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Just after Elvis Presley embarked on a string of racing movies in the mid to late 1960s, movie director Will Zens brought us another race movie starring a legitimate NASCAR racer and country music star. Hell on Wheels featured Marty Robbins as a popular race car driver, a role which was not too far from reality.
Robbins competed in many sportsman races at local tracks then moved on to compete at the highest level of stock racing. Competing in 35-career NASCAR races, Robbins earned six top-10 finishes in his part-time career as a racer. He was partial to Dodges and almost always ran with a purple and yellow paint scheme on his Chargers and Magnums.
His last NASCAR race was in a Junior Johnson built and prepared 1982 Buick Regal in the Atlantic Journal 500 on November 7, 1982 – a month before he passed away from complications to cardiac surgery. Robbins defining moment came at the Talladega Speedway in 1972 when he ran toward the front of the pack all day, often turning laps that were 15-mph faster than his qualification time. When NASCAR tried to award him the Rookie of the Race award, Robbins turned it down admitting that he had knocked the NASCAR mandated restrictors out of his carburetor. “I just wanted to see what it was like to run up front for once,” he explained.
The Champion and the Challenger.
We get flashes of a 1961 Chevy Impala (#0) and a 1962 Chevy Bel Air Sport Coupe (#12) but the ’55 remains the star Chevy in the film.
Caught up in the background of the racing action is the tow truck that removes the crashed race cars off of the track. This Chevy C-30 truck almost goes unnoticed except to die hard Chevy truck fans. Off of the track in the pit area, in a scene that was very quick, we spotted a 1957 Chevrolet 210 Townsman Bel Air series wagon.
A 1957 Chevy 210 Townsman wagon and a 1963 Chevy C30 Truck add to the cast.
The acting is horrible and the story is really plain, but the movie is worth watching for the array of classic Chevys that appear throughout the movie.
