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Post by Carl on Nov 11, 2022 20:58:05 GMT
In 1966, a young film student at USC named George Lucas made a short about a racing driver striving to set a lap time of 1:42.08. It was filmed north of Los Angeles at Willow Springs Raceway (designed by the great Ken Miles) and featured a Lotus 23 driven by a young Peter Brock, star employee of Carroll Shelby and accomplished designer of the 1965 GT World Champion Shelby Daytona Coupe.
Apparently, that lap time was chosen by the filmmaker and may have been either random or, as a young motorsport enthusiast, a time he envisioned as a goal for himself. Most likely, Peter Brock would have been faster in the Lotus 23.
Parenthetically, Brock soon left Shelby along with young Cobra driver John Morton and enjoyed tremendous success in SCCA C Production and B Sedan with the Datsun 240Z and 510 sedan.
John Morton enters Turn 6 at Riverside
Ten years later I attended a 3 day Jim Russell course at Willow Springs, a great experience during which I lapped at 1:42 in a Merlyn Formula Ford. The instructors weren't timing into the hundredths of a second, otherwise I might have been a movie star...  |
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Post by René on Nov 12, 2022 11:09:56 GMT
In 1966, a young film student at USC named George Lucas made a short about a racing driver striving to set a lap time of 1:42.08. It was filmed at Willow Springs Raceway north of Los Angeles (designed by the great Ken Miles) and featured a Lotus 23 driven by a young Peter Brock, star employee of Carroll Shelby and accomplished designer of the 1965 GT World Champion Shelby Daytona Coupe.
Apparently, that lap time was chosen by the filmmaker and may have been either random or, as a young motorsport enthusiast, a time he envisioned as a goal for himself. Most likely, Peter Brock would have been faster in the Lotus 23.
Parenthetically, Brock soon left Shelby along with young Cobra driver John Morton and enjoyed tremendous success in SCCA C Production and B Sedan with the Datsun 240Z and 510 sedan.
John Morton enters Turn 6 at Riverside
Ten years later I attended a 3 day Jim Russell course at Willow Springs, a great experience during which I lapped at 1:42 in a Merlyn Formula Ford. The instructors weren't timing into the hundredths of a second, otherwise I might have been a movie star... Fantastic story and short film clip Carl! I am sure you lapped at 1:42 flat. Lucas has no idea what he missed! |
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Post by mikael on Nov 12, 2022 12:52:15 GMT
A beautiful little film, Carl; thank you :-)
I can understand that the director is that George Lucas, of "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones" fame!
The Wikipidia entry of George Lucas tells, in the section "Early life", that:
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driver, and he spent most of his high school years racing on the underground circuit at fairgrounds and hanging out at garages."