Rapid Response

A film review

The author recently had the opportunity to watch the documentary film Rapid Response based on Dr. Stephen Olvey’s excellent book of the same name. The author highly recommends this film  - all automobile racing fans and particularly open wheel racing fans need to see this two-hour film, which was directed, edited, and produced by Indianapolis native Michael Miles through Mile A Way Productions.

This film uses vintage footage provided by First Turn Productions and still photos from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway film archives, which are a real treat for racing historians. The film opens with historical color footage that features the Cummins Diesel Special starting from the pole position and Troy Ruttman winning the 1952 ‘500,’ and then continues with historical footage of crashes through the years at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS).

The film weaves the story of Dr. Olvey into the history of safety developments of our sport, beginning with his days working for IMS’s Dr. Tom Hanna because he wanted to “help the drivers.” Interspersed with the historical footage are recent interviews with Mario Andretti, Al and Bobby Unser and Parnelli Jones that add flavor of what safety was like in the “old days.”  

Olvey tells the story of his role that helped improve medical response at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway through the years, and tells the story of the eventual formation of a dedicated safety team that traveled the USAC Championship Trail created by Steve Edwards to provide “consistency of performance by qualified capable people.”

The film then introduces orthopedic surgeon Dr. Terry Trammell and follows his story from his days as volunteer medical student who worked at IMS in 1973, to his treatment of Danny Ongais after his awful Indianapolis crash in 1981. Together through the 1980’s and 1990’s Trammell and Olvey worked together to improve the response to accidents and later to the collection of scientific data to help redesign the race cars to better protect drivers.

The film focuses on critical events such as Rick Mears’ Sanair accident and Chip Ganssi’s Michigan accident in 1984, complete with interviews with Mears and Ganassi. Olvey reviews the events that led to the cancellation of the CART race at the Texas Motor Speedway in 2001, and the film closes with the story of Alex Zanardi’s gruesome accident at the Eurosport oval in Germany and his triumphant return to racing.  

The film Rapid Response is unrated and contains footage of fatal accidents. 

Visit the film’s website at   https://rapidresponsemovie.com/ to find a theater near you.