This November, Magnolia Pictures will bring to theaters a story that’s a familiar one for thousands of families across America, but a tale largely unknown or ignored by much of the general public. When the trailer for The Last Race first hit my inbox, I immediately thought of a place that I’ve mentioned a few times in the virtual pages of The Rock Father™ Magazine in years past… the late Santa Fe Speedway in Willow Springs, Illinois. If you’ve ever been around short track auto racing, it’s a familiar situation – racing thrives, but as development closes in on the race track, eventually the owners get squeezed out in favor of strip malls and upscale housing, often headed-up by litigious individuals and organizations that seek to eliminate the “inconvenience” of what was there before them. In the case of The Last Race, the subject is Riverhead Raceway, the last remaining auto track in Metro New York – one now surrounded, where racing takes place in the shadows of a Dick’s Sporting Goods and a lumber yard. Check out the trailer below for what looks to be one of this fall’s must-see documentary films.
“THE LAST RACE is an intimate portrait of a small-town stock car racetrack and the tribe of passionate blue-collar drivers that call it home, struggling to hold on to an American racing tradition as real estate development threatens its survival. Award winning filmmaker Michael Dweck’s stirring imagery takes you inside the world of grassroots racing and eye to eye with the cars’ snarling grills and white roll bars that protrude like bones out of scarred metal. Yet a patient camera lets us know the drivers as everyday people and learn that the racetrack is tied to a deep sense of identity. The track is on the only piece of undeveloped land in the area—it’s worth millions—and the only thing keeping the bulldozers at bay is track owners Barbara and Jim Cromarty’s love of the track and its community.”
In Theaters, on demand, on iTunes and Amazon Video November 16th. Check out the official site for more.
