Gearhead and Berkeley alum Benn Karne, set against the stark beauty of Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats, explores the quirky characters who participate in Speedweek every August in Bonneville: Wide Open, a documentary he made with longtime friend Steve Davy.

Gearhead turned filmmaker premieres documentary November 7

Benn Karne (B.S.’72 ME) loves fast cars. Before he was old enough to drive, he updated the brake system of his dad’s 1930 Model A pickup from its original all-mechanical arrangement to “modern” hydraulics. He speaks nostalgically of his first car, a big old ’62 Chevy, and the Corvette he road-raced before settling down with the responsibilities of home, family, and a real job.

“The reason I got into engineering in the first place was that I liked hot rods,” Karne says. Self-employed for 15 years, he now specializes in vehicle accident reconstruction, that is, determining the events that occurred in a vehicle collision, usually to determine the pre-impact velocities and positions of those involved. Now he’s trying his hand at filmmaking, and guess what the film’s about?

Fast cars, of course.

Karne and friend Steve Davy, an awardwinning videographer, have made a documentary about Speedweek, the event sponsored each August by the Southern California Timing Association that turns Utah’s famed Bonneville Salt Flats into a miles-long track for everything from powered barstools to souped-up diesel trucks that can travel at speeds of 250 mph.

“Some of these people get their vehicles to go really fast,” Karne says. “They may not have an engineering background, but they have lots of hands-on experience with land-speed vehicles.”

The film, Bonneville: Wide Open, premieres Sunday, November 7, at 10:30 am at the California Independent Film Festival in Livermore, with guest appearances by both filmmakers and at least one of the drivers featured in the film, who will show off his cleverly engineered streamliner specially designed to nab a land speed record at Bonneville.

“We wanted the film to appeal to a general audience but also to gearhead types, and I think we achieved that.” Karne says. “But we had to keep some of the speed secrets out. For example, if someone had a special motor detail or steering arrangement—and that was the stuff that really appealed to me as an engineer—the builders said it would put them years behind if we revealed those secrets to their competition.”

Made on a “proverbial shoestring budget,” the film has not yet been picked up for wider distribution. But the filmmakers are hoping to get it on the Discovery Channel or similar outlet and, in the meantime, they plan to begin selling DVDs through the film’s Web site, www.bonnevillewideopen.com.

Karne, whose son Matt is now a junior at Berkeley and drives a ’62 Chevy hot rod, currently has five cars. One is still an old Corvette, he says, “but it doesn’t get out too often these days.”

BY PATTI MEAGHER

The world premiere of Bonneville: Wide Open is scheduled for Sunday, November 7, 10:30 am, at the California Independent Film Festival at the Tamas Estates/The Steven Kent Winery in Livermore. Benn Karne and Steve Davy will be present at the screening.

For details on how to get to the winery, go to www.tamasestates.com/directions.html.

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