Steve McQueen, the Hollywood icon, had a passion for car racing. However, his long lost Formula 1 film project never saw the light of day – until now.
This is the story of the abandoned production of 'Day of the Champion', a movie about Formula 1 which was set to film in 1966. In the late 1960's Steve McQueen was one of the biggest draws in Hollywood, but the starring roles were only secondary to his real passion: motor-racing. With veteran director John Sturgis at the helm, in the mid-60s McQueen aimed to be in the lead for the quintessential motor-racing film, "Day Of The Champion", whose production went up directly against a competing film, "Grand Prix". It was a race to see who could get their film into theatres first, with McQueen determined to get his obsession on-screen in as vivid a manner as possible.
"Day of The Champion" took its inspiration from Formula 1 rather than sports car racing and would have pre-dated "Le Mans" by five years, only for McQueen to lose the greatest race of his professional life, as a parallel movie, John Frankenheimer's "Grand Prix", starring his friend, neighbour and former co-star James Garner, beat 'The Cooler King' to the punch and played a central role in the cancellation of this passion project.
The film elegantly captures Steve McQueen's stardom and passion for car racing. It is set against the backdrop of the 1960s – glory days for both Formula 1 and Hollywood. Narrated by David Letterman, the documentary chronicles a race between two identical films. As we watch iconic directors and film studios battle it out, we learn the story behind the story of "Day of the Champion" – McQueen's lost Formula 1 film.
Just as strikingly, the film brings to the big screen incredible, never-before-seen racing footage that captures the glamour, and the danger, of Formula 1 racing in the 1960s.
Files were found from American stock library, and on the screen we see crisp, colour images of the 1965 German Grand Prix captured on 35mm movie film, and some striking car-to-car action featuring Stirling Moss filmed on a Nurburgring. For filming Lola T70 camera car was used, and we see car-to-car action featuring a pair of Reg Parnell-run Lotuses and Moss in a Rob Walker Brabham, crowd and pitlane shots and footage of the immediate aftermath of the race, as winner and newly crowned double world champion Jim Clark takes to the podium, flanked by Graham Hill and Dan Gurney, a scene usually only captured in monochrome.
Warner pulled the plug on "Day of The Champion" in the summer of 1966 when it became clear MGM would beat it to the cinemas with "Grand Prix" – much to McQueen's fury. But the disappointment only drove him on and appears to have fed directly into the famous car chase scene in "Bullitt" and most obviously into "Le Mans". This documentary dives into the archives and tells the story of the egos, the stars and the mystery of a film that was never made.

Written, Produced and Directed by Alex Rodger ; An Associated Rediffusion Production with Sky Studios