This film opens at the Daytona Speedway with race car driver "Tommy Callahan" (Fabian) suddenly experiencing a blackout, which results in the death of another driver. Since incidents like this have happened before, the NASCAR commission suspends him until he can find a sponsor willing to vouch for his skills. To fix this, Tommy and his girlfriend, "Annie Blaine" (Diane McBain), drive to a place where Tommy previously worked to see if his former race team owner would rehire him. Sadly, although the owner, "Mac Lunsford" (Stanley Adams), is happy to see him again, he must decline because of Tommy's reputation and the potential harm to his business. Heartbroken, Tommy drives around until he spots a place that specializes in high-risk stunts at stock car events. At first, "Pete Madsen" (Jan Murray), the owner of the stock car stunt show, doesn't pay much attention to the young man standing in front of him. That changes when he finds out his identity and the publicity he might generate by having "Killer Callahan" as one of his drivers. What Pete doesn't expect, however, is his daughter "Francie Madsen" (Annette Funicello) falling in love with Tommy and the problems this causes with both Annie and another driver named "Eddie Sands" (Warren Berlinger). Now, rather than reveal more, I'll just mention that films about hot rods and racing were quite popular with young adults and teenagers back in the 50s at the local drive-in. Then, once the 60s came around, the focus shifted to the "Beach Party" movies, which eventually evolved into this genre. So, seeing popular actors like Annette Funicello and, to a lesser extent, Fabian in this movie isn't surprising. What was somewhat unexpected, however, was how well they performed in their individual roles in this particular film. Very solid performances. Even so, by all standards, this was still a B-movie made for the drive-in circuit, and as such, viewers probably shouldn't expect much more, and I've rated it accordingly.
