News!
Two-Lane '55 Returns to Lakeland: Click here
and check it out!
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"I work for these boys, I'm their manager. We race that 55 Chevy sittin' outside.
We heard there's a good race track down around Memphis.", GTO (Warren
Oates)
.
.
Traversing
the old Memphis-Arkansas Bridge over the mighty Mississippi River.
.
.
Dig the daisies on
the Javelin.
.
Rick Hale,
who used to work in this tower, tells me that the announcer in the movie is Tommy
'Minor' Smart. The girl in the foreground of the picture is Judy Turner, and the other girl, in the background, was named Patsy
Briscoe.
Rick says that Track Manager Jim McDonald moved him from the tower to the time
slip booth as the handicapper on the day of filming. Bummer.
.
.
Here comes GTO.
This was a local racer sponsored
by Poplar Dodge and Racing Head Service.
.
.
Bill "Mr. Bardahl" Hielscher's Corvette on the trailer.
.
.
The girl goes to the
bleachers.
Atlas vs. Irish
'Luck'
.
.
.
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An old B-fueler.
.
.
The Bill
Taylor-Pat Collins
-Stanley Wolf Super Duster Funny Car piloted by Larry Reyes that evening. That's Bill on the driver side
of the car.
Bill was a track owner, car owner
and owner of Torque Converters, Inc. (TCI)
.
.
The Driver (James
Taylor) poised for a burnout
under the crosswalk.
Approaching the
beams.
Staged...
Wisps of tire smoke
on the launch.
Monte Hellman's
commentary on the DVD states that they blew up the transmission on one
of these runs.
.
.
"I set it up. We're
goin' against the 'vette. I put up the tools against three-hundred.",
The Mechanic (Dennis Wilson)
.
.
The girl changes
rides.
Here is some fun
commentary to accompany the Lakeland race scenes shown below:
" My name is Cindi Hielscher
McMillan. My father was Bill “Mr. Bardahl” Hielscher. I remember
going to the premier of the movie with my family, Aunts, etc. in
Chicago. Mom and Dad were “shocked” by the language. It was a
movie of it’s time. Dad said that they had to shoot the final
scene (racing against James Taylor) several times because Dad just
kept outrunning him. In the final clip if you watch it Dad gives him
a hole shot (not something that Dad let happen when racing) and
still almost beats him. My Dad raced professionally for only 6 ½
years."
