For those unfamiliar with the ‘Dinner With Racers’ podcast series, Pro racer Ryan Eversley and PR powerhouse and race strategist Sean Heckman have, for almost a decade now, been producing one of the best motorsport podcast series out there – in fact we’d say it is almost certainly the second best!
From time to time they break out from their regular fare of, quite literally, having dinner with racing folk and digging deeper into what makes them tick, with a now 250+ episode archive covering drivers, team owners, pit crew, media and much more – They are HIGHLY recommended listening – apart from the one featuring the DSC Ed who remains the only online magazine Editor to feature in the Series!!
The team have, from time to time, expanded their output into video with some notable success, their COVID lockdown special was a tour de force and some of their animated tale-telling is fantastic too!
Now though they have taken a truly deep dive into an episode in motorsport history that few know terribly much about.
Their new four-episode miniseries, Kidnapping Fangio, covers the events leading up to, and beyond, a 1958 sportscar race in Cuba, intended to make the country look stable and healthy under the President at the time.
Fidel Castro and his revolutionaries though had other plans, kidnapping the greatest F1 driver in the world to send a message.
It’s quite the tale, and it is told in a remarkable, and somewhat entertaining fashion including:
- Trips to Cuba and Argentina
- Interviews in Cuba with the gunman and getaway driver
- Interviews with the Fangio family
- Experts on Cuban history
- Musical numbers not made by Lin Manuel Miranda
- Budget-killing re-enactments not made by Michael Bay
- and, as is traditional in the world of podcasting – much, MUCH more!
The episodes are set to be released weekly over the next four weeks from this week, July 26, Cuban independence day on MotorTrend’s YouTube channel. And, in terms of what to expect, expect the unexpected in terms of the stye and delivery of this extraordinary tale:
- Friday, July 26 (Cuban Indpendence Day): Kidnapping Fangio, Pt. I: A History –
- Friday, August 2: Kidnapping Fangio, Pt. II: The Taking
- Friday, August 9: Kidnapping Fangio, Pt. III: The Hideout
- Friday, August 16: Kidnapping Fangio, Pt. IV: Aftermath
Ryan Eversley, Co-Host and Co-Creator: “The story of the Cuban Grand Prix and Juan Fangio kidnapping is one we’re very happy to present. I’d only heard about it when the possibility of the project came up, and it seemed to fit ‘DwR’ perfectly. We met some amazing people along the way and we’re excited to share the variety of characters, stories, and locations involved.”
Sean Heckman, Co-Host and Co-Creator: “At the time we decided to do this project, it had only been a footnote on Fangio’s illustrious career and we felt this was something we could really delve into. The story itself is full of nuance and idiosyncrasy, and when we formulated how best to tell it we came up with a concept that we hope our fans will like.
Thanks to supporters like Continental Tire we’re fortunate to have a lot of license in how we tell these stories, and we wanted to really try an approach that was different from anything else out there.”
Here is a taster of what’s to come!
