In
Conversation with
Mario Andretti
You retired as one of the top Indy car drivers the world has ever seen. Do you still have that craving to race?
I still race, but only long distances. I've done a couple of 24-hour races, and I've done Le Mans the last two years. To drive while doing Super Speedway and to try to run as competitively as possible was a great thing for me. I welcomed it with open arms because making the film was doing something that would last, and at the same time it gave me an opportunity to get back into the cockpit of an Indy car. For that I'm very, very thankful.
How did you get involved with the IMAX® film?
Stephen Low and the crew came to me after they had already done a deal with the Newman/Haas team, before firming up a driver. I think at first they thought they'd use one of the current drivers of Newman/Haas, either my son Michael or Christian Fittipaldi. They thought that in the lull between their activities these guys could probably drive the camera car. But then all of a sudden they realized they had a guy here who was idle and chomping at the bit to get back into a car. When they thought about involving me with the project they met with my manager and we did the deal in a hurry.
What was your initial reaction when Stephen approached you?
My initial reaction was positive. I was very, very interested right from the outset. When I met Stephen I knew very little about IMAX films, but when he told me about his background and about some of his projects, like diving for the Titanic, I became even more interested. Stephen explained that even with that big "lump" of a camera on the car, he expected me to drive as hard as I could. I thought, now you're talking my language. I didn't want to just cruise around and be a donkey out there. They were looking for somebody who really wanted to put some teeth into the deal. I said to him, "Well, okay, let's not use any trickery in the filming, no speeding up the camera. Let's just be realistic. If we can represent reality, then I'll do it." And we never looked back. From day one, we surprised ourselves with how quick we could be.
You drove the camera car. Were there any technical difficulties?
When we first put the camera on the car and tested at Indianapolis, it didn't really work. It was okay up to 210 or 215 miles per hour, but beyond that the camera would shut off. It was because they didn't have enough experience with it. There were some harmonic vibrations that were killing the electronics in the camera when the engine reached a certain rpm.
So although we initially didn't get what we wanted, we knew that even with that extra weight on the car we could still go around Indianapolis at over 200 miles average. But prior to that I'd looked at the car and thought, oh man, we'll be lucky to average 150 to 160. Then when we hit the 200 mark, I said, "Okay, now I feel good, now I know we're going to be representative." I realized the film was truly going to show the reality of racing, which made me feel good about the project and pushed me to continue.
From there, we went to a variety of circuits around the States. We went to Homestead in Florida, which is an oval, and to lots of other places. We even did Toronto in Canada. We got a tremendous variety of driving done, on superspeedways and short ovals, and we also filmed street racing. We even managed to capture some racing in the rain.
At what point did the film develop into a film about you?
The same way my relationship with Stephen developed. He started to read me, to see that I was excited about the project. I really, really believed in it. I think that's when Stephen realized I was more than just a cameraman for him. So he developed the idea of featuring my son Michael and me.
I opened up my life to Stephen. He's someone who's always interested in details and personality. When we were at dinner together the conversation would never be about politics. He would really probe. He was interested in the important things in my life. He wanted to find out what I was all about and what I believed in.
How did your experience in racing contribute to the production of the film?
It doesn't take people long when engaging in conversation with me to discover the deep passion I've always had, and always will have, for the sport. That includes how I worked my
way up through the ranks and all the disciplines I've driven in. I competed through an era of huge changes. A few years ago I was one of the few active drivers who was current with what
was going on who also went back to the days of the skinny tires and front-engine cars of the early sixties. I go back to the roadster, the sprint cars, the midgets... I had that kind of background. I know about the evolutions of tire development, engines, turbocharged engines and aerodynamics, and not just surface aerodynamics but ground effects. Because I went through these changes I had the wide range of experience Stephen was looking for. I can talk racing with a veteran from the fifties and sixties and with the guys who are at the leading edge of our sport today, such as my son Michael.
Were there risks in operating the camera car?
With the camera car, I felt I had to come up with whatever it took to get the footage. At Indianapolis, a person would look pretty silly going 35 miles per hour in testing. Anyway, you can never really know what's going to happen until you dive into a corner at over 200 miles per hour, because otherwise these cars don't react. To test the camera on the roll-bar I had to dive into the corners hard. I know anyone could handle that at 130, 140, 150 miles per hour, so I said to myself, okay, I'm going to try, and I have to believe that if something weird happens, I'll be able to handle it. That's how you reason these things out. Is it madness? I don't think so.
What do you think is unique about Super Speedway?
Not only is the footage different, you're not going to see something like this again for a long, long time. You have no idea what Stephen Low pulled off when he got a team to field a car for me, an actual race car with actual race team mechanics to maintain it, which I drove during actual activities, all with the event competitors around at different times. We're talking about millions of dollars of race car equipment. The logistics of that happening again are remote in the foreseeable future. People who see the film will probably take a lot of it for granted, but those are the things I really appreciate.
The fact is, the in-car cameras we have today for TV coverage don't produce anything like what you're going to see on the IMAX® screen. With an in-board video camera, you don't really get a true picture of what's going on. This IMAX stuff will keep you on the edge of your seat because everything is happening the way the drivers see it. The things we were able to do with the big IMAX camera look awesome.
Where did you learn to operate an IMAX® camera?
Even though I was under Stephen's direction, I went by feel. They would say, "you only have three minutes of film to play with, so use it the best way possible." I had to try in my own way to do that, and I think I got lucky as hell because you can't always predict what will happen. I don't think we missed any good shots, and I was thrilled for Stephen. We needed a variety of shots, and as a bonus it was sunny. There were times when a lot of things weren't right, but somehow it all worked out in the end. I told Stephen, "I like to work with people who are lucky." And he was one lucky guy.
Did you and Stephen see this film the same way?
The shooting I did was something that would have been impossible to really design. Obviously, I wanted to know as much as possible what Stephen was looking for, and then it had to either happen or not. There were times when I could have been totally wrong, but I was lucky. I can't take any special credit. I really believed in the project from day one. I wanted it to succeed and I had a lot of enthusiasm. I appreciated what Stephen was trying to put together. It seemed like all our ideas were matching. I did my best while driving the car to create situations that would be good for the camera, like trying to put other drivers in certain situations, and it worked. I loved to see Stephen's eyes beam whenever he played back the tape, because then I could say, okay, we're on the same page.
In
Conversation
with Michael Andretti
Did you realize what your involvement in Super Speedway would be?
To be honest, I didn't know what I was getting myself into at first, although I realized it would be work. But the more I learned the more interested I became, and when I was finally able to see some of the product in Toronto I was truly impressed. After that I was really excited about the rest of the year and doing whatever it took to do this thing right.
What was your impression of the footage?
I was genuinely impressed. It's unbelievable how fast racing looks on the big screen. When you're driving you're focusing forward, so it seems like things are coming at you a lot slower. But when you're watching from your seat in the theatre you're not in that concentration mode and everything feels much faster. The sensation you get sitting in the theatre is almost like what you feel when you're in the car. It's pretty exciting.
Does the footage alter your perspective?
It gave me some new perspective on what I do. I was amazed at the speeds we go in the car. It never seems quite that fast when I'm driving because I'm concentrating so hard. It's a little scary to see on film.
How was it to work with your father?
It was good. I think he had a lot of fun driving the car. He really got into it and he shot some excellent footage. What amazed me was how fast he was able to go with that camera mounted on the car. It was great working with him and seeing him out on the track because I knew he was having a good time doing it.
Was there anything about the production that surprised you?
It was pretty amazing. What a camera! I know a lot of stress is put on every inch of a race car, but when you're driving you don't realize the types of harmonics that are involved. If you attach something to a car that wasn't made for it, it doesn't work. When we originally put the first camera on the car, it almost fell apart because of the vibrations. It's hard to imagine the force that goes through every piece of a race car, and your body too.
What will surprise the audience about this project?
People won't understand that what Stephen accomplished is truly amazing. To have an Indy car on the track during practice with other Indy cars is a huge feat. There were lots of things he was able to pull off that were unbelievable. The footage he got is priceless. Hopefully, that's really going to show up in the film. My hat's off to Stephen for making it happen. He even had me go out and spin a car on purpose-I'd never done that before in my life. How did he talk me into it? I did a full 360 for the camera, and it looks pretty neat on film! That's the kind of stuff Stephen was able to do.
Press Release | Super Speedway Synopsis | The Andrettis
Restoring The Roadster - Don Lyons | In Conversation with Michael and Mario Andretti