To celebrate Acura's launch of its Penske ARX prototype racer (as well as its ongoing NSX GT3 campaign), The Mighty Motor partnered with the Japanese automaker to immerse viewers in the world of IMSA sports car racing.

In documenting the racing world, our goal is to create a portrait that is at once intimate and expansive, providing viewers with a close-up look at the teams – in this case Penske, Shank, Hart, and Wilson – in action, while at the same time conveying the grandeur, scope, and pageantry that characterize elite racing at this level.

For carfolk, racing is an addiction. For the average person, however, it can appear distant, confusing, inhuman. When we shoot racing, therefore, we go “behind the helmet.” We’re fascinated by not only the cars (though we always love the cars!) but also by the bravery, focus, comradery, and emotion that make racing an intensely human experience.

The imagery for these stories should be immersive without being disorienting. We want to give the viewer a sense of what it feels like to do 200 miles per hour as the car hangs nearly sideways on the famous Daytona banking; to feel the lateral g-forces as the ARX threads turns 2-5 at Sebring; and to feel yourself pinned back against your seat as the driver nails the accelerator out of turn 2 at Mid-Ohio and screams down the straight toward China Beach. 

From the chaotic precision of a pit stop to the intense focus on real-time data, the men and women who make up a race team are every bit the trained professionals that you’d find on a Navy SEAL team or in a surgical operating room. They are also humans: subject to the agonies and ecstasies that accompany the emotional roller coaster of a race.

Whatever the moment, the viewer will wish to be there with them...and to be one of them.