All language subtitles for The Racing Scene

*

JAMES GARNER: This is it,
bad news and good,
the way to move.

From now I set myself free
of limits and imaginary lines,

my own master and absolute.

"I divest myself from
the holds that would hold me."

That's what the poet wrote.

"Deemed no more modest
than immodest," he said, the
old man called his own shots.

Walt Whitman set it
all down more than
100 years ago in a poem

scratched out with
quill pen and paper, called,
Song of the Open Road.

"O public road," he wrote,
"You express me better
than I can express myself."

Well, now it's my turn,
just moving along,

heading south,
Interstate-5, highway 101,

El Camino Real
out of the past,
the Old King's Highway.

Down along the California
Coastline Freeway,
leading wherever I want to go.

"Listen," said Walt,
"I'll be honest with you,

"I don't offer the old
smooth prizes, but offer
rough new ones instead."

I'm in favor of that,
being no more modest
than immodest,

rough prizes
instead of smooth,
whatever happens.

My name, James Garner.

This is my road,
the one I choose,
the one I follow.

(ENGINE ROARING)

I get up at 4:00
in the morning to do this.

My buddy,
Scooter Patrick and I are...

...gonna race this Bronco
about 850 miles
through hot, dry,

desert mountain sand,
and what have you,

all the way from Ensenada
to La Paz in Baja, California.

We'll be eating dust
for about 24 hours,

and coughing it
for about two weeks.

If you asked me if I'm
a little crazy for doing this,

you'd probably get
one of these, uh...

Ask me if I think we
can go down the road
quicker than 300 other guys,

well, I'd probably say,
"We're sure as hell
gonna find out."

*

Being no more modest
than immodest,

it's only fair to say that
I'm out to win this off-road
race to La Paz.

We have a team of six cars
like the ones Scooter
and I are driving

entered in the starting
lineup of 244, all kinds,
including motorcycles.

All heading south to
where the pavement ends,
just mixing it up,

finding a groove.

That's Scooter and me
just trying to find out
which way did they go.

It's a lot of fun,
but it's dangerous
out here too.

You can't let yourself relax.

Good for us. We're either
on our way to La Paz or
back to Ensenada.

Meanwhile, our teammate,
Parnelli Jones,

in another Bronco, number 83,
has a hornet on his tail.

And there ain't nothing
on this whole desert

that's gonna stop
that man on his bike

from thinking
he can catch Parnelli.

Over 200 miles
into the race now,

and Parnelli on the left
is running ahead
of Scooter and me.

That's us way down
there on the right,
and we've got problems,

while the rest of the race
goes on around us.

(ENGINE REVVING)

(JAMES YELLING INSTRUCTIONS
INDISCERNIBLY)

Hey Scoot, how bad is
the one on the other side?

SCOOTER:
It's only flat on the bottom.

How about the rim?

SCOOTER: It's all right.

Are you loose yet?

JAMES: Yeah, okay.

Get her...

JAMES:
Well, back at it again,
only 650 miles to go.

...the San Ynez checkpoint,
about 45 miles?

SCOOTER:
Would you believe only 32?

JAMES: There's old 59 again
coming on, but we're behind.

You can really get spread out
over this Baja race.

And then again, when you're
running good, like we are now,

you just pick 'em off
one at a time.

Courteous, the way this other
car lets us around, right?

Well, that's part of it.

Fact is though, there's only
room for one car on this road,

and if you don't pull over
in this mad dash to La Paz,

you get run over.

This is checkpoint San Ynez,

today's population,
about a dozen mechanics,
40 airplanes,

a couple thousand gallons
of gasoline,

a few chickens and,
we hope, two new tires.

Last week the population
was six people and
those same chickens.

I told you, Scooter,
they don't have
any tires here.

-We out of tires?
-Yeah, the two on
the back are gone.

How long ago
was Parnelli here?

MAN: Uh, about 11:53.

An hour and 20 minutes.
That's about what we lost.

(TALKING INDISCERNIBLY)

Going head on,
you better take it easy.

JAMES: There goes
old what's-his-name,

an hour and 20 minutes
off the pace

with a couple of spares
that wouldn't hold up
a kiddie car,

chasing Parnelli Jones.

Must be some nervy actor.
A kind of lucky actor, though.

South of San Ynez,
Parnelli is out with
a broken front suspension,

and he's not alone.

"Run 'em till the end"
is the rule,

"Then run 'em down
the road some more."

It's a hell of a long way
to La Paz.

Baja, California,
the long, dry boot
to the end of the race

that'll go from day
to night to day again.

The broken parts, the dust
that gets into every pore
and the tremendous fatigue.

But it's worth every
cough and bump of it

because now
it's just you, the car,
and that open road ahead.

Have you had
your shower, dear?

Oh, I'm clean,
fresh as a daisy,
just ready to go.

-Your makeup's running.
-Is it?

Makeup man!

We're way behind.
We're about, uh, two...

...two and a half hours
behind where we should be,

but we had a little problem...

Or we had a
few little problems.

MALE REPORTER:
Did you know that Bill
and Parnelli are out?

Bill and Parnelli are out,
Loomis is out,

and the rest of our boys
are going strong.

My teammate Larry Minor
wins his class, comes in third
overall, and first automobile.

The end of the race at La Paz.

Scooter and I didn't win it,
but only three cars in our
class got here ahead of us.

That's not bad.

(PEOPLE CHATTING INDISTINCTLY)

This is Los Angeles,
venture racing time.

And time to announce plans.

Laying it all on the press,
getting everybody up to
the coming year.

We're going racing
on the big circuits.

Endurance cars
and Formula A cars,
this is it, the real thing.

What the hell
am I getting into?

JAMES:
Ladies and gentlemen,

I think our biggest
announcement today is what
we call the Garner TS5,

and I'd like to, uh...

...open our little racing
establishment formally

by, uh, showing you
our rendering.

Cold and wet
and half a world away,

Silverstone, England.

This is our
John Surtees/ Len Terry-built
Formula A car, the TS5.

The big test, shakedown time.

New design, never been raced.

This has to be
considered a gamble.

I'm already on my way to meet
Scooter and give her a go.

No, this isn't the racecar,
not quite,

but it's about the best way
to get out to Silverstone,
in Scooter's little Mini.

I'm looking forward to this.

It'll be the first time I've
had a crack at a Formula car

since I made the film,
Grand Prix.

It's a whole new thing
happening here,

getting ready to do
something we've wanted
to do for a long time.

This is John Surtees.

While we're on our way out,
he and his crew are getting
the car ready.

Surtees started out racing
motorcycles and became
a world champion at it.

Then he started
driving racecars.

He took the world's
championship there too.

Now, John knows what
goes into a performance
machine like this one

because he's been
on all sides of racing.

He's a driver, an engineer
and a builder.

He's got it locked up
there in his head,

and when he's shaking down
a racecar, like he is now,

he's got kind of a sixth sense
working for him.

Scooter has it too.

It's not ordinary machine
we're dealing with here.

We deal in limits.

We push horsepower
and we push metal fatigue,
and driver fatigue, too.

We're on the edge of blowing
the whole thing all the time,

but I like that.

Having what you
think is a good idea
and then making it work.

Pits and paddock, huh?

This place
they call Silverstone

used to be an airport
during World War II.

The RAF used it
for a fighter base.

They had them
all over England.

And that's why England is kind
of the seat of racing now,

because when the war
was over and everything
went for scrap,

somebody had the idea
of turning these old
airdromes into racetracks.

So, here we are.

Well, the guys are waiting.
I better go in
and try my uniform on.

Uh-oh.

We got snow today.
That makes it just
a little slippery out there.

Well, you can consider
that one of my better tests.

I didn't make a mistake.

(ENGINE ROARING)

Before we go racing with
the Formula A racing car
we saw in England,

we're going to run
two English Lola coupes
like this one,

here in the
24 Hours of Daytona.

Now, here's your
average movie actor
taking on the factory teams.

Think about it.

Today is for qualifying.

Tomorrow afternoon,
63 cars will start the race.

Scooter Patrick has just
qualified our number 9 Lola
in tenth starting position

with an average speed
of 120 miles over
the 3.8 mile course.

That's really moving.

That means he has to be
doing 190 on a straight.

Davey Jordan on the right
is Scooter's co-driver.

Both from California,
their backgrounds are similar,

driving winning
Porsche racecars.

But their styles differ.
Davey's is methodical, steady,

one of the coolest guys
I've ever seen in my life.

Scooter is a charger,
but still in his own way
just as cool.

Our main concern in a race
of this kind is longevity.

How long will our Lolas live?

Once the race starts tomorrow,
we've got to keep them running
for 24 hours straight,

16 hours longer than a Lola
has run consecutively
in the past.

It's going to be
working together
every minute of the race,

myself and all the guys.

The guy with the glasses
is our head mechanic, Pat Fey,

the crew chief with
the Ford team the first time
they won Le Mans.

He's a winner.

There's a reason for
everything Pat does,

and a reason for
the order it's done in.

He and his crew now have
the number 8 Lola
ready to qualify.

(MAN ON PA
INTRODUCING VEHICLE)

What's happening now?
I mean,
what's really happening?

There goes a 2,200-pound car
with a 160-pound diver

sitting in front of an engine
that puts out 450 horsepower,

and it's sucking up
a gallon of gas every time
around the course.

And the whole damn thing
costs about $35,000
just to put it on the track,

just to put it out there
and run the risk of reducing

the entire enterprise to
a pile of junk on some turn.

I'm scared to death
when my drivers are
on the course,

not because of the car,
but because of them
and their safety.

You have to have a cool
that won't budge.

Now, Don Rabbit has it.
He's our team manager.

His side of racing
doesn't have a steering wheel,
but he's a winner.

He is a politician,
a PR man, an analyst.

When the guys discuss
gear ratios
and performance factors,

Don knows what they're talking
about, and I'll tell you,

once you get this active
technical world in your blood,

once the excitement bug
is bit, you've got
a hold on racing.

Either, either we lower
or we raise the second gear.

-We need to get up
a little further.
-I know.

Well, that's all...

All I'm getting is wheel spin.

I said, for second gear,
you're in there
for five seconds, right?

And after the shift,
you drop so far

that you haven't got anything,
but that's the only change.

You've got too much room
between second and third?

-Is that what the problem is?
-Yeah, a gap, you know.

Yeah, third and forth are...

You gotta wind the hell
out of second gear
to pick up in third.

JAMES:
Our other two drivers,

teammates on
the number 8 Lola.

On the right,
Lothar Motschenbacher,

German-born American
and ex-Mercedes repairman.

Teutonic, quick-tempered,
the all-out racer.

And Ed Leslie,
from California,

an old pro with all his
faculties he had in one bag.

Ed Leslie is at his peak,

because he's experienced
literally everything
in racing.

He isn't psyched
by tomorrow's competition,

he knows who they are
and what they're up to.

The blue and orange bids
from Ford of England,

the expensive GT40s,
Le Mans winners,
proven endurance machines.

Another major threat,
another Lola, brand new,
not last year's like ours.

Roger Penske's number 6,
driven by two of the best,

Mark Donohue
and Chuck Parsons.

Lighter and faster than
the other Lolas,
but is it as durable?

And the impeccable German
factory entries, the Porsche
model 908 prototype.

How are they
going this morning?

Uh, we dropped third gear
in one of the cars...

-The shifting fork broke.
-The shifting fork...

They look fast past here.

This is Davey Hobbs
of England,

driving a GT40 tomorrow

and a Surtees Formula A car
later in the season.

He's a strong competitor
who might win,
and a damn good friend too.

-JAMES: They're stable.
-They are.
You see that Porsche?

'51. Old possessor. Jesus!
Down here.

Probably just gonna
wipe us all up.

The number 8 car
has qualified right behind
our number 9,

in 11th place on Saturday's
starting grid.

We've run slower
than we'd hoped, so,
we're tomorrow's underdogs.

But qualification time
isn't everything.

What really counts is
how long can you go
without breaking down.

Before the race,
this afternoon and tonight,

power plants and gears
will be changed in most
of the competing cars.

High-speed engines used
to grab the top qualifying
time are yanked out,

and slower,
more durable engines,
at $5,000 apiece,

are bolted in
for the 24-hour grind.

At Daytona,
you really have two races,

one for the starting lineup,
another for the main go.

Most of these men spend
the better part of
their lives in a garage,

and some of them say this is
where the real racing goes on,

just getting ready for it all,

working with your hands
and talking it out.

(MECHANICS SPEAKING
INDISCERNIBLY)

If we run 62, 6300, right?

And it's running 202, 203,
and you start giving us
the go-ahead,

and I come by with
a thumbs-down, that means

that's what we can do at
62 or 6300.

Now, if they want to go
quicker, we're gonna
have to turn them more.

JAMES:
How do you go quicker?

That's on everybody's
mind tonight.

How to go quicker
and still have your car
live for 24 hours.

The Porsche factory team
thinks it has the answer.

But nobody's gonna steal it.

It's built into the cars.
Locked in there behind
hard, polished metal.

In another garage,
Roger Penske thinks he
has the answer too.

His number 6 Lola seems to
have everyone guessing.

It's something like looking
horses in the eye
and tying to pick a winner.

Better forget it
and go to bed.

(MARCHING BAND PLAYING)

Race day, Saturday,

the preamble to the 24 Hours
of Daytona, Florida-style.

126 drivers, 63 cars,
over $2 million
of machinery on the grid.

The Porsches, eight factory
entries, including their
GT cars.

And the Alfas, the Fords,
Pontiacs, Chevrolets,
Ferraris,

and the Lolas.
Our Lolas and our drivers,

Scooter and Davey,
Lothar and Ed,
ready to get it on.

And what they call that
super-calm pre-race talk.

Like hell.

I've never been so nervous
in my life. Owner nerves.

Put me in a car, I'd calm down
in a hurry, 'cause that's
where it's really happening.

I've been behind the wheel,
and for race-watching,

it's the best seat
in the house.

(INDISCERNIBLE DISCUSSION)

JAMES: Are you gonna use
the left turn indicator
if you want to come in?

Or I'll drop down to two.

-Yeah, okay.
-If it happens after there...

Yeah, after there, yeah.
Right. Okay.

This is it.
Over five dozen cars
starting the pace lap,

the slowest in the back,
the fastest up front.

It's 3:00 now.
The race won't end
till this time tomorrow.

It's going to start with
a pole position
factory Porsche,

and on the outside,
Penske's Lola.

We're 10 cars back,
side-by-side.

(ENGINES REVVING)

The competition in the first
hour, the Ford GT40,
sweet and strong.

Another Lola,
a fast Swiss entry.

A Corvette's another American
make, and Penske's number 6,

already having
the first of its problems
with a faulty fuel tank.

And all of them,
including ourselves,

watching the Porsches
stretch out the lead,

with something like
23 hours to go.

But we've got a game plan,
that's hold onto it.

Don't try to win in
the first few hours,

and wait for
the other guys to break.

Did he see it?

JAMES:
So the hours roll off
and the car drop out.

Broken suspensions,
blow engines,
metal fatigue,

and along about sundown
the word is

that exhaust fumes are seeping
into the Porsche cockpits,

and their drivers
are getting groggy.

We're still holding on
with our Lolas,
back about 10 cars or so,

just waiting, and the race
isn't even half over yet.

It's 2:00 in the morning,
the 11th hour of the race, and
we've already set a record.

No Lola has ever gone
this long before.

Damn it! An unscheduled
pit stop for our number 8 car.

JAMES: Let's get it off.
And get the spare radiator
out of the truck.

Somebody get Ed and Lothar
something to eat.

Guys are still in front,
but their starting
to drop out.

Penske's Lola is in
every 45 minutes for gas.

-What's the time?
-1:56.

That's fourth place, baby.

He's starting to really
let it hang on.

Get it up a little higher.
Get it up here.

Grab that hose. Come on.

-Is Lothar ready?
-Is Lothar ready?

Lothar's ready. Let's go.

It's dawn,
and only half of the starters
are still running.

Gonna let you in
on a little secret.

Within the next few laps,
all the prototype Porsches

and Ford GT40s
will be out of the race.

But both our Lolas
are still running strong.

They're only coming in
now for routine fuelling
and driver changes.

God knows how many hours
we've been up.

Everybody's nerves are
as tight as they're ever
going to be.

We'll finish this race
if it kills us all.

Do one thing
and do the other.

Yeah.

No, no...
"Yeah," but I told you then.

(INAUDIBLE)

I'm out here.
I can't do anything.

That's an old air force
regulation. Never obey until
you get the conflicting order.

JAMES: Men get worn,
used up, they break,
they get fixed,

cars break,
men try to fix them.

Sometime they can,
sometime they can't.
It's the old endurance game.

We're playing survival here,
that's all.

With the Porsche 908s
and the Ford GT40s out,

Penske's Lola
has gone to the front.

Lothar is in second place
and Scooter is in seventh

after a two and a half hour
pit stop last night
to repair a wheel.

Penske's Lola is having
trouble, but he's still
ahead of the 2,300-mile mark.

Compared to the other cars,
Scooter and Lothar
are in good shape.

But still, to finish, they
have to know exactly

how far they can push them,
no more, no less.

And in the 24th hour,
we know our game plan works.

Minus one.

We get a second place.

ANNOUNCER: (OVER PA)
It's Chuck Parsons,
in car number 6,

the winner of
the 24 Hours of Daytona.

And in seventh place,
the checkered flag goes to
Scooter Patrick,

driving James Garner's
Lola number 9.

The other Garner entry,
with Lothar Motschenbacher,

ends the 24-hour
in second place.

Going for a bust,
huh, sweetheart?

(CHEERING)

JAMES:
"Going for a bust," all right.
We made it.

Over 2,300 miles in 24 hours.

That's pretty good, I'd say,
against the big factory boys.

Scooter and Davey
in the 9 car,

and coming in now,
Lothar in our number 8 Lola.

You get an idea
and you make it work.

That's what it's really
all about.

Hey, where's Ed?

(ALL SPEAKING INDISCERNIBLY)

-Oh, boy, we had you worried.
-Hey, Lothar.

Beautiful, baby,
just beautiful.

-Nice job, there.
-Nothing to it.

"Nothing to it," Lothar says.

"Not much."

*

JAMES: Nothing to it?
Sunday drive, huh?

We got it, baby.

We can sweep it
in Sebring.

Like Silverstone, England,

Sebring, Florida,
is a curiosity left over
from the past.

It's an old air strip
with a new sound.

This is what Scooter sees
during practice in the Lola,

an airport course
that'll tear the guts
out of a car.

No easy banking like Daytona,

just flat turns,
suspension-killers.

12 of them every time
around the 5.2 mile course.

But the team is ready for
a win, Daytona proved that.

Racing for 12 hours
instead of 24,

our cars will only
have to live half as long
to be competitive,

and we're either going to be
competitive at Sebring,
or get out of town.

(INAUDIBLE)

I can't keep water
in the basket. I put the
thing on it all night.

-Cross your fingers.
-Yeah.

Scooter's on it, though.

I actually was going to
ask you whether you
had the right height set.

As high as I can get it.

Scooter in number 10.
This was the number 9 car
a month ago at Daytona.

It's been running a little
warm but this is minor,

right now there's
a bigger problem.

Lothar hasn't come by.
He's stuck out on the course
somewhere in the other car.

-Where's Lothar, Scoot?
-Lothar is...

You know where you go
down the back over here,

and you make the big sweeper
to the 90 on the back,

he's about 100 feet
this side of the 90.

If you want me to
keep it under 7,000,

just put a sticker
on the damn windshield.

Everybody's going on 7,000.

That was my understanding.

That's what the instructions
were supposed to have been.

That all the drivers
had to run 7,000 hours.

He said it's 7,200, 7,400,

you can do it once in a while,
but you can't
do it consistently.

But we weren't.
We weren't pulling fifth gear
at 7,100.

It's beautiful.

JAMES:
Now, the reason Don Rabbit's
chewing Lothar's butt

is because his engine
is a total wipeout.

It just won't go as fast
as Lothar tried to make it go.

So, in goes a new one
at five grand.

A quarter inch...

There's a groove you have to
find, and Lothar was looking
for it like any other driver.

That's the big test
for him and Ed.

At Sebring, you have to
rev your engine faster.

The course is a series
of drag strips,
acceleration runs.

It's one of the things
you put into an equation

that is supposed to make
everything work in your favor.

It just doesn't always happen.

Pick up some breaking, man,
that's where we can make it.

You know, just get a little...

6,900 or 7,000, instead if
7,100 or 7,200.

They're running fourth gear
up one and two.

No, I run fifth through one,
and then click it down
to the next for two,

and then stay in there,
and come third to go around
that thing, and nail fourth.

Going into the MG,
then back to third and around
and under the bridge.

I get in fourth
and stay in fourth,
I don't go to fifth.

JAMES: Yeah, everything
we do in practice and on
qualifying day

goes toward getting in shape
for tomorrow's race.

And while we're fixing
Scooter and Lothar's Lola,
Davey Jordan, Mr. Cool,

showing about as much emotion
as a man sitting down

to a plate of fried eggs
in the morning,

gets ready to turn it on
in practice.

So, in the meantime,
I just stick it out in
the pits and do my thing.

A little pre-race racing
with the boys, if you haven't
already recognized them,

that's Mario Andretti
on the left and Chris Amon
standing next to him.

There's going to be some
heavy competition here at
Sebring, you can bet on that.

Like Daytona, the 12 hours
of endurance at
Sebring tomorrow

will be part of the part of
the Manufacturer's
Championship Circuit.

And a lot of these same cars
are back in this event
before Le Mans.

The Fords, this GT40 driven by
Jackie Icks and Jackie Oliver.

The winner number 6 at
Daytona is now number 9.

The Penske Lola driven by
Mark Donohue in the center
next to Roger Penske,

his co-driver will be
Ronnie Bucknum.

Their Lola, like ours,
has had a complete rebuild
since Daytona,

stiffer suspension,
lower gears, faster engine.

The Ferrari factory, who
didn't make it to Daytona,

is here with one
entry, Model 312,

driven by Mario Andretti
and Chris Amon.

And the Porsche 908s are back.

Open roadsters this time
to beat the heat
and exhaust fumes,

modified hill climb cars
called Sebring Spiders.

Everybody's ready
for tomorrow's race.

This is race morning
for Scooter and his wife.

He's just going
over to the track
to drive his racecar,

another work day.

Davey Jordan is already there,
boning up on
a driver's meeting

so his partner
could sleep late,

since Scooter will be taking
the first wheel when the race
starts at 11:00.

Chris Amon has the new lap
record set yesterday

in the pole starting position
for his factory Ferrari.

But before that,
for an entire year,
Scooter had the record.

He knows the course and how
to handle himself on it.

It's like coming home again
at Sebring.

(MARCHING BAND PLAYING)

It's that very peculiar time
in racing, half an hour to go,

the time for seeing
your old buddies

for idle talk, race strategy,
a little good distraction.

The rules, regulations,
and codes of conduct

in this particular
world along the pit wall.

-Yeah, push it back.
-I know.

I fell clear into the car
that year.

Ran all the way across fast
as I could with other souls
and slid underneath the car.

(LAUGHS)

MAN: I got your coat.

-(CROWD CHEERING)
-ANNOUNCER:
And the mob starts!

We are ready for the Sebring
12 Hours of Endurance.

(ENGINES REVVING)

15 laps. Get ready to change.

JAMES: You might say
at this point that Scooter's
overheated car has had it,

only 45 minutes into the race,
a steam wagon nobody
knows how to fix.

It's got oil in it, so...

Well, it's varying
20 degrees...

(INAUDIBLE)

That's no good.

You could have come
off the bottom half.

I was doing 40 for a while
because I thought I was
getting a lot of their heat.

Yeah.

And then I got it up to
about 300-400 RPM,
didn't make a difference.

-And then the last...
-No matter what you were
running, it was running hot.

Okay.

SCOOTER:
The oil pressure would
go up to about 38,

and then it'd start
coming down to about 20, 25,
and stay there.

So, it did that twice,
three times...

-Yeah.
-It started to come out
the bottom.

Well, I was up in the blimp...

I was up in the blimp, and
then I saw you come down here,

I saw three puffs of blue
smoke, and I said,
"Whoops, that's it."

JAMES: The life of
Scooter and Davey,

the year before they lead
for two and a half hours,

then took the walk
they're taking now.

But Lothar and Ed's car
is still in there,
our Lola number 11,

with 10 hours to go running
in tenth place and moving up
one car every hour.

The Ferrari is overheating,
the Alfas are all gone,

the tightly-sprung Porsches
are beginning to break up
over the bumpy course.

So is Penske's Lola.

Based on that,
you figure out our chances.

Here comes Lothar now.

Okay, driver change
and fuel this time.

And the third hour,
Lothar is in ninth place.

36 gallons of gas keeps us in
the race for about 70 minutes,

then it's into the pits again
for more fuel
and a driver change

and new tires if we need them.

A little sticky
for a cross-country drive,

but we don't get very excited
about economy around here.

It's how fast you go,
not what it
costs to get there.

The only reason we want
to know gas mileage is
to time our next pit stop.

Figure out our gas
mileage from this.

Scooter only got
four in the practice.

-Huh?
-Scooter only got
four plugs.

JAMES:
I'm standing here
on the sidelines,

watching these cars,
and I say,

"God, they are so fast
and so beautiful."

And I'm thinking about
what gets somebody

started in this thing,
what got me started.

Finding a completely
different group of people
than I'd imagined.

Maybe the risk element
does it,

tweaking our taste buds,
so to speak.

Whatever it is, it's wrong
to try and analyze it.

As long as it feels right,
don't inquire.

If you do,
you'll ruin something.

It's an entire language
on its own.

And you can be fluent without
even being aware of it.

-Ah, that was fun.
-It was good.

You attempted some
pretty good times when you
tried to stay in front of him.

-Yeah, I got down to nine.
I got down to nine...
-Yeah, I know.

-That's good for me.
-That's very good.

Not good for Fred,
but good for me.

Yeah, but, uh...

Go cool it.

Now, what Dick Smothers
and I get out of racing

and what some little girl gets
out of it isn't to be argued.

But when a team of female
drivers runs out of gas
on a Sebring straight,

then I have to butt in
and say it's taking just
a little too much for granted

to think you're going to ease
that baby back into traffic.

By now, old Penske's Lola
is leading again,

but on the 96th lap,
not too long from now,

the car that won Daytona
will have to retire at Sebring
with broken suspensions.

In the meantime,
we're still picking off
a car an hour.

Moving in on sixth place.
It feels right, now,
for Ed and Lothar.

They've got a hold on
an international
endurance event,

competing against the finest
drivers and machinery
in the world.

But we're only running two
races in this series of 10,
Daytona and here.

We're not out for
the championship,
for the big prize,

like Porsche or Ferrari
or some other manufacturer.

Ed and Lothar,

they're just doing real good
what they know how to do best,

and it's pleasing the living
hell out of 'em.

(INAUDIBLE)

(ENGINE REVVING)

-You're supposed to get
in there by your ankles.
-(BOTH LAUGH)

*

Here's Lothar.

We've got
an hour and 20 minutes
to go, so fill it all the way.

Ed, you're running
third behind
the Ferrari and the Ford.

Now, let's keep it going.
Just keep it going.

Fill away.
We need every gallon.

JAMES: Let's go.

Goodyear says the tires
will go all the way.

No sweat.

But the car's handling
all right?

-Hasn't changed.
-Like it was...
Hasn't changed?

Then that's all right!

You know where
we are and everything?

25's had an
overheating problem.

And Ford just stopped it
in the sandbank,
but he got back out again.

JAMES:
Head's up. Ed's coming in.

What is it? What's wrong?

ED: The damn left
front bearing's broken.

JAMES: You can't drive it
this way. It'll pull you
right off the road, won't it?

No, I don't think I can
drive it unless I don't
use the brakes at all.

-JAMES: I see.
-It just started grinding.

JAMES:
We've been in 15 minutes.
How much longer?

Ferrari's number one.
Ford just moved into third.

We're down to fourth
on the board.

It's on there solid.
I gotta cool it down
to get it off.

How's the oil pressure?
All right?

Think we oughta dump
some oil in before you go?

I've only got two hands.

JAMES:
Our name won't be in lights
much longer.

JAMES:
It's all here on Ed's face.

Everything that's happened
in the last 32 minutes.

That's how long we've
been in the pits.
We could have won.

We were on to something good,

but now we'll only
finish in sixth place.

*

The last thing you ever
want to do is let a race
get you down.

Since Sebring, I've been
to Europe, made a film,

got myself shaved,
and I feel a lot better.

My driver's been
busy too.

Lothar Motschenbacher
has been racing
Formula A cars,

Can-Am and Trans-Am too
with Ed Leslie.

And Scooter Patrick's
been racing and winning.

And John Surtees has
the open-wheel cars
that we saw in England

running like a bandit
on the American Circuit.

It won a championship race
up in Minnesota
with Davey Hobbs driving.

You remember Davey
from Daytona?

Well, we've got one of
the Formula A cars now
for ourselves,

and Scooter's been testing it
at a track about an hour north
of San Francisco

called Sears Point
International Raceway.

It's hilly country,
like western Connecticut.

That's where our first race
will be next week.

We've got a lot of work.
The car is only about half
finished, Scooter tells me.

It has to be gone through
and set up just right,

like a fine watch with
a 450 horsepower spring.

Not many people around today,
so we have the track
to ourselves.

Scooter and the new Formula
car, and our mechanics,
the best I know.

Max Kelly, our crew chief,
and little Bobby Fischetti,
with the goatee,

ready to try out our new toy.

(ENGINE REVVING)

SCOOTER:
When you get on it,
watch the back end.

It wants to come around
on you all the time.

The suspension
is still tricky as hell.

*

JAMES:
Now I'm finally getting to do
what I couldn't do in England,

drive the new Formula car.

Formula A is a whole new thing
in American racing.

You'd probably best
describe it as our version of

racing for the
World's Championship
for Formula 1.

These cars are a little bigger
than Europe's Formula 1 cars.

More horsepower
but less expensive.

It's a 200 mile an hour rig
with the right gears,

but we're not
gonna go that fast.

About 170 top, I'd say,
on a road circuit like this.

The car has a
monocoque construction.

Body, gas tanks,
and frame are all in one.

The engine, like our Lolas had
is a Traco belt Chevy.

Scooter's right
about the handling.

Our mechanics, Max and Bobby,
have a lot to do

in the next couple of days
before Connecticut.

WOMAN ANNOUNCER:
American Airlines
flight 640...

...non-stop to
Hartford Connecticut
is now in the final...

Good morning.

JAMES: Being no more
modest than immodest,

it's a pretty gutsy
thing we're doing.

Getting in the competition
this late in the season,

and Scooter's never even
driven an open-wheeler
in a race.

What was it I said?
We're sure as hell
going to find out?

Is Mr. Patrick aboard now?

Yes, he just boarded
a couple minutes ago.

You tore my ticket.

Thought you weren't
going to make it.

Saved the window
for you though.

JAMES: Thanks a lot.

You feel like you've
been here before?

I almost feel like
I hadn't left.

I tell ya, Max called me
at 3:30 this morning,

and I guess when they
stopped for coffee they
decided they'd check...

JAMES: Scooter's talking
about Max Kelley,

our super chief mechanic
on the Formula A car

who's been working literally
day and night ever since our
Sears Point testing.

The only rest that he
and Bobby Fischetti

and their families
will get is right now,

hauling the race car
across country with
the van and trailer.

We'll all get to
Lime Rock, that's the
track in Connecticut,

just in time to qualify
the new car, maybe.

It's a one day race.

I know, and we're running out
of time is what we're doing.

We're getting
one hour practice,

and if anything goes
wrong in practice, you know...

How much sorting out
can we do?

How many hours does
it take to sort out a car?

Well, you know,
if we're lucky...

I'd say it's gonna take
at least a day,

if we're really lucky and
everything goes right.

Well, I think what you're
trying to tell me is

we're gonna use
Lime Rock as a test,

and we'll go race
at St. Jovite.

I think so.

JAMES: Now, from up here
in this big remote airplane,

miles above everything,
going 600 miles an hour,

Scooter and I can only guess
what the guys are doing

down there on that
long open road of theirs.

Stopping for a gourmet dinner,
checking into a nice motel,

jumping into the
swimming pool.

That's the beautiful
part of racing,

all that opportunity
to see new, exciting,
glamorous places.

I bet right now, Max and Bobby
are being waited on by some
gorgeous young thing,

eating cake and ice cream,
ready to get a move on again.

Going across country to
Lime Rock Connecticut.

Well, they deserve
every bit of their luxury.

Race day's gonna be a
hell of a test for everybody.

Takes a long time to
learn what you want to
know about a race car

before putting a driver
in it and saying,

"Okay, Scoot, all the pieces
are in place. Go do it."

That's a long road.
A long, long one.

JAMES:
And a groovy woman's waiting
to live, how about that?

And here I am, right?

-I gotta be insane...
-(LAUGHING)

You realize I could be
playing with a kid, we could
be sitting around by the pool,

having a nice
cold lunch, you know?

-(LAUGHING)
-No, no, I'm here in this...

And the humidity's so bad
you don't believe it,

changing tire.

JAMES:
These are the Litchfield Hills
of northwestern Connecticut.

Most of the time,
the grass here's
just full of bugs,

but on race day it gets
full of people too.

People watching
other people driving.

Here's our boy
Davie Hobbs again.

We'll be seeing a lot of him
in the next few weeks.

This fella is
Andrea de Adamich,

Davie's teammate on
the two Surtees cars,
number 74 and 75.

A lot like ours,
but we don't have air foils.

And this is the
Lime Rock course. A beauty.

1.5 miles around,
the race this afternoon
will be 70 laps.

The average speed, just a
little over 100 miles an hour.

20 cars will start and
63 minutes later
it'll all be over.

We're latecomers, but for
most of the other drivers,

the race at Lime Rock will be
their tenth in a series of 13.

A continental championship
for Formula A cars.

The drivers are from the
United States, Canada,
Germany and Italy,

and like David Hobbs,
from England.

A couple of months back,
we had Davie lined up
to drive for us,

when we were planning
a three car team.

Then something happens,
things get changed around.

Same in racing
as in anything else.

Now we got one car,
one driver, still a lot
of headaches,

and a lot of good friends.

You don't need anything else
to go racing, except maybe
a ton of money,

and an open road ahead
for Scooter for qualifying
time at Lime Rock.

*

Old Scoot's puttin' it
on here, but he's still
five seconds off the pace.

Two reasons, sloppy suspension
slowing him in the turns,

and because we haven't
put on the air foils,

or wings,
as spectators call 'em.

Now, if I seem nervous
as hell here, I am.

While I've been talking,
Scooter hasn't come around.

Somethin' tells me he's out
there on the back stretch
with a broken race car.

This is what I can
really do without.

Trudging over a mountain and
knowing there's nothing but
bad news on the other side.

WOMAN:
Look, there's James Garner!

-Where?
-Over there.

Let's get his autograph.
Got a pen?

(WOMEN LAUGHING)

(INDISTINCT ANNOUNCEMENTS
OVER RADIO)

ANNOUNCER:
That's James Garner entry.
First time out this year,

in our continental
championships.

Scooter Patrick's driving
a TS5. He's from
Manhattan Beach California.

-What happened?
-I think the, uh...

The distributor shaft broke.

We'll get a tow truck
to pull you in.

Practice is about anywhere
from five to ten minutes
before it'll be over.

JAMES:
We'll search up a distributor.

I hear you got
a Hillborn distributor,
complete outfit, right?

It goes into the
Lucas injector.

We want to
borrow that, sparky.

The real fun starts now.

Without the distributor,
that one broken part,

Scooter's car isn't
going to start again.

It's either put in a new one
or pull out of the race.

The price tag, $2,000.

I give you a
Diners Club credit card
you think that'll satisfy him?

-(LAUGHING)
-Um...

I'll give him a
personal check.

I'll give him
whatever he wants.

If I have to
I'll sell my body.

JAMES: This is all
Bobby Fischetti needs.

Along with the heat,
another problem,
another delay,

and we still haven't
qualified the car.

Poor old Bobby.

I mean, the guy is just
falling down on his feet.

The sun is killing him,
he hasn't had any sleep,

we didn't go to bed
last night at all.

We come out and look
at all the exotic stuff that
everybody's got on theirs.

Ours has nothing
but the engine,

and we're trying to work
with the suspension

and we work on
a basic suspension,
and it's running.

According to plan everybody
should have been about four
laps into the race by now,

but lucky for us
there's been a delay.
A postponement.

Now if we can just get
this engine running in
the next few minutes,

we'll be able to start
even though we didn't qualify.

Everybody's
pitched in to help.

Even guys from another pit.

But it's that broken
gas pump over there
that's really saving us.

Keeping most of the other
cars still waiting for fuel.

You know we're going
to make the race now.

The one out there
on the track that was
supposed to start at 3:45

and it's now already 4:00.

But the real race has been
going on for a long time.
The race to get ready.

Max Kelley calls it,
"Massaging a car."

Working with it until it's
as finely tuned as he
knows how to make it.

He's an artist who's finished
his job, just to hand it over
to another artist, the driver,

to Scooter.

It's like giving a painter a
superb brush and pigment

and then seeing him go on
and do something wise and
beautiful with it beyond that.

And most of the spectators
viewing this whole thing see
something entirely different.

So, who in the end
can really say what the
big draw is to racing?

Who even wants to guess?
Not me.

I just know that right
this minute, my driver,
Scooter Patrick,

in car number 30,
is moving under his own power.

Lining up in back of the pack
where they send

all the did-not-qualifies
like tardy school kids.

And we're so far from perfect.
Brand new tires that haven't
been scrubbed in yet.

No air foils sticking up high
to hold the back end down
on turns.

Suspension still not
the way we want it, but...

Well, as I said before,
didn't I?

We're sure as hell
going to find out.

(ENGINES REVVING)

COMMENTATOR:
Cars are off on the pace lap.

One lap around before
they get the green flag

in this Continental
Championship.

That last car back there,
number 30 didn't get started.

Looks like Scooter Patrick
having trouble.

James Garner is running out
to see what's the matter.

It never happened like this
Grand Prix by George, did it?

Well, it's gonna start.
It's gonna fire.

So, Scooter is off
in the Garner number 30

and this is going to give
Scooter a little job to do.

Remember him from
the West Coast,

he's, uh, come up
in the Porsches.

But a very fine
Porsche driver.

And the rest of the pack now,
the pace car's

leading them down the
main straight to the start.

Posey on the pole,
de Adamich on the outside.

Hobbs and Wintersteen,
the second round qualifiers.

And the green flag is out
and they're off.

JAMES: The pace lap is
over and everybody's got
the green flag for go,

everybody except Scooter.

37 seconds behind.
Pouring down now to
catch up with the rest,

to get his own flag.

Three quarters of a
mile behind the leader
Andrea de Adamich.

Come on Scooter,
let's get it on.

COMMENTATOR:
Scooter Patrick gets
the green flag for him.

Really out to
catch the rest of 'em.

De Adamich taking the lead.
Posey second,
Wintersteen third,

and it's Davie Hobbs fourth.

These Formula A cars
are racing at Lime Rock

for the second time
this season.

(ROARING CARS BLOCK OUT
ANNOUNCER'S VOICE)

He's the first
European driver to win a
continental championship race.

You're gonna see
de Adamich and Hobbs,

and there's Surtees cars
and some of the other boys
from Europe here today,

trying to outdo
the American drivers.

De Adamich still in front.

That's one and 61.5 seconds.

And it's Scooter Patrick,
he's going to try to catch up.

We don't know whether
he'll ever be able to make it
or not.

JAMES:
The 75 car's David Hobbs.

He was third
on the starting grid

with a qualifying speed
of 105 miles an hour.

But Scooter, even without
the air foil is turning it on.

Already passing slower cars.

We've got Scooter
on the clock now.
57 seconds,

56, 57 again, and 55.

Feeling out the car and
finding his own groove.

No question about it,
Formula A is tough to handle.

The cars are light,
the weight's in the rear,

and by the time you feel the
back swinging around,

it's usually too late to do
anything about it.

It's all finesse and artwork,
like driving Grand Prix cars.

A world champion Graham Hill
pinned it down when he said,

"We're executing a very fine
balancing act on the edge
of disaster."

-(TIRES SCHREECHING)
-(CRASHING)

COMMENTATOR: Oh, uh-oh!
Two cars off the course,

at the end of the main
straight over there in
turn one.

The yellow car is upside down.

JAMES: The yellow car is
underneath the white car,

and the guy's
upside down in there.

Yeah, he's out.
They're both out.

Man, oh, man.

He was a lucky cat,
I'll tell you that.

-What is that shining on?
-SCOOTER: That's a wheel.

He's upside down,
the wheels came up.

JAMES:
It's like he's got lights
on it or something.

(APPROACHING SIREN)

JAMES:
If anybody happens to be
superstitious, that's lap 13.

The race continues as
the cars bunch up,

but no passing will be
allowed until the course
is clear to the ambulance.

It gives the other drivers
time to think a little bit
about this game.

So far, four cars are out of
the running with 17 still in,

and by lap 27,
old Scoot the charger

will have moved from
last up to 11th place.

JAMES:
It's Scooter,
look, Scooter!

Oh, man. Blue smoke
out of the engine.

Come on, Max, Bobby!

(CRASHING)

COMMENTATOR:
Oh, another car off!
Into the wall at turn one.

Car number 9, Chuck Trowbridge
as hit Scooter
hard and into the wall.

Stay clear of the area,
stay clear, please.

You all right? You okay?

You went clear off the ground.

(INAUDIBLE)

It just let you
run through, man.

I must have come
that far off the ground.

Did you get any
indication beforehand?

Nothing.

No indication at all.

Well, all right,
that's the way it goes.

Stay with the big tires,
the same compound.

-On the front?
-On the front and everything.

Exactly the same.

Like the tires we've
got on there now.

Other words,
if we can spend...

You know, we were
raped this week

'cause we've got to put
an engine in, right?

-Right.
-But...

If we can get the
engine in time...

Yeah, we've got to find an
engine somewhere in Hartford.

And we hope it's in Hartford.

And today is the end
of Labor day.

If we can put it in and have
enough time to really track
the suspension, all right?

And know exactly where we are,
and go out with it...

JAMES: Now, right here,
this is what's so beautiful
about Scooter.

He's blown the engine
and the race, right?

But he's not rattled by it.
It happened, it's done.

He's already talking about the
car and what's wrong with it,

and what we can do
in less than a week
to make it better.

He's got a savvy about
the guts of a race car
damn few drivers have.

Scooter's nerve ends get down
into every part of the car,

and he can feel the whole
thing all the time.
That's where it's at.

That's a real race driver.

We got a lot of stuff in the
rear that's bad that we know
that's sloppy, okay?

-We do.
-We could go...

When we get on the brakes,
we could go to a super
tow out,

and we could...

Or tow in, on the brakes.

And on acceleration we'll just
walk 'em out like this and
that thing'll just...

It'll try to get...

It'll walk,
and that's what it's doing.

Does it always do the
same thing though?

Well, the harder you run it...

The harder we've been able
to run it,

the more rubber we've been
able to make it stick,

which makes
everything work harder,

the more this walking show up.

-Sure.
-See? It's gettin'...

That's when you've got
to get all those joints just
dead tight and clean.

Yeah, and so we're stuck...

You know, that's that one.

JAMES:
All of us sitting in the van,

we've pretty much forgotten
about the race outside,

but it's still going strong.

In car number one, the leader,
Sam Posey has been losing
one second a lap

to George Winnersteen
in car number 12.

Wintersteen's out
to take it all.

COMMENTATOR: It's Posey
and Wintersteen about ready

to wrap up this
Championship race.

Posey and Wintersteen...

Well, good for old Sam.
Proud of him.

MAN: Sam won't drink the
champagne anyway, will he?

Yeah, he won't drink.
He'll drink the coke.

I got him a little
water here anyway.

We got a lot to fight at the
next race next week in Canada.

Sam's gonna be there.
That's for openers,

and he's hard to beat.
All of 'em are.

-Congratulations, Sam.
-(LAUGHING)

Well, like we said,
Lime Rock will be for testing.

We'll go racing at
St. Jovite in Canada.

But first I'm gonna fly
back out west and
get us a new engine.

Then I'm gonna get
away by myself for
a day out in the open.

Put a steering wheel
in my hands again.

*

We should come to the track,
you know, reasonably early,
about 10:00,

and we have a warm-up
session for the feature cars.

Where you wander around
and meet the drivers,
meet the various crews.

There'll be a lot of press
photographers out there.

They'll want to get pictures
of you and the car,

poses probably with
the drivers et cetera.

Then the biggest thing
that you'll probably be
doing with the crowd...

JAMES:
This is a Friday night
in St. Jovite Canada,

about 100 miles
out of Montreal.

The gentleman is one
of the race track owners.

The young lady is Majken Kruse
Miss Continental Racing Queen.

You won't see
Scooter and me here,
we rode in kind of early.

Been working on the car
to get it ready for practice

and qualifying tomorrow
and for the race on Sunday.

But instead of another garage,

I wanted you to have a little
party time with our queen and
some of the racing people.

I see Lothar and Max
in the back there.

Well, we're going to
have a little party of
our own tomorrow,

out there on the race track.

It's a good course.

It's the same place they run
the Canadian Grand Prix.

COMMENTATOR: Two cars
at the end of the pit lane
ready to qualify.

Number 72 a Lola Ford
and Scooter Patrick,
number 30 in a TS5.

Top qualifying so far is
Sam Posey with a 135.7.

That's a 100 mile
an hour average.

*

JAMES: There's an old
saying in racing that if you
haven't spun out on a corner,

you haven't been
around it fast enough.

Well, Scooter got off
the course on the other side
in some of the rough stuff,

and from the smell of things,
something must've punctured
his gas tank.

Now we've only got just a few
minutes left to qualify.

You've heard
that one before, right?

So, it's time to improvise,
and improvise damn fast.

Funny how everybody
in our pit starts chewing
gum at the same time.

Uh, that's not all gas there,

that's water running over it
as a safety precaution.

You know, when you're racing,

we don't have much time to
look around and see what
the country's like.

But there's a different feel
here at St. Jovite.

It's like European racing.
Scooter feels it, we all do.

The French English PA
announcements, the girls,
the enclosed pits,

and the track itself.

They call it
Le Circuit Mont-Tremblant.

Two and one half miles
of some of the best road
racing course in the world.

In other words, it's a place
where a driver can really
prove himself.

He's got to be good here.

All the qualifying's done.

Davie Hobbs has ended up
with a pole position.
Sam Posey next to him.

Lothar got sixth
and Andrea tenth.

Wintersteen eleventh and we're
starting in sixteenth position
out of a field of 27 cars.

142 flat.

JAMES: 142 flat.
Four and a half seconds
slower than Posey's time.

We think we can make up that
difference with the air foil.

Way in the back.

One of these days we're
gonna get to race in time,
you know that?

It's a good thing we had
some bubble gum to
shove up that tank,

we wouldn't have
made it, right?

That's Dickie Smothers I'm
talking to inside the helmet.

A smaller car than ours,
but it's a fast one.

Dickie knows all about it.

-How many turns are there?
-I don't know.

JAMES: You don't know yet?

Why don't you take a little
time and count, Dickie?

With only eight laps,
just don't go so hard,
you know.

-Yeah.
-You remember real good.

Do like you said, you know.
Just keep going deep.
But you can't see, right?

-(LAUGHING)
-I can't think.

Hey, I'm gonna have
to start my engine
and warm it up.

Start it.

(ENGINE STARTING)

SMOTHERS: St. Jovite is
probably the most difficult
track on the whole circuit,

and I don't know it very well,
as I told Jim.

Get in the car with me
and we'll try and learn
it together.

Here we are going to the
south sweeper, I'm doing 120.

Breaking down
to about 60 or 70.

Holding the car to the
right side of the track and
accelerating as fast as I can

in third gear, now I'm going
to be shifting to fourth,

and then into fifth,
and eventually hit about 130
at the end of this straight.

Now, I'm cresting a hill,
the car gets very light,

so you have to keep it
straight ahead or you
could get sideways.

Now, I'll break down
into about 70 miles
an hour in third gear

through this right hander.

Now, breaking. Get on the gas.

I'm accelerating and
coming down into second
for this left-hander.

And accelerating out in
second gear, very fast,
on the brakes.

Now, holding the car
away from the turn
to the last moment

and then flipping that curb.

Being careful not to
scrub the tire on that,

'cause it throws you
a little sideways.

Now I'm accelerating
down the hill into a difficult
short tight sweeper,

and I've got to get second
gear, on the brake,
now on the gas.

Just feathering it enough
to keep the car going
as fast as possible

without going off to the
left side of the track.

Now, I'm entering the
start finish straight now,

and we'll go around
another time.

Uh, now I just lost
my oil pressure.

Which seems to happen to me
quite a lot, I don't know why.
But I guess I'm just lucky.

My hand is up to warn
the other drivers that I am
coasting to a stop now.

Uh, this is a very
dangerous track,

because as you see
on the left, the guard rails

and on the right is the
mountain side,

and if you do go off,
the car...

You're not so worried
about yourself,

but the car does get
severely damaged.

Well, I guess I've got to
make that long walk
back to the pits.

Wearing my very popular
and very well known
broken race car hat.

I'd like to throw
that one away, I'll tell you.

I might look happy here,
but in all actuality,
I'm very depressed and I...

I feel very unhappy.

But I'm in this sport for
better or for worse,

and I guess you just can't cry
over spilled motor oil.

That's a brand new engine,
right down the tubes.

(ALARMS BUZZING)

JAMES: Quarter to seven,
time to go racing.

And in another room,
Majken Kruse the race queen,

time to go racing,
quarter to seven.

COMMENTATOR:
There's Majken Kruse our
Miss Continental Race Queen.

Ending the driver's parade.

Let me make this announcement
now, the Formula A warm-up
period will begin shortly,

at 12:00 noon.

I repeat, the warm-up period
for the Formula A cars will
begin at 12:00 sharp.

No, you're looking good.

-Scoot.
-Yeah.

With your front end
sticking now,
What do you figure this'll do?

Well, hoping we can get away
from the oversteer in the back
we're getting now, you know?

All of a sudden we're getting
loose in the back, real bad.

You solved your understeer
and now you got into an
oversteer.

Is it gonna help
you squat, or not?

Well, it's gonna keep
pressure on a tire.

On the tire itself, yeah.

With the tire getting light,
it's gonna keep it
on the wheel.

But you're wearing it on the
inside, the squat, you know?

JAMES: We give him the
whole bag of tricks now.
On goes the air foil.

And off we hope, come about
four or five seconds a lap.

And we raise the right
height to get rid of
some of that squat.

Other words,
we're either going to be
completely out to lunch

or we might be fairly close.

JAMES:
Maybe you should try a little
warm-up session yourself

with Scooter at the wheel,
huh?

MAN: (OVER PA)
In particular,
watch that waved yellow flag.

As you know it's a Trans Am
under a waved yellow flag.

Some of the drivers
did not pay attention to it.
We had nine cars piled up.

A waved yellow flag means
be prepared to stop, and I
mean stop. Not slow down.

Watch the mirrors
constantly on this course.

It is ultimately important
that you do that.

The leaders will be
passing the slower cars

probably five or six
times during the race,

and we want to make sure that
they get around those cars as
fast as possible.

Gentlemen, that's about
all I have to say for now.

Gentlemen, have a good race.

(ENGINES STARTING)

JAMES: Okay, this is it now,

and you saw in the
warm-up session what
Scooter was doing.

The car's really
sorted out now.

And let me tell you,
we are competitive.

We got the five seconds
we were looking for.

JAMES:
Still running that pump?

-It's different now.
-Okay.

I'll see you in about an hour
and 15 minutes, Scoot.

COMMENTATOR:
All the cars seem to be
in pretty good shape

as they come around
on this pace lap.

Two flags are up,
the yellow and the green.

The pace car is in now.

Here it goes,
the green flag's out.

This continental
championship gets underway.

The cars pass the main
straight now, heading into
the far side of the course.

Let's go to turn three for the
first lap of this race,

as the cars should just
be cresting the hill.
Taking turn three.

COMMENTATOR 2:
The cars are coming
off the hill now.

Someone's out of control.
Right in the middle,
out of control.

(SCHREECHING)

...four, five, six, seven,
eight cars!

The driver of the
burning car is out.

There's an ambulance
on the way.

Nine cars!

The other cars are
coming through very slow.

Is the race called?
Is there a red flag?

The race has been
called in the first lap.

It is under a red flag
on the back stretch.

All the cars are being
flagged to a stop on the
far side of the course.

On the back stretch.

There undoubtedly
will be a restart.

Turn three,
are there injuries down there?

The drivers,
running up the hill.

The rest of them are out
of their cars and seem
to be all right.

Please, all spectators,
stay away from the accident.

Please stay away
from turn three.

There seems to be at least
no serious injuries,

but ambulances and fire
equipment are in the area.

Please, keep it clear.

Down on turn three again,
the way we saw it was,

in the middle of the pack,
and we still don't know
what car it was,

came through the traffic,
off the course
and into the embankment.

Then it came back again.

Hitting the other cars and
then bursting into flames.

Loose wheels and cars
all over the course.

We won't have the official
reading on who was involved
down there for a few minutes,

but some names have come
across from the far side of
the course

where the cars are stopped.

This is unofficial,
but the drivers seem to
be George Winnersteen,

Scooter Patrick,
Chuck Dietrich,

Rich Galloway, Steve Durst.

This is turn three,
George Winnersteen
in car number 12,

and Scooter Patrick in car
number 30 are confirmed.

Wintersteen's car burned,
but he seems to be all right.

Once again, the race has
been called temporarily
under the red flag,

and the course marshal's
decision will be to restart
the race

after turn three
has been cleared.

(SIREN WAILING)

COMMENTATOR: (OVER PA)
Scooter Patrick went
through the debris.

Evidently blew tires and
was driven off the track
and into the fence.

Yeah, I think I ought to.
Let me go put this down.
Where do you want to go?

-Around the corner here.
-Around the corner?

All right, I'll be right back.

Uh...

The car's I think all right.

It's toward the front of them.

All right?
Everything's in one piece.
All the wheels are on it.

Uh, the tub...

Right here, above the tub
is folded down, all right?
A little bit.

What happened is, um...

A tree stump that was
holding a fence,

came right across the cockpit
and my head in the cockpit.

-All right?
-That's nice.

It was kind of cute for
a minute because...

'Cause I had this fence...
I'm all right, baby.

I had all this fence hanging
over me and this thing jamming
me down in the cockpit.

(LAUGHING)
I couldn't push my way out.

-I couldn't push my way out.
-You all right?

But the thing that scared me
was that they had...

The guy that lit right
behind me, George,
who started it,

lit right behind me,
and he was on fire.

-Yeah.
-And I was...

-You know.
-Come here.

Hey, Scoot, let's go over
and get checked out.

COMMENTATOR: Let's give you
those cars again.

Now, this is unofficial, car
number 30, Scooter Patrick.

-What happened?
-I don't know.
I didn't see it.

But six or seven
cars gone off together.

-Eight.
-Eight, gone off together.

So, uh...

You know, I hope
no one's hurt obviously.

But it just so happens
I made a good start.
Was miles in front

halfway through the first lap.
A bit aggravating.

-Never mind, David.
-(HONKING)

But it's a bad call
on the girl.

JAMES: I was in the pits
when it happened.

With Don, Max,
Bobby and the others.

I heard the sound and saw
the smoke above the trees.

Then didn't hear anything
except the loud speakers.

I was sick.
I wanted to throw up.

I could see the turn where
it happened in my mind.

I can see it all in my mind.

As I've seen this
kind of thing before
where men get killed.

No one died here,
but this is what it looks
like when they do.

It's something you don't
ever want to remember but
you can never forget it.

Scooter got banged up.

George Winnersteen
broke a leg in two places,

he told me later that
only his thumb hurt.

He broke it too, I guess.

And then there was the
terrible expense of it all.

Somebody said $300,000.
I don't know, really.
It's hard to make a guess.

And you can never add up
all the hours of effort lost.

You never get 'em back.

The only thing is to say
that you'll do it over

and it'll all be new again
the way it was.

An hour after the accident,
the race has restarted

with 20 cars this time
instead of 27.

I don't need to tell you,
we didn't make the grid.

The northern day is short,
it'll be dark soon and the
forecast is rain.

Davie Hobbs goes into the lead
right off ahead of Sam Posey.

But Sam, who won
at Lime Rock, drops out
with transmission trouble.

Three laps later,
the storm that had hit
Montreal early in the day,

comes to St. Jovite.

I've seen it come down like
this in Europe during a race.
I've driven in it,

and it's hell.

You can't see,
you can't feel the track.

All you can do is
go slow until it lets up
and dries off a little.

A lot of the spectators
and campers have
already started home.

The pits are quiet.

Everybody is cold and wet.

And as the race goes on,

one by one the drivers
involved in the accident are
asked by the track officials,

"What happened?"

As we crested the hill,
I saw George come back
through the path.

This way, going to the right.

Ahead of me, like four of five
cars ahead of me.

And coming through like this
to hot the right guardrail.

-He didn't hit the guardrail.
-No?

He stayed on the track,
about three quarters of
the way to the track

and then came right
back through the pack.

Hit the guardrail, went up
and then came across

and ended up...

Against the guardrail
on the right-hand side.

COMMENTATOR:
David Hobbs,
bringing his 13 car...

JAMES:
The continental championship
in St. Jovite is over.

Andrea takes second.
Davie Hobbs wins it.

And we were real lucky here
that Scooter and the other
guys came out if it all right.

Luck I guess,

and a whole lot of just plain
knowing what you're doing.

* Just to be alive
is not all right with me.

* There's something more,
I know there's got to be

* All the places I've been and
the roads I've traveled on

* Now the time has come

* Now the time has come

* Oh

* Why does a man
do what he has to do?

* Why does a man
do what he has to do?

* Sky's baby blue where all
your dreams come true

* Why does a man
do what he has to do?

* I love to feel the wind
go rushing by my face

* Always moving on to
find another place

* There's nothing I could
change and nothing that
I'd rather do

* Wherever that road,
where it leads me to

* Oh

* Tell me why does a man
do what he has to do?

* Oh why does a man
do what he has to do?

* Sky's baby blue where all
your dreams come true

* Why does a man
do what he has to do?

* Just to be alive is not
all right with me

* There's something more,
I know there's got to be

* All the places I've been and
the roads I've traveled on

* Now the time has come

* Now the time has come

* Oh, why does a man do
what he has to do?

* Oh, why does a man...

JAMES: Rough prizes instead
of smooth, I'm for that.

This is my road.
The one I choose,
the one I follow.

* Why does a man do
what he has to do? *