User Reviews

William F. McGaha, co-wrote, directed, produced, and stars in this as Scott, a young car racer who will remind you that he deserves to be on the track to the point that you will absolutely hate him. So yeah, he can do anything except make you love him in this movie.

What this movie does have is a great theme song, "Speed Lovers" by Billy Lee Riley, and also an appearance by the band Randy Little and the Holidays, who rock out two numbers, "You Love Everybody" and "A Living Doll."

Scott Clayton, the character that McGaha plays, is the son of a famous mechanic and being asked to fix a big race by Atlanta organized crime figure Pinkerton Bentley (David Marcus), who plies him with sodas and go go dancers.

Fred Lorenzen - The Golden Boy, Fast Freddie, The Elmhurst Express and Fearless Freddy - plays himself and at the time, he was a majorstar in NASCAR, winning the following races from 1962 to 1967: the Atlanta 500, the World 600; the Volunteer 500, the Western North Carolina 500; the Mountaineer 300 and the Old Dominion 500 in 1963; the Southeastern 500 at Bristol; the Atlanta 500; the Gwyn Staley 400 at North Wilkesboro; the Virginia 500 at Martinsville; the Rebel 300 at Darlington; the Volunteer 500; the Old Dominion 500 and the Charlotte Motor Speedway National 400 in 1964; the Daytona 500; the Virginia 500; the World 600 and the National 400 in 1965; and the Old Dominion 500 and the American 500 in 1966 and Daytona 500 Qualifier in 1967. In 1963 alone, he made $122,000 in winner's prizes, a figure which would be $1.2 million dollars in 2023 money. That's kind of like having Michael Jordan show up in your regional Florida movie.

McGaha would go on to make Bad Girls for the Boys, The Shrink and one of the oddest biker movies ever, J. C., which yes, is about a motorcycle riding Jesus. He wrote this with Fred Tuch, who went on to be an art director for the shows Manimal and Galactica 80 as well as the art director for Pennies from Heaven, the storyboard artist for Mannequin and an illustrator on Blue Thunder.

Cocky, whiny, obnoxious and self-centered young punk Scott Clayton (the hopelessly cardboard William McGaha, who has the appeal and charisma of a jar of rancid mustard) desperately wants to a champion race car driver just like his idol Fred Lorenzen (who gives a sturdy, natural and engaging performance playing himself). Scott runs afoul of both domineering control freak iceberg queen Vanessa Hamilton (smoldering redhead knockout Peggy O'Hara, who sports an amazing towering bouffant) and fat scuzzball gangster Pinkerton "Pinky" Bentley (a nicely smarmy turn by David Marcus), both of whom pressure Scott to force both Lorenzen and Scott's estranged mechanic father Flip (the solid Fritz Congdon) to join Vanessa's stock car racing team.

Directed and co-written with strangely becoming ineptitude by triple threat McGaha, with bright, crisp, but stiff and clunky cinematography by Joseph Shelton (I especially dug the occasional snazzy use of split screen), a couple of cool nightclub scenes, a swingin' cocktail lounge score by Carleton Palmer, plenty of hot-looking chicks (Carol Street as the enticing blonde Kitty in particular really steams up the screen), a silly plot loaded with convoluted twists and turns, a groovy theme song complete with a smooth vocal and a funky reverb guitar riff, and, best of all, lots of rousing crash 'em and smash 'em authentic Daytona racetrack footage that's genuinely thrilling, gripping and nerve-wracking stuff to behold, this pleasingly diverting piece of late 60's drive-in exploitation fluff exudes a certain goofy and harmless charm that's impossible to dislike. I plead guilty as charged on the grounds that I enjoyed it a whole lot.