Super Speedway

This short film can be summed up in two words: eye candy.

Not that it’s a bad thing. In fact, when viewed in hi-def and with the Dolby cranked up, Super Speedway is a treat. Consider that this “documentary,” and we use that term pretty loosely, was crafted for IMAX and you’ll have an idea of what it’s like. Lots of vivid color, cameras mounted on and in cars and more than a few exciting moments.

Since the movie focuses on Mario and Michael Andretti, and Michael was driving for Newman-Haas Racing at the time, it probably wasn’t terribly hard to get Paul Newman as narrator. We certainly like the idea. You get to see a lot of behind-the-scenes explanations of how the race car is built, which is offset with the tale of how Donald and Joan Lyons found and restored the 1965 Dean Van Lines roadster that Mario had driven.

A segment about racing safety is an excuse to show several major Indy car crashes spliced in and because they’re from broadcasts you’re given a moment to realize just how fantastic the IMAX camera quality really is.

All of the on-track IMAX stuff is first-rate, even the part where they’ve obviously put a few cars out on the track to barnstorm for the camera and then inserted it in the midst of real race footage. The coolest, however, is some testing in which the on-board camera not only provides an awesome sense of speed (something that is nearly always lost on film) but you can actually hear when the race car hits patched spots on the track going into the corners—and see how the car bounces. Watching a race you may be aware of patches but this actually gives you a sense of how a driver has to adjust when hitting one—and why they’re not going to vote those tracks their favorites.  

Even if you are not an Indy car fan, this movie is short (unless you want to also sit through the “making of…” film that accompanies the DVD) and the speed sensation has rarely been paralleled on-screen. This is a real Speed Junkie’s delight.

Type of Racing:           CART Indy car

Tracks:                         Several tracks, including Homestead, Michigan, Sebring, Belle Isle

                                    (Detroit), Toronto, Mid-Ohio and Road America

Reel Racers:                 None

Real Racers:                 Paul Newman (narrator), Michael Andretti, Mario Andretti, brief

                                    cameos of many other mid-90s Indy car drivers

Year of Release:          Originally released 1998, Remastered DVD 2000

DVD Length:                50 minutes

Approx. On-Track:       19 minutes

Color/B&W:                 Color

Watch for:                  

. . . During a segment filmed at a wind tunnel, Mario notes that the cars are so aerodynamic that at 100 mph they have enough down force that they could actually drive upside down on the ceiling.

. . . Now that drivers don’t work on the race cars they are expected to provide feedback to the engineers and mechanics. Several are shown doing just there, but one driver sitting in his car waiting to go on the track actually keys on the radio and tells someone to go pick up his dry cleaning. (And they wonder why Joe Six Pack considers them a bunch of prima donnas?)

. . . A brief segment of racing in the rain is eye-opening.

. . . There is a neat contrast between the restored roadster racing at Phoenix in its prime and Mario taking it down the road in 1997.

. . . It doesn’t seem like old footage, but Bobby Rahal, Alex Zanardi, and Christian Fittipaldi are shown on podium. (Rahal is retired and a car owner now, Zanardi survived a horrific wreck in which he lost both legs) and Fittipaldi is who-knows-where? Marco Andretti, now the family standard bearer on the track is just a cute little kid in the film. How time flies.