Released by Esso Oil Company as part of their promotional efforts, GENTLEMEN START YOUR ENGINES! is a profile of the Indianapolis 500 Motor Speedway set against the qualifying events for the 1963 race. The film presents some of the “questions that need answers” — with the ever-present challenge of Indy being that (as the narrator says) the race in this era normally got faster by an average of 1.5 miles per hour, per year.
Safety is heavily emphasized in this film, which nevertheless spends quite a bit of time showing a series of devastating accidents including the 1964 double fatal accident that resulted in a race stoppage, and the 1958 disaster that resulted in 17 cars being in a pile-up (and cost the life of a driver).
The film includes historic footage of the Indy 500, and shows the official opening of the track, the downtown parade, some fabulous behind-the-scenes views of shop work (including a look inside Mickey Thompson’s facility) and work in the garage area, cars arriving at the speedway, the pole-position mechanic’s banquet, racing personalities at Raymond Firestone’s complimentary buffet, the USAC banquet and annual car-owner meeting. Benson Ford and a young executive named Lee Iacocca confirm in interviews that racing has indeed benefitted US auto manufacturers in developing better cars for the motoring public. Smokey Yunick is shown leaving Gasoline Alley in his new ’63 Impala towing the wrecked #12 Fiberglas Special on a trailer back to Daytona Beach.
Shown qualifying in the film are Parnelli Jones, Dan Gurney, Bobby Unser in the #6 Hotel Tropicana Novi and rookie Jim Clark in the #92 Lotus Ford. Others include: Duane Carter, Dan Gurney, Lloyd Ruby and Dick Rathmann as well as some that did not even make the race – Len Sutton, Gig Stephens, Bob Christie, Cliff Griffith, Paul Russo and the #64 Kimberly Buick of Porky Rachwitz.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
