GrunewaldDVDreview

A Review of the Meadowdale DVD on E-Bay

It's Racing at

Meadowdale Raceway...

and You are There!

If you're a fan of Meadowdale Raceway, you need to see this video. It's a compilation of a batch of old silent 8mm home movies, skillfully spliced together to blend into an exciting montage of sports car racing in the period of 1958-1962. There are clips from Road America and Wilmot Hills Raceways, but most of the film is from Meadowdale.

DVD compiler and marketer Scott Grunewald touts the cars shown in the film. It does show many notable cars and drivers. But to me, the value of this film is its great overview of Meadowdale Raceway, something it's hard to appreciate from still photos. The views are exactly what you would have seen as an energetic spectator in those early days- the sweep of the Monza Wall leading onto the main straight, the 4,000' roller coaster ride to the Little Monza, down and around the Little Monza (aka Greg's Corkscrew on maps) and past the Pure Oil silo. It's like you were there. There's even a quick shot of the spectacular Fox River Valley vista from the top of the hill at the north end of the track, one of the highest elevations in the area.

The Uphill seems much steeper when you climb it today than I recall and than it shows in this film. (Could be the difference between age 25 and age 65?) There are shots of the left-hander at the top of the Uphill and the Serpentine from several angles. Steffen's Straight around to the Jump is sparsely covered, as that area was largely inaccessible to spectators. There are excellent presentations of the straights going into and coming out of Doane's Corner, as well as of the turn itself. And then you are back to the Monza Wall. You see structures now long gone- the flagging towers, tunnels under the track, and the five story control tower and double decked pit stalls.

If you've seen Raceway Woods recently, it will amaze you how stripped bare the property is in these films. The heavy woods at the track now make it hard to believe the extreme clearing and re-contouring the property went through less than fifty years ago.

Home movie cameras of that era did not have zoom, so the cars on the track tend to be indistinct. However there are good close-ups in the pits and paddock showing many notable cars and drivers. There are also short clips of racing karts and stock cars at Meadowdale.

If there could be an improvement, it is that the video shifts from scene to scene without any indication of what you're looking at. When you are familiar with the old venues, no problem, but I can see confusion for people who are seeing these tracks for the first time. A simple narrative sound track with a little background music would add a lot.

I would also quibble with Grunewald's e-bay statement that these are the only movies of Meadowdale around. The old Meister Brauser professional film features MIR and I have seen several other home movies of the track. However, his is the only one generally available now and is of better quality than most others I've seen. Another e-bay claim is for scenes from the first race in 1958. I question that as I don't see the winning Daigh and Reventlow Scarabs or other notable cars that ran only at that event.

The ad also comments on a wrecked Ferrari and possible fatality. If this is referring to the crumpled #16 blue early in the film, that is a Lister Chevrolet driven by Jim Rathman. Wrecked as it is, Rathman survived. The only fatality in the history of MIR was at the inaugural race, involving Ferrari #34 red driven by Robert Walker.

But these are only minor discrepencies in the film's description and irrelevant when the piece is considered as a whole.

The Meadowdale DVD ad on e-bay, the main marketing tool for the DVD, clearly explains what you're going to get. Don't expect Grand Prix. This is a home movie. It has no plot. The scenes hop around a bit. Some of the color has aged. There are even a few places where, for the true home movie experience, the film jumps the sprockets for a few frames.

You might consider it a 35-minute motion picture version of this website. So if you're enjoying this site, you should like the DVD. It does include images of many things I don't have on this site.

Available on e-bay most of the time for $24.95, including postage - Search on Meadowdale DVD.

Ross Fosbender, webmaster