Original subtitles

*

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? *