I just got back from the Wine Country Classic at Sears Point, and all I
can say is WOW! The theme for this event was a Formula 1 reunion and
cup race. Ken Tyrrell was there, and there was a special presentation
of the movie "Grand Prix" at the Sebastiani Theater in Sonoma. John
Frankenheimer, the director, introduced it and made a few comments.
They had a new 35mm print that was a bit better than most of the copies
being played on TV. This was the first time I had seen it on a big
screen, and it was amazing. They were giving out small copies of the
original movie poster, and I got mine autographed by Frankenheimer.
Frankenheimer told this story about the production of the movie. It
seems he originally wanted Steve McQueen to play the lead. While he was
off in Europe scouting locations and lining up drivers, McQueen and the
co-producer had a meeting. They got into a violent argument, with the
result being that McQueen stormed out, vowing to make his own film on
the same subject at the same time. Frankenheimer forged ahead with
James Garner in the lead role. McQueen started getting his own
production together, but Frankenheimer already had most of the drivers
and locations sewn up. As shooting progressed, spies from the rival
studio went to Monte Carlo and watched the filming. Their comment back
to the studio was, "If Frankenheimer had film in those cameras, we're
out of business." The rival studio (WB, I think) cancelled the project.
Steve McQueen, of course, went on to do "Le Mans" about 5 years later,
but he was never able to do an F1 film. "Grand Prix" took 2 Oscars.
At the track, the high point was the demo laps put on by a Ferrari F1
car. There were 2 of them, but they didn't go out in the cup race.
There is NOTHING like the howl of an unmuffled, non-turbo Ferrari V-12
at full song. You could hear it ALL the way around the track. The cup
race was sponsored by Chrysler (ho-hum), and featured an impressive
array of cars. Two of Ken Tyrrell's cars were there, an ex-Mario
Andretti Alfa, a Lotus John Player Special, March, Shadow, McLaren, etc.
They made quite a group. The low point was the amount of automotive
carnage. One of the March cars appears to have been totaled. The F1
practice sessions were an excercise in how to run a red-light situation.
I wish those guys had used a little more discretion.
I was out there campaigning the Bourgeault Formula Junior, with its Fiat
1100 engine. I did ok, but the car was not running all that well in
some sessions. I identified the problem, and it ran well enough in the
final race session. I was definitely one of the back markers, but
managed not to come in DFL. ;=) There were also 3 Cooper F1 cars in my
group with Coventry Climax engines. They were fast, but the fastest car
in the group was a Mallock U2. This thing is the ugliest car you have
ever seen, but it goes like stink. It has been called, "The Green
Coffin." It's a front-engined car, too. When Ken Tyrrell saw this
thing out in front of the very fast F1 Coopers he said, "What IS that
thing? Who built it? Mallock who?" It was reported that he seriously
wanted to talk to the driver. ;=)
The last funny bit was at the awards ceremony. After being introduced,
Ken Tyrrell said, "I'm old enough to remember Mussolini, Hitler and
Stalin. And now I've met Steve Earle..." The laughter was deafening.
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