Guys, after our spirited conversations yesterday, I talked to one of the guys with the production company and asked him if he would write me up a little explaination and background about their intentions, ideas and reasoning behind the show. Maybe as you read through this, you can get an idea of what they had planned and executed during the taping and cutting of the series. Also, keep in mind, you have seen 2 of 8 shows, so maybe it will come together more as you see more of the episodes. SO, the following quote is from an executive of BCII, the company that produced not only R U faster than a Redneck, but other shows you know, like RIDES, Overhaulin', Hot Rod TV, OUSCI, and many other cool shows......
AN OPEN LETTER to the Classic Motorsports / Grassroots Motorsports
community:
Dear CM and GM forum posters
First of all, THANK YOU all so much for watching RU Faster than a Redneck and giving it a try. We truly appreciate your passion for racing. The fact is, that's what this show has always intended to be about - the ultimate water cooler argument of who is faster...muscle cars or imports.
As you rightly say, the notion of 'who is faster' is much more complicated than just putting two unlike cars on the track together. But please don't confuse that with whether or not the racing was 'real' vs. 'fixed' or 'staged'. The fact is, the racing was 100% real, under a controlled structure that I'm happy to explain here.
First, we put out a call across the country for import cars/drivers to compete. Obviously when you have a NEW show that no one has ever seen/heard of, the first casting call is not huge. But we did get over 200 submissions and narrowed it down from there. We had all of them show up at the track on the same day so we could interview them, get them to sign releases, and then put them on the track so we could make sure they were a) safe and b) get a sense of how fast they could turn a lap.
Prior to their arrival, we assembled our MULLET MAFIA team and brought them all in for lap testing...again, for safety and timing.
Now, we have good lap times on everyone and can do a much better job of matching up competition to make the races exciting.
For the qualifying rounds, we tried to create good matchups, but we also needed to have good 'variety' of cars. The fact was, we had some 'sandbagger' contestants who were actually must faster during qualifying round racing then they were during testing...what a shocker eh? And similarly, we had some fast contestants from testing who ended up not being nearly as fast when put in a wheel-to-wheel environment. After all, no one wants to wreck their car! And we had some pretty darn SLOW contestants show up - but we didn't want to tell them NO you can't be on the show just because they were slow. We wanted to give everyone a shot...and so sometimes we pulled out some strange Redneck vehicles to race with - just to make it fun and more competitive. You'll see this later in the season. And so, these circumstances gave us contestants that weren't always who we 'thought' we would get through to the semi-final round. And that's racing!
For the semi-finals - as you can see from the show - we gave each contestant 3 cars to choose from (or two if you pick second). We tried to give them three cars / three drivers to choose from that were all different in performance capability to see whether they could figure it out or not. But of course the contestants had to choose...some chose WISELY and some chose POORLY. But in each case, THEY CHOSE - we did NOT fabricate the choices at all! When you're giving away prize money, you can't do that. We nicknamed it 'pick your poison' and we really like that part of the show. It gives the contestants a VERY IMPORTANT choice to make that can mean the difference between winning and losing.
For the Final $10,000 money race, WE choose who they race. Now, this may be the part where you all say 'see - it's rigged'. But the fact of the matter is, you still have to run the race. And in several instances over the season, you will see people lose or win that may NOT have been what WE hoped would happen. We want to make it REALLY HARD to win - after all, it's $10,000. So anyone coming to the track should expect to have to race a really good car if they make it to the final. We don't think there's anything unfair about that. We want there to be a David vs. Goliath feel - like the old American Gladiators sports show. The Gladiators were always bigger, stronger and faster - but sometimes they get beat! We also want it to be exciting - and we thought Kenny Wallace in the Trans Am vs. the Lambo was really exciting. Howard (the contestant) did a great job and we still hear from him today about how it was the 'most fun he's ever had behind the wheel'.
As far as the title of the show and the comedy with Jon Reep and such, it's designed to be fun. The fact is, our Mullet Mafia is made up of some of the top Pro-Touring drivers and builders in the country, and they're all from the South. Over the years filming them on RIDES and HOT ROD TV and THE OPTIMA ULTIMATE STREET CAR INVITATIONAL, we've come to love these guys and we love making fun of their redneck accents and behavior. So we thought we'd use that for the hook - we realize it's not funny to everyone, but it makes us laugh. And it's real - these are the guys. Your friend Bill here lives in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee! Really! Bottom line - they are all 100% committed to building and racing American street cars. It's what they do and they do it really well.
Getting Ken Squier was really the big win for us. We are HUGE Ken Squier fans, and when we explained the show to him, he said 'it sounds like fun...as long as the racing is real.' He's a real race fan - he still has a small circle track that he owns and operates and he just loves racing. He spent so much time with the drivers, getting to know them, being able to speak about them on camera - it was really great.
And his calls of each race were shot LIVE as they races happened. They were NOT pre- or post-recorded.
He's taken a lot of grief from some NASCAR fans for doing this show, but he's been telling all of them that this is REAL racing and that he will always support home track and amateur racing - as he's always done and continues to do. God Bless Ken Squier.
Anyway, thanks for listening, thanks for reading and thanks for watching We really appreciate all your support and we hope you'll continue to watch and encourage your street car racing community friends to join us on the track soon!
