Amici:
Thanks to an FOT Heads Up last week, I enjoyed a night of racing movies last
night on the TURNER CLASSIC MOVIE channel. Started with WINNING (P. Newman),
followed by GRAND PRIX (Jim Gardner), and finished with SPEEDWAY (Elvis
Presley).
I fell asleep about three minutes into the last one.
I sure can relate to the ROAD AMERICA and IMS scenes in WINNING. I think I
have even stayed in the same room Mrs. Newman stayed in at the Brickyard
Crossing Motel adjacent to IMS (albeit some fifteen years later). They
probably
changed the sheets by then. WINNING is a decent movie, but 'John Boy' is
miscast
as the adopted son. He's a good enough actor, but was too old for the part.
The racing footage is much better in GRAND PRIX.
I'd have done better staying awake in the Presley movie had it been the road
racing one with Ann Margaret. She's very racy, and holds my attention better.
And didn't she drive a TR3? A friend and exVSCDA President, Chuck Maranto,
owns and races the car Presley drove in that latter movie, an ELVA, I think.
Bill (Damdinger)
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