Amazon.com
This documentary produced by the Learning Channel gives a comprehensive and exciting overview of contemporary motor sports. A segment on Indy cars focuses on Michael Andretti and his father, racing legend Mario Andretti, and features interviews with a financial backer of their team, actor Paul Newman. A look at off-road racing features a biographical sketch of driver Ivan Stewart, and a feature on drag racing centers on Shelly Anderson, a female racer who energetically describes the feeling of rocketing down a drag strip at speeds topping 300 miles per hour. The centerpiece of the documentary is a thorough look at NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt, who is known and feared on the racing circuit as "the Intimidator." Earnhardt's difficulty at winning stock-car racing's Super Bowl, the Daytona 500, is chronicled, and the preparations he made and his eventual 1998 triumph at Daytona are shown in detail. Instead of focusing only on the drivers, this documentary takes the insightful approach of showing how an entire race team works together, and the interviews with Earnhardt's team, including the pit crew, are illuminating. This is an intelligently constructed documentary, and though it is lengthy (nearly two hours), the pace is fittingly fast.
--Robert J. McNamara
From the Back Cover
Speed. Mankind has always been fascinated with things that go fast.
Super Racers is an amazing ride into the lightning-fast world of motor sports. On this heart-pounding ride, you will go under the hood, into the driver's seat, and onto the raceway. From Grand Prix cars to top-fuel dragsters to stock cars, this is an extraordinary look at the relationship between the machinery and the drivers. Hear interviews with legendary racers Mario Andretti and his son Michael and Emerson Fittipaldi and his nephew Christian, the new breed of racers. Find out why auto racing has beome one of the most popular sports in the world. 120 minutes; DTS, Dolby Digital 5.1, and Dolby Surround sound.
