Lots of fun in a GT40 with Dale Jr and Sheryl Crow

Well I had a blast yesterday but am too tired to write anymore about it now, gotta go to my real work!
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Rick Muck- Mark IV

GT40s Sponsor
Supporter
I think that that "Dale Jr." guy is a replica (replicant?) and done with digital technologies. Hey, my wife can't even prove that I'm real!
Plus I wouldn't know Sheryl Crow from Counting Crows! But put the Who or the Moody Blues in the car and now I could tell! 'Course, I don't think 4 or 5 Brits will fit, but hey, it would be fun trying.

Rick

[ May 21, 2002: Message edited by: Mark IV ]
 
I arrived at Willow Springs raceway at 6AM to unload and start shooting at 7. The car supervisor had 10 of us go out for a lap and form up 2 by 2 for a blast down the front straight with an oncoming and outgoing cameras in the center with instructions to come as close as possible to the lens for the greatest effect. We did 2 passes side by side and then did 4 passes changing lanes right before and after the cameras. 15 minute break to put 3 cameras on the camera truck and off we go again to run a staggered 2 lane arrangement with Sheryl's GT40 splitting us with the camera truck on the left. I was in the middle of the left line and invariably had to pass the truck in the middle of 1 with a car on the outside and the truck on the inside. One pass was close enough that the director said I should come wipe my paint off the camera truck. We continued different variations of the same procedure until around 11AM. About that time Dale arrived and went out in the 70ish vette convertable race car with a competition windscreen, he took a couple of laps and said he couldn't drive that car due to the buffeting and debris thrown up from the other cars (he had to wear an open face helmet). So there was a scramble to have a workable solution with the director, the AD, the AD2, producer, Dale Jr and JR(Dale's rep). You see Dale has to drive a Chevy, go figure. The AD2 finds me and pulls me into the pow wow to find out if I would allow Dale to drive my car in the video. A nanosecond is 1/1000000 of a second and is atleast twice as long as it took me to say "Yes". Dale was on the phone to his agent, who had to call Chevy to get permission to have Dale drive my car. It took about 20 minutes for the answer to come down and it was a go if I removed the Ford emblem from the nose and covered the GT40 on the side. Love that double stick tape on the badge, pulled it right off. So I'm getting Dale in the car and familiarized with the switches in the car and Sheryl walks up to say Hi to Dale and introduces herself to me. I still can't believe she's 40 years old. Dale takes the car out for a couple of laps to get familiar with the car and then we break for lunch. I pulled the drivers window out so they could shoot unobstructed. After lunch they did some shots with the hot rod camera car (same car they filmed Days of Thunder with) and it's a beast. Looks like something the Teminator would drive, 80's El Camino front with the back chopped off, 700HP motor under the hood and a monster camera mount hanging off the front. Dale take the car down the middle of the cars running down the track with the camera car to the left pacing Dale exactly to get the side shot of him passing the other cars. They do 3-4 laps of this and pull in to reload the film. They immediately have a 6'1" cameraman jump in with Dale and 40lb handheld camera to get some in car shots of Dale's face while he is going around the track, the second lap Dale was running pretty fast of turn 6 made the camera man a little nervous when the car got really light at the crest. Back in the pits they are putting Sheryl's GT40 on a dolly and towing it with the camera truck for the next round of laps with the camera car chasing Sheryl who is being chased by Dale surrounded by the other cars. About 6 laps and two film reloads later, they all pull back in. And then Mother Nature pays a visit with a shower followed by some hail. Small hail but still hail and Sheryl and Dale head for their trailers. I figured while we had some down time she would have time to autograph my daughters CD which she graciously did. The director calls for the my car to go out to turn 5 for the next shot which has Sheryl's car broken down on the oustide of turn 6. The camera is almost in turn 7 looking back up the hill. So I'm sitting in my car with both side windows now out in the rain waiting for it to stop. It slows down to a dribble and they send Dale and Sheryl out to their positions and then the rain comes again. Dale is in my car listening to the CD player when it starts really raining so I climb in the passenger seat. He asked about the MP3 player is all the sound really coming from just the 2 speakers. After about 20 minutes of the rain coming in through the windowless doors I made the comment, "I hope your getting paid well for this". Dale replied, "free". He said he loves the music and doing the videos, he's just doing it to have fun. He went on to tell me that the day before they were shooting a "Bullit" type scene in LA, tearing up and down some steep public streets. He said, "I can't beleive they were letting us (power)slide the cars around 50-60 mph on the city streets". The rain quit almost as quickly as it came and they got the last shot in with Sheryl walking down toward the camera and Dale coming around the corner and slowing beside her and then pulling away leaving her to fend for herself. They did 12 takes of Dale rolling by from different angles, 12 takes of Sheryl walking down the hill. The last car shot was down in the pits with Sheryl's stunt double driving the GT40 across the finsh line with me driving my car in Dale's suit, helmet and gloves. I only took one take as the stunt double fried the other GT40's clutch. It's now 8PM and the director calls a wrap for the cars and I load up the car. I went to Dale's trailer to return his helmet and he's sitting there drinking a Budweiser with JR signing autographs. He had commented that he had liked the CD we were listening to earlier so I gave him the disc (I had another copy in the truck anyway). He said that if I ever sell my car to give him a call and gave me his card. I thanked him and wished him luck in the CocaCola 600 and left. I got home at midnight, tired, wired and thirsty. I really was fortunate to be able to spend as much time as I did with Dale and I can tell you that he's a regular guy, loves what he does and is a someone you would like to hang out with. I didn't spend much time with Sheryl but she always had a smile on her face, even while we were waiting for the rain to stop. Right before the finsh line scene, she stood in the middle of the front straight and did the air guitar performance for the singing shots. Did it twice wearing some painted on pants and a small vest with the wind blowing 20 MPH and the temp hovering about 45°
How does The Butcher end his posts...
These are my stories...
and the pics are here
 

Ron Earp

Admin
Sounds really cool, but what was the event for? Some sort of racing extravaganza video with superstars?

Ron
 
The shoot was for Sheryl's new song "Steve McQueen" and uses influences from "LeMans" and "Bullit"
 
Wayne,

Awesome story. I love your GT40 BTW. Is it a CAV, I think? What would you budget for a similar car from scratch? I saw a Dream Car Garage episode with Dale JR, and he is definitely 100% car guy. He has a tricked out 69 Chevy Z-28 that they show on the segment. Take care (I am TC on CC as well)
 
The car is a CAV so it would be $59,500 for the moncoque car, $500 for the stripes, $5000 for the 342 motor (AFR heads, Canton RR pan, X303 cam),$5200 for the Stack injection system, $2400 optional A/C,$1500 17"wheel upgrade.
Here is what is looks like from 90 feet up in a fire truck boom.
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1997 Ford Royal Blue Metalic paint code KM
I've got a touched up version of the picture with the fire truck boom reflection removed from the windshield if anyone wants it emailed to them.
 
G

Guest

Guest
Wayne, have you heard when the video will be released in the US. I've been keeping VH1 and/or MTV on in the back ground in hopes of catching the video and I have heard about as much HipHop as I can stand :)

VH1 was running a set called "the greatest driving songs" but the Sheryl Crow song was not Steve McQueen. I can't wait to see the entire video.
 
The last one cost $100? What happened to the
first? (second? third?
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)

C'mon Wayne, you haven't blown them up already
have you
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?

Ian
 
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