There is more to winning than finishing first.
Speedway bikes careen around an oval track of loosely packed shale at incredible speeds. The shale allows these riders to slide their machines sideways in the turn, using the rear wheel to scrub off speed. With a light frame, these bikes have little resemblance to a street motorcycle, and the engines run on methanol, not gasoline. Their power to weight ratio can only be compared with a Formula One Indie car. However, these bikes have no brakes, no rear suspension and no gears, making them unruly and the races action-packed.    Sidecar bikes, also raced at the Speedway, are three-wheeled "trikes" controlled by two racers, a driver and a "swing" or "monkey." The swing is a human counterbalance, “swinging” off the bike to prevent it from flipping in the turns. Again, these daring machines have no brakes and speed can only be controlled with a coordinated slide.    Speedway traveled to California via Australia, New Zealand and England. In these countries, the sport is professional and draws a large television audience. However, in the US, Speedway has remained local, most often run on small tracks or as a fairground event.    The characters in Speedway traverse two worlds, the small, beautiful towns of Auburn and Foresthill and the raw, volatile culture of the track. The film explores this dichotomy with two distinctive looks. The small town milieu plays quietly, with unobtrusive camera work that reveals rather than creates, the drama of the moment. The breathtaking Northern California vistas play a part in the film, contrasting the intimacy or loneliness dictated by the characters. Clean, beautiful lighting helps ground us in reality. The pacing is natural.    On the track, the film detonates, propelling us into danger and speed. We capture the realism of the race and the reality of the track using multiple cameras. Mounts on the bikes enable us to experience the extremity of this sport with real action photography. Using multiple shutter speeds, changing frame rates and rapid cutting, our cameras move with these vehicles to capture the details our characters see as their adrenalin pumps high and hard. Imagine dirt spraying from tires as seen through the POV of a sidecar "swing," or the sparks emitted from the sole of your hot shoe pushing down on the shale track. We experience these races as if we are racing ourselves, as if we somehow control the power of these bikes from our theater seat, fully bringing us into that world.    The two looks reflect our characters’ experiences: the intimate struggles of their lives and the heightened reality they find on the track.