Gears & Tears, BriSCA F1 Stock Car Documentary BBC1 Mondays 2235hrs

Gears and Tears
BBC One -- 6 x 30 mins
Gears and Tears will be broadcast on BBC1 at 10.35pm on Monday Aug 2nd, and for a further five weeks after that. It is a six part series of 30min programmes.
Motorsport's best kept secret, BriSCA Formula 1 Stock Car Racing, will be secret no longer when BBC One's new documentary series 'Gears and Tears' goes to air on BBC1 at 10.30pm on Monday Aug 2nd, and for a further five weeks after that. It is a six part series of 30min programmes. It's an obsession that's divided two rival families for forty years; two racing dynasties who, every weekend, fight fiery gladiatorial showdowns in thundering purpose built chariots designed to push the opposition off the track.
The BBC have never commissioned a motorsport documentary series of this nature before but with over 60 cameras at some of the big events this is motorsport like no one has ever seen on TV before with 750bhp cars using locked diffs racing on a shale oval the size of an athletics track in a sport where the approved passing method is to push your opponent off the track.
The Formula 1 Stock Cars are a firm favourite in the NEC's live action arena and this series is a chance to find out more about the drivers and families involved in the most spectacular motorsport in Britain. No other racing combines the enormous power of the F1Õs with full contact; these drivers don't wait for an opportunity to overtake, they simply smash each other out of the way with their car's formidable steel bumpers, usually several times a lap.
This six part documentary series follows the story behind the leading characters in a single Stock Car season and focuses upon the battle between two families, the Wainmans from Yorkshire and the Smiths from Lancashire. A latter day War of the Roses conducted in an arena where passion, pride and family are everything. Frankie Wainman Jnr and Andy Smith are arch rivals but have much in common. Their fathers, Frankie 'Smiler' Wainman Snr and Stuart 'The Maestro' Smith Snr, were the leading drivers in the '70s and '80s when Stock Car racing was as much a part of popular culture as Wrestling, Curly Wurlys and the Rubik's Cube.
Racing is a way of life that demands total family commitment. Drivers are championed by wives, girlfriends, mothers and grandmas who are even more passionate than their men folk. Crashes and tears trackside are the order of the day as the episodes progress through a season that takes the competition between the two dynasties to fever pitch. Many other top drivers in F1 Stock Car racing also feature in the series.
Over the nine month 2009 season the film makers enjoyed unprecedented access to this world of everyday heroes from all walks of life. Gears and Tears celebrates values often forgotten in contemporary British society where enthusiasm, improvisation and home grown engineering skills are still king.
It's the stuff of legends.
BriSCA Formula 1 Stock Cars
If you think stock car racing is a way of using up old Ford Granadas think again. BriSCA F1 stock cars are purpose built racing machines designed to race hard and fast on quarter mile ovals - where the ability to give and take punishment is just as important as outright speed. The racing is close because the rules are tightly defined, but fast because these cars have no upper engine size limit. Most drivers use Chevy based V8 race engines, small or big block, with 550bhp being the minimum needed to be competitive. Many cars have as much as 850bhp making for spectacular racing as drivers battle to retain control of a car with far more power than grip. Commercial vehicle based live axles are mandatory, as are locked differentials, so stock cars have to corner in a drift, whilst trying to push the opposition in to the fence.
Links:
f1stockcars.com/