Cycle News

Cycle News 2019 Issue 10 March 12

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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CN III ARCHIVES BY LARRY LAWRENCE H all of Fame filmmaker Pe- ter Starr wants to preserve history, and, quite frankly, he's running out of time. At 76 years of age, Starr is still going strong, but he's seen too many of his contemporaries in motorcycle racing pass away in recent years, some having never had the op- portunity to tell their story on video to be preserved for future generations. Starr wants to keep that from happening to our past racing stars who are still with us— for their sake and ours. Starr is hoping to build on what he calls "The Heritage Col- lection"—high-quality, in-depth video interviews with some of the greats of motorcycle racing. Starr sent me a small excerpt of one of his interviews with the late-great Joe Leonard, the very first AMA Grand National Champion. It was wonderful. Thank goodness Starr was able to sit down and get this interview with Leonard, because "Smokin' Joe" was gone not P116 RACING AGAINST TIME TO PRESERVE HISTORY they grew up reading and listen- ing about. Starr is seeking ideas on where his Heritage Collection might be put to best use, and perhaps equally important he's looking for whatever entity may be interested in the collection to give him a commitment to continue gathering even more of these essential interviews, now and into the future. "I'm looking for a home for the ones I've done, and also I would like a commitment to continue this project of getting these types of lifestyle interviews of the heroes of our sport while they're still alive." I can speak personally to the importance of capturing the stories of racing and industry legends. I've done it for years but almost exclusively via audio inter- views, and these interviews have provided me a constant source of information that I and others can go back to understand the history of our sport better. Of course, many of the subjects I've interviewed over the years, have since passed away. I would have given anything to actually have many years later. "Over the years I've been building up a collection of these interviews—except they are not just interviews, but kind of lifestyle experiences—with some of the greatest racers and industry icons there's been. "What I like to do is set up a video camera and just let them talk for an hour. It's basically them talking in their own words about their life. I prompt them at times when they come to a natural stop, but it's not like a traditional ques- tion and answer thing, because I want it to sort of free flow from them, so you get an essence of their personality rather than their ability to answer questions." Being a longtime filmmaker, Starr knows what it takes to get the look and sound right for these projects, and they will prove invaluable for future racing historians, writers, or just fans of motorcycle racing who would love to hear firsthand from the racers

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