Alliance lowers the checkered flag on a new and original dramatic series set in the behind-the-scenes world of professional stock car racing.

Fast Track, set to air Aug. 3 on Showtime in the u.s. and TMN The Movie Network and SuperChannel in Canada, is perhaps one of the networks’ biggest projects and, according to producer Sean Ryerson, from the point of view of huge action issues it is not the kind of thing that you usually do on a pay-tv series.

Ryerson said the stunts will be dramatic and the sets extremely detailed making the entire project more expensive than average. But, Ryerson says ‘we’ve got a budget that will accommodate all of that.’ Specifically, $1.6 million per episode.

‘It’s probably the biggest series that Showtime has ever attempted, therefore the expectations are very high,’ says Ryerson. ‘We are expected to bring to the table production values that are much in excess of the usual, certainly the look and the approach is much closer to what we would do for a network series.’

Executive producing/writing Fast Track is Larry Gelbart, famous for his work on m*a*s*h, and Gary Markowitz, also known for his work on m*a*s*h and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. T.J. Scott (Hercules, Robocop) is directing.

Markowitz originally wrote the script for Fast Track, in a slightly different incarnation, three-and-a-half years ago with the intent of making it into a feature film, but somewhere along the way it was determined that his work would be better as a series.

Wanting to do a car or racing themed project for a number of years, it was a trip down to Charlotte, nc, which inspired the veteran storyteller to create the series. ‘Once I started looking into stock car racing ­ which has become the fastest growing spectator sport in the galaxy ­ meeting all the people, seeing their big egos and becoming familiar with the structure of the racing world, I realized that it was a natural soap opera.’

Markowitz says stunts and effects aside, his new character-driven drama is really about the writing and the people. While some stories will begin and end in one episode, others will continue into the next week.

The shooting schedule for the series includes 17 days of principal photography for the pilot with another six days of second unit.

Using the vast and deserted Downsview Military Base as a studio, the 660-acre spread and empty enormous high-ceilinged bunkers make a safe and silent sound stage for three different sets.

The indoor sets include an elaborate medical centre complete with x-ray machine and trauma unit, as well as the cozy, country home of lead character, former race car champ, Dr. Richard Beckett (Keith Carradine).

Also housed inside the cavernous space is Harry’s Blind Curve, a souped-up watering hole decorated with all manner of auto racing paraphernalia recreating, down to the smallest detail, the places where authentic drivers unwind.

Besides taking advantage of the acres of space at the Downsview base, the cast and crew of Fast Track are moving around shooting parts in Georgetown, some at Mosport Raceway and some at a Toronto hospital.

Outside, on the lot, is the track where advertisements from sponsors such as Coke, Castrol, Sea Doo and True Value line the wall, pit crews are able to change a tire in a split second and 50,000 race enthusiasts cheer on their favorite driverŠsort of.

Several companies that are the usual advertising suspects in the racing scene are also sponsoring cars in the tv series.

The lines of nascar reality and its virtual tv version blur further as part of the crowd, as well as some of the cars whipping around the track, were computer-generated by Spin Productions supervising producer Marc-Andre Bourgoin.

With about 50 fans gracing the stands at Mosport, Bourgoin shot, repositioned and multiplied the small crowd and using the Henry created the illusion of 50,000 people cheering in crowded bleachers. Cars will also be speeding by and crashing in cgi.

Seamlessly blending the computer generated elements is one of the major challenges behind shooting Fast Track, according to the director. ‘We don’t have a speedway here in the scope that we imagined so we are shooting parts in New Hampshire, part out here and some are cgi,’ says Scott. ‘The challenge of the show is marrying all those elements together to create the illusion that we have one huge speedway.’

Aside from the computer-generated variety, six different cars race at the Eagle Ridge Speedway and with a crash in practically every episode, on-set mechanics spend a good deal of time banging out the dents, mopping out the fake blood and re-painting and detailing the vehicles to make them look new and different for the next time the checkered flag is lowered on Fast Track.

Artistically, Scott is going for a very specific hot, dusty, dry look and feel for the series which he describes as a cross between The Right Stuff and Days of Thunder. ‘There are a lot of super long lenses,’ says Scott, ‘and a lot of warm colors playing off the heat, sexuality and action.’

According to Markowitz, while writing a show he always has someone in his mind cast as the lead and as he had pictured Fast Track with movie stars, he is thrilled to have Keith Carradine playing the role of his vigilant doctor. Other members of the cast include Tristan Rogers (General Hospital, The Bold and the Beautiful) as Harry of Harry’s Blind Curve and Duncan Regehr (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) as the doctor’s current arch rival, former friend and owner of Eagle Ridge Speedway, Christian Chandler Jr.

Brandy Ledford (Blue Devil, Blue Devil, Demolition Man) is Mimi Chandler, the sexy, yet brainy lawyer, Fred ‘Hammer’ Williamson, a former football star, plays Lowell Carter and Guylaine St.-Onge (The Outer Limits, PSI Factor) plays Nicole, Beckett’s one-time lover and Chandler’s estranged wife.

The Sunday night pilot will premier with some rather grisly action as the two-hour episode opens with a 500-pound, $100,000 racecar flying through the air and landing on a telephone pole impaling the chassis and the driver.

The series will continue with 20 episodes on a weekly basis during which Dr. Richard Beckett and the rest of the characters will explore such topical issues as gender and racial discrimination in the stock car world and the role of tobacco advertising on the racing scene.

Incidentally, none of the friends-of-nascar-and-Alliance sponsoring cars in the TV series are cigarette floggers.