the acceleration after those corners in the lightweight sports cars into the straightaway must have been tremendous. For us, it was the early go kart tracks to get the low slung acceleration/cornering feel, all while the wind was blasting us, as we flew around the road courses. The plot is like most old movies, of conflict of some kind in a family or among so-called friends. But, the insertion of real life racers at the local road course would keep enthusiasts interested. The road course could have been at Laguna Seca in Northern California, but that is too far for an early Hollywood movie production. The other So Cal road course was a lot closer and looked as if they selected Riverside Raceway in Riverside, CA. One of the long stretches is the 1/4 mile and ½ mile drags location and testing grounds. We took some of our drag racing films there in December of 1959. Cyr Hopper vs Colburn Glaze Comp Coupe mountains in the background T roadster pits with wide open spaces and mountains in the background. 40 Ford Coupe + Model A or Plymouth This So Cal location is/was a race developer’s dream. Wide open spaces with no one to bother while the loud sounds of power acceleration from the sporty cars or the full power acceleration of the dragsters and other drag racers made their runs. The location became the center of sports car racing and development during this time period. Jnaki But the announcement of the names like Phil Hill and Richie Ginther brought credibility to this movie. The sports car fanatics would instantly recognize real top racers from So Cal in all sports car races and locations. Both went on to world wide racing glory as time progressed. Perhaps, if the raceway were about as close to our Westside of Long Beach house as the nearby Lion's Dragstrip, things would have been different. Two long hours to drive a winding roadway was quite far back then. But, the attraction of the top drag racers in the USA was a draw that could not be missed by the brothers. Phil Hill was also a very early drag racer in So Cal, too.