Dare To Dream

I know, "Dare To Dream" seems to be the ongoing theme of this whole Project Fireball site, but on this page I'm going to share with you my experiences in a movie where I provided some technical assistance (and almost some acting talent)... DARE TO DREAM: The Alan Kulwicki Story

For you NASCAR newbies (or non-NASCAR folks), Alan Kulwicki was the 1992 NASCAR Winston Cup Champion. He was the last owner-driver to win the championship, and he won it the same year that Richard Petty (the last previous owner-driver-champion) retired from competition. Alan won the championship by only 10 points over Bill Elliott, the closest margin in NASCAR history up until the 8-point margin Kurt Busch eked out over Jimmie Johnson to win the 2004 championship. Unlike those before and after him, Alan never had the chance to defend his title. He was tragically killed in an airplane crash on April 1, 1993. Alan had many chances to drive for other owners, but he was determined to do it his way, or not at all. You have to admire that, and ya gotta love his eventual sponsor!!

So, Where Do I Come In On All Of This?

While assisting members of the Historic Stock Car Racing Series at an event in Fontana in February of 2004, I met a guy by the name of Brad Weber. Brad was in the midst of working on a low-budget indie film about Alan Kulwicki. In fact, Brad was playing the part of Kulwicki in the film. At this moment he was taking particular notice of all of the historic NASCAR stockers in the group, and began to ask a lot of questions. The primary question was, "Who owns all these cars?"

It seems they still had some race footage they needed to shoot, and there weren't a lot of Winston Cup Cars from 1988 and 1992 just sitting around waiting to be used in filming. And yet, here were a whole bunch of them, and they were being raced!

Arrangements were made to have the film's Director, David Orgas, fly out to Sears Point - oops, Infineon Raceway - for one of our later events, to see that these cars were the real deal. Some equipment was brought out as well (they were "filming" on High-Definition video equipment) and they did some shots of the few cars there that were correct for the timelines in the movie.

Pretty soon, negotiations were underway to have the group haul some of our 1988 and 1992 cars down to Phoenix International Raceway (the site of Kulwicki's first Winston Cup victory) to create some critical race footage. Mind you, someone with a large budget could have probably negotiated with ESPN and the major networks for the desired race footage, but what we had could be better tailored for the movie.

My job was to identify which cars in the group would fit the requested time periods, which cars would have been in specific races, and which cars would be "passable". (i.e., not the exact year, but correct in sponsor, paint scheme, etc., for action and distance shots.) My job was also about to get more involved.

Haulin' Hooters

Here is my then-17 year-old daughter posing with a 1992 Hooters Thunderbird in front of our house. One of my new duties in the production of the movie was to haul one of Kulwicki's remaining 1992 Hooters T-Birds from Sacramento to Phoenix, AZ.

The plan was to have members of the HSCRS take their specifically requested stock cars down to Phoenix the first week of September for filming. Now, the temperatures aren't too bad here in Sacramento in September, but apparently the filmmakers (from Wisconsin) had no idea what the temps in Phoenix are like that time of year. The trip would be about a 15-hour jaunt. Or, 13 1/2 hours if you're hauling the car on an open trailer behind a 2004 Ford F-350, which pulled the trailer and the 3,500 lb. Winston Cup car at a pretty constant 75 MPH without even breathing hard.

The pictures below reveal damage to the front of the Hooters car due to a little "run-in" we had while racing the car in Las Vegas in 2001. It ended up running in a few more HSCRS events in this slightly marred condition, and then was put away after being one of the cars used for testing the new racing surface at Infineon in April of 2002. The intent was to fix the car, but no one got around to it.

I now had the car in Phoenix, and would be meeting up with the film crew and another stock car that had been repainted to look like Kulwicki's first-time winner. I had driven over 700 miles on less than 3 hours of sleep, but I arrived much earlier than I was scheduled. I figured I could find my motel and get some shut-eye and be plenty rested by the next day's shoot. But, that's when things would REALLY get interesting!

Testing Our Patience, Our Resolve, And My Memory

Alan Kulwicki's 1988 Zerex Thunderbird after his first-ever win, which happened at Phoenix International Raceway. Here, he delights fans with his creation, the "Polish Victory Lap", in which he drove the car around the track in the opposite direction. He did so to better thank the fans that supported him.

Well, after my relatively rapid interstate trip I called the director, David, to let him know that I was in Phoenix early. He told me that he was nearly there himself, and that he was glad I was already in town since we seemed to have "a little problem" and my help was needed.

It seems that the car that was supposed to be repainted to resemble Kulwicki's 1988 Zerex-sponsored T-Bird was still in its original Nationwise Auto Parts colors. Therefore, it looked nothing like the car needed for filming. And the shoot was scheduled for the next day... for less than 16 hours from now! David's solution? WE were going to repaint the car!

While I went off to follow up on my motel reservation, the crew made a trip to a local Home Depot to acquire the materials needed to accomplish our little transformation. A compressor was rented, paint purchased (latex house paint, no less!), as well as LOTS of poly painting tarp and masking tape.

Somehow the crew had also procured a house with a garage in a rather nice Phoenix neighborhood... surely a neighborhood that would have raised arms in protest if they knew that we were turning one of the nicer homes into a makeshift auto paint shop!

The Nationwise car was slated for a refresh and repaint in the near future, so our transformation of the car was intended to be temporary, anyway. Hair dryers and razor blades were employed as we began stripping all of the numbers and original sponsor insignia from the car.

In the meantime another guy sprayed (rather haphazardly and with only moderate effectiveness) the yellow interior of the car with red paint to try to bring it to the correct color of Kulwicki's car of the time. And in the midst of all of this, someone had the foresight to have pizza delivered!

Nobody had any contingiency stickers (the numerous small sponsor stickers that dominate the front fenders of NASCAR race cars - again, information for the NASCAR newbies on here) to replace the ones already on the car. So, while preparing to paint the exterior white, we also masked off the contingiency stickers that were already on the car to take advantage of them. Now we're ready to paint!

Then the car received a whitewashing akin to that of Tom Sawyer: just enough to get by. (There is a certain loss of resolution in filming that would be forgiving of the lack of perfection in the whole project... thank God!) The latex house paint was used for fast drying, and (hopefully) easier removal by the car's owner after the filming was completed.

While the painting was being done and while it was drying, I was allowed to take a very needed nap that lasted only about an hour. About 2:00 am, I was gently shaken awake and invited back into the garage where some of my "expertise" would be taken advantage of.

No one had a good picture of the car to use as a template for adding the red to the exterior. Therefore, we would draw entirely upon my memory of the car as stored in my slightly sleep-deprived brain. Like a surgeon requesting a scalpel, I asked for the masking tape and began to lay out the pattern that would give the car both its colorful contrast and to allow for the numbers and Zerex sponsor stickers that would still need to be added once the red paint was dry.

Then came the unveiling!

Now it was time for the film crew to add the hand-cut decals and load up the car to get it to the track. And time for me to drop by my motel for a quick shower and breakfast.

Although I didn't know it at the time, my Project Fireball would not be the first full-scale NASCAR model I would end up working on.

Scene One, Take One!

I hauled the Hooters T-Bird through the tunnel into the paddock area of Phoenix International Raceway, followed shortly by the other members of the HSCRS. They began filing into the paddock and unloading their cars from nice, enclosed trailers, while I dismounted the Hooters car from my rented U-Haul unit.

Our collection of retired Winston Cup cars were lined up in the garage in preparation for their big scenes. Shortly thereafter David the Director, Brad the Actor, and the rest of the film crew hauled the "Zerex" T-Bird into the pits. The last of the needed decal material was added and then the car was unloaded.

At first it was expected that I would be driving the Hooters car for filming, but an "executive decision" was made that Brad should take the car around since he a) was in the correct driver's suit, and b) was the Star of the film. Well, I didn't own the car and the actual arrangements had been made with the owner, so I just shrugged my shoulders and went with the flow. (I make it sound easier than it was to do so.)

The 1992 Trop Artic Thunderbird as owned (then) by Mark Hereford. Although the color scheme is simple, I think Mark had one of the most beautiful cars in the group, in my opinion. And it was always immaculately kept.

I knew Mark was going to be selling the car because of some back trouble and I hadn't hit the lottery yet. (Still haven't.) Mark's back was troubling him again, so he offered me the chance to drive his car for the filming. I gritted my teeth and told him that we were running at reduced speeds for easier scene production (they could speed it up on film later), and as much as I felt honored to be offered the chance, I told him he should enjoy his car one last time.

Some scenes were also done in the garage area. I appear in the film in a (very) brief scene with my good friend Ron Huber, each of us with one speaking line. Sadly, the experience would also be the last time I would see Ron.

Wrap Party!

Of course, no film experience would be complete without a cast party. And where better to hold it than at the Downtown Phoenix Hooters? It's amazing who you can get to pose for you when you're hauling a car emblazoned with their company name!

Oh, and while on my way back home, I just HAD to stop by the Hooters in Fontana, too! I had lunch with a friend and her son, who didn't need a lot of encouragement to get into the picture with the lovely ladies. Can you blame him?

But, How Did The Movie Come Out?

Dang... I knew you would ask that question. It's not great, but it's not as bad as the NASCAR.com review of NASCAR-based movies in December of 2006 would have you think. The review was done around the time that Talladega Nights was released. The movies were rated using a "lug nut" scale, with 5 lug nuts being the best, and zero as the worst.

The following ratings were done by Rick Houston and published on NASCAR.com:

Stroker Ace and Cars were each rated 5 out of 5 lug nuts, and Rick Houston out and out called Stroker Ace "the greatest racing movie of all time, bar none".

Both Days of Thunder and the made-for-cable 3 received 4 out of 5 lug nut ratings. (Yes, Days was actually rated that high by the reviewer.)

Interestingly, Herbie, Fully Loaded received 3 out of 5 lug nuts, while the big-budget and highly anticipated Talladega Nights garnered only 1 lug nut. Houston's view? "If producers pitched the project to prospective studios with the six words, "Will Ferrell as a NASCAR driver," its review can be summed up in just five: "Not a very good movie."

Sadly, Talladega Nights earned a whole lug nut more than Dare to Dream ever had a... dream... of achieving. From the sound of Rick Houston's review, if he could have rated the movie with lug nuts in the negative, he would have done so. Quote: "There should've been a disclaimer during the open credits, something along the lines of "Any resemblance to professional acting is only through sheer dumb luck."

Ouch! So much for my movie career.