Le Mans, Pettys and lawsuits, oh my!

Published 4:46 pm Thursday, June 12, 2008

“Forty-five international racing stars join Steve McQueen in this gritty, nerve-shattering recreation of the toughest car race on earth — Le Mans.”

So begins the blurb on the back of the DVD for what is, in my opinion, one of the better racing movies of all times: Le Mans.

The annual 24 Hours of Le Mans is this weekend. Sports car racing is another (Ed: yet another) area I’d like to know more about, but I do know Le Mans is one of those events that racers really want to win.

Just for grins, let’s dust off the old Question of the Week (not that many of you played before, but, I’m an optimist):

Q: What are the 5 best auto racing movies of all times?

I’m going to have to think about it for a bit, and look forward to your inputs. For me, Le Mans will definitely be on the list, and probably so will The Petty Story although I haven’t seen it in years.

From the same timeframe as Le Mans comes another movie I may include: Grand Prix. Although it had some great racing sequences, Grand Prix also had a lot of soap opera elements, so it’s not a slam-dunk pick.

Did you know Steve McQueen was originally thought of for the role played by James Garner in Grand Prix? Director John Frankenheimer let someone else handle the meeting with McQueen, and the actor and that person didn’t get along at all, so McQueen skipped the movie.

Email me at swhitmore@heraldnet.com or register and leave comments on this post with your favorite racing movies.

If you’ve been under a rock you may not know a former NASCAR technical official is suing the Rainbow Acronym for $225 million, alleging racial and sexual discrimination, sexual harassment and wrongful termination. (CLICK HERE).

NASCAR head honcho Brian France said in response that the lawsuit was the first word his organization had heard about the woman’s complaints (CLICK HERE)

I’m on record through this blog as saying I don’t think NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program has gone far enough to help make the organization more diverse, but remember that program is for drivers not officials or teams.

We’re going to have to watch this case closely, because I suspect it’s going to get very ugly before everything is said and done.

Speaking of the Pettys, I caught the press conference where they announced Boston Ventures was coming in as the majority owner of Petty Enterprises. I’m glad to see the Pettys will be sticking around, because NASCAR without them would be like putting lights up at Wrigley Field.

Oops.

Anyway, the one thing that I really liked to hear was that the new capital means the Pettys will be looking at expanding by adding teams.

I can’t remember who is was, but last year I was talking to one of the NASCAR Camping World Series West team owners — someone with a developmental deal with a Cup team — and he mentioned that no team with less than three cars can afford to be competitive in Sprint Cup these days.

There is just too much time and money tied up in research and development and testing right now. Teams need that third car to achieve a critical mass of sponsor money and people to support both racing and R&D.

Speaking of drivers, I know one the Pettys should look at hiring if they’re wanting to expand. He’s just testing cars right now, but he’s very familiar with the Dodge CoT and he’s a proven winner. He’d be good with sponsors, too.

Of course, now I’m going to be called an “idiot” and a “homer” again.