April - May, 2002: Taking creative license in grand Hollywood fashion, Disney Studios came to Utah to film segments for a drag racing movie about a Texas teenager. They enlisted the help and talents of Nostalgia Top Fuel racer, Jack "The Sheriff" Harris and his crew. The made for TV movie, "Right On Track" is about Erica Enders, the NHRA junior dragster champion and her father, Gregg. It mattered not that Harris has a state-of-the-art 2002 N/TF car that runs in the 5 second zone - for the folks at Disney it worked just fine as the 1969 T/F car that Erica's dad supposedly had (but never did) and that she caught the drag racing bug from. For what will probably be less than 5 minutes of the film, Disney spent over 3 weeks with Harris and turning Rocky Mountain Dragway into Houston Dragway circa 1970. As Gregg Enders states, "Right On Track is a story based on a true story, not a documentary or history show."

Anyway, here's some WDIFL exclusive production shots from Keith (The Deputy Sheriff) and Jack Harris. If nothing else, the film will put a positive spin on drag racing and accuracy be damned - lead to more exposure for our sport. Thanks to Jack and the gang for sharing these. This team is without a doubt the most helpful bunch going and they do all they can to promote Nostalgia Drag Racing.

 

Much of the shooting took place at this rented house (to get the old garage look) and in typical Hollywood fashion, it was too short to hold the car so a false front had to be built and added. Judging by the size of the crew, this is no low budget project. This appears to be the initial set-up.

This is footage for when a young Erica Enders used to sit in her dad's car and dream of racing.

These would be the actors who play Erica (Beverley Mitchell) and her dad, Gregg (Jon Lindstrom).

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The next series of shots are obviously a typical Hollywood dog and pony show (115 cast and crew) leading up to the cars actually running.

Harris (in t-shirt) has some fun with the actor/driver prior to him actually getting into the car for the action shots.

The new "Sudden Impact" fueler of Mason & Watson played "the other car". Both Scott Mason and Steve Watson have Nostalgia Top Fuel licenses, engine builder/tuner Watson was in the car for this deal.

 

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Check out the flag starter! Here's a guy who got into his roll.

The director wanted tire smoke - he got tire smoke and the crew goes wild.

Harris and Watson on the other end.

To update this story, Erica Enders is currently trying to get another ride in the NHRA Pro Stock class.