Combine Paul Newman, Al Unser, Cesar
Romero, Richard Petty, Ronald Reagan, a long-lost super speedway and a
soundtrack featuring Cher and you have what might possibly be the greatest
auto-racing documentary of all time.
Or at least from 1971. Anyway, “Once
Upon a Wheel” is a LOT of fun and, in my opinion, worth searching out. Paul
Newman, in the early years of his love affair with auto racing, serves as host
of this quirky look at pretty much the full spectrum of auto racing – Indy
cars, road racing, NASCAR and even a bit of drag racing and local
dirt-track/jalopy racing thrown in for good measure.
Newman’s narration is a bit on the
corny side, but because of his talent as an actor as well as his genuine
affinity for the sport, the viewer is more likely to nod and smile rather than
point and laugh.
A good chunk of the footage was
filmed at Ontario Motor Speedway (aka The Big O) in 1970, its first year of
operation. Ontario was almost a complete copy of the Indianapolis Motor
Speedway except it was a bit wider and elevated in spots so that spectators
could see cars all around the track. It also had a road course in the infield
and a drag strip.
After a promising start, attendance
dwindled and eventually the property was foreclosed. The last Indy car race was
in 1980.
The Cher song, titled “Gentle Foe”
and allegedly recorded during her sessions for “Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves”
(so says a YouTube entry), serves as a fantastic soundtrack during a vignette
on a down-on-his-luck stock-car driver. We follow along as this fellow scrapes
out a meager existence on dusty tracks in his beat-up jalopy, trying to win enough
money to keep a roof over his family and food on the table, all the while dreaming
of mansions where money flows out of every faucet.
Overall, “Once Upon a Wheel” is a
nice trip (in more ways than one) back.
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