[DVD] Movie review by Richard Parks …Bonneville Salt Flat Racer; go fast or go homewww.landspeedracing.com

[Edited for space with permission of author]          

Bonneville Salt Flat Racer; go fast or go home is a documentary DVD movie by The Kickass Factory, produced in Australia, by Norm Hardinge and Vicki Howard.  The story line concerns the Bonneville Salt Flats for the 2008 Speed Week.  There is a magical and mystical lure to Bonneville, ever since the first pioneers in covered wagon and fur trappers tried to cross the huge inland lake. Land speed racing pits man and machine against time itself.  There are no prizes for the winner and the competition is not with other racers, but against nature.  It is a sport that constantly seeks greater speeds and demands more endurance.  Bonneville Salt Flat Racer; go fast or go home gives the viewer a sense of the past, while providing us with a picture of modern day land speed racing.

There are two discs with about 2 ½ hours of interviews mixed in with live action scenes, rousing music and various officials examining the cars and going through their routines.  The bedlam is actually quite organized and thorough.  The music is intense and I suppose the proper genre would be rock-a-billy with an Aussie twist.  Most of the music blended in quite well with the video and the music was never a distraction.  There were more than 60 interviews, often one interview overlapping on another and for the first hour it was hard to keep track of the various teams but by the end of the second disc I had no trouble understanding which group belonged to which racing team.  [Interviews include; seasoned racers and rookies from the U.S., Australia and New Zealand, car builders and drivers, inspectors, timers, and starters and some of the pioneers of racing like – Art Chrisman, Tim Kraushar, Steve Davis,  and others like Tex Smith, Ron Ceridono,  Greg Sharp, Chico Kodama (Mooneyes), and M/C  Streamliner Cliff Gullett’s last interview as a memorial to his commitment to LSR].

The video far exceeded my expectations as a documentary.  The filmmakers are trying to reach several audiences; the die-hard land speed racers, the novices to this sort of racing, and those who enjoy action of a sort not seen except in straight-line racing.  The officials seem to have understood that mandate and make every attempt to explain what they are doing in the simplest terms possible.  As a documentary this is definitely a film for your library.  I rank the quality of the film, sound and content as a 7 sparkplugs (out of a possible 8).

Bonneville Salt Flat Racer; go fast or go home can be ordered in the U.S. by sending a $25 check  to Gail Phillips, P.O. Box 3021, Pismo Beach, CA 93448 (price includes shipping to all U.S. addresses, questions to fastdrvr@popmotorsports.com) -  in AU ordering info at www.kickassfactory.com  or contact Norm Hardinge at norm@kickassfactory.com.