KJ FILMWORKS BEHIND THE SCENES – By Jack Quirk
A few years ago, we had the opportunity to work on a project that took us to Dawsonville, Georgia, the home shop for NASCAR Legend, Bill Elliott. The project was to take Brent Hajek’s brand new Ford Mustang, make some high-performance upgrades, and have Bill Elliott drive it at Talladega Super Speedway to break his all-time NASCAR track record of 212.809 MPH.
We arrived at Bill’s shop on Monday where we spent a few days setting up the car for the big event. We got to meet his son, Chase Elliott, then 13 and not yet famous. (That story is another episode.) The next day we loaded up and headed to Talladega Super Speedway. As we entered the track, the size of this place was overwhelming. The cool part of this story was we had the track entirely to ourselves for the day.
After a rain delay in the morning, Bill got in the Mustang and made a test hot lap. Upon returning to the garage he briefed the crew on what the car needed. After lunch, he headed out on the track again to try to break his 35-year record. The car sounded amazing as he passed us in the pit area on the first lap. Coming out of turn 2, the right front tire blew and he hit the wall. Although he didn’t break his record, he did establish the stock body Mustang burning E85, at 174.206 mph at Talladega Super Speedway.
KJ FilmWorks gets to do a lot of amazing jobs, but for a race car nut like me, this one was top of the pile.