Kiwis-Born to Fly: The story behind the documentary

After some twenty-plus years of attending the Greatest Spectacle in Racing, the Indianapolis 500, David Turner wanted to embark on a new chapter of his personal history with the event; to share and tell the stories of the many New Zealanders that have allowed him into their world and given him a personal insight into the sport for many years.

Having attended the race in a media production sense at the debut of Kiwi Scott Dixon in 2003 and convincing TVNZ that they needed to support this by producing a preview show every year until 2009, the journey with the place and the series never stopped.

After leaving TVNZ at the end of 2009, Turner continued with other roles and his relationship with the series’ other venues and the 500 continued.

While scribbling on a napkin at a Matakana restaurant over a coffee in mid to early 2022, the idea was hatched. All that stood in the way was a budget, a network and a licensing agreement with INDYCAR.

The first concept proposal was pitched to sponsors and others, including INDYCAR, by early July 2022, and it was first intended to be a six-part half-hour series spanning the season at key events.

Conditions of the agreement with INDYCAR then were to lead to this becoming a 75-minute one-off documentary rather than a series or any form of reality-type show. That very documentary will screen on Sky NZ this September under an agreement with INDYCAR on its network placement and various other conditions.

“Creating and signing of the contract with INDYCAR was just an ongoing process that spanned from October 2022 to March 2023,” says Turner. It was not until early February that co-producer Lyn Paton convinced me to change it from a series to a documentary and to keep talking with INDYCAR about how we could make this.

“I believed in this so much and fought pretty hard for this, as it was about the story of Kiwis, and I had to convince INDYCAR of the value in this to New Zealanders.

“Equally, all at the same time, there was the gathering of the fabulous supporting sponsors enabling this to take place and keeping them there while all this process was taking place in the background. The big thing also was to bring back some old-fashioned storytelling to showcase throughout the entire documentary.

“My main concept was to highlight not only the great driving talent New Zealand has, which spans the globe right now, and the depth in it but the amazing number of guys behind the scenes in many roles that are so highly regarded in the sport and something we should be proud of and equally show the next generation it can be done.”

The on-again, off-again project was finally confirmed in April of 2023. It was all agreed to signed contracts, and production was stated for May, only weeks away, all getting rather tight to the time it was set to kick off.

“Thankfully, I made all the bookings in December of 2022 as the prices go through the roof around the 500 period,” Turner adds. So, yes, we kinda rolled the dice on that one. Plus, at the same time, Perspective Group invested in a cinema camera for the shoot as well, so had a bit of a sweat for a few months for sure, along with some ‘heck, this better come off’ moments as I was actually one of the sponsors as well.

“The many years of going to the 500 enabled me to plan this side of it easily really. This event truly is one of the greatest sports events anyone can attend. I’ve been lucky enough to work for Olympic Broadcasting at every Olympics, both Summer and Winter, since London 2012, but nothing tops the 500 as an event and one with some 400,000 fans in attendance as well.

“Getting to the track at 5 am for a midday race start is just part of what makes it special in the long run.”

Something that Kiwis do well is use funds and ideas wisely, so rather than travelling masses of crew to the U.S., Turner chose to be very lean and mean but use the funds he had to the best he could but never let quality slip as a result. Co-producer Lyn Paton played a very big role in ensuring the wise choices of hotels, flights, and ground transport came into play in what was to be her fourth 500. 

Travelling down from Chicago by car, which is only some three hours drive rather than flying into Indy directly, actually saved hundreds on the car rental in Indy, so all these items added to the good use of funds.

Onwards to the actual shooting, which all kicked off around the Indy GP in the first week of May, followed, of course, by the 500.

It was a demanding shoot fitting in with everything that the teams had on during that time and ensuring interviews could be set up. It was to all come together over the next 21 days, and so much of that comes down to the real stars of the documentary that enabled the interviews to take place and fit in around all they needed to do in what is a very busy time.

“Yes, there was more that we maybe could have done under the series concept, and it may have allowed that, but in the end, it was making the very best we could do and playing by the rules we had to play by,” says Turner.

“I have to say I was somewhat jealous of the crews shooting the series 100 Days to Indy that screened in the U.S. this season. They had five to six-person crews, while we did it with just two people but knew we could as well. Mind you, in the span of under a day, they used more funds than our entire budget.

“We set up a server system in the hotel, much to the surprise of housekeeping, to back up footage on a daily basis into files for each person we spoke with at the end of each day. From that, we then created five drives with all the footage on so they all came back to New Zealand in different bags. That way, there was never a risk of a bad drive or lost cases, as lose those and you have a problem and history from the TVNZ days told me ‘cover your bases’. We might have gone slightly too far on the number of drives, but hey, it was worth it.”

Straight after the Detroit race, the team headed home, and the editing phase started and was to continue until mid-July. The first cut of the show was over duration naturally and then refined to the duration that was allowed when the show was signed off. It also had to be sent back to INDYCAR as well for approval and delivered to Sky NZ, where it now waits until September 5th at 9 pm on Sky Sport 5 to be screened.

“I’m actually very nervous as to what people will think as the restrictions we had in regard to the shoot are something that should never impact the story or the viewer, and they need never know,” Turner continues. “For the viewers, it should always be about the watch and what you give them, but it did make some things just a bit more difficult at times for sure.

“I equally choose to make it semi-self-narrated so each of the guests then told their story in their words. I am humbled by the efforts all these people shared, and a big thanks goes to them. I hope we have done them proud, and for fans of the sport, I hope this gives you all an insight into something very special in the history of our sport and just how good New Zealanders are and why we need to fully respect this more.”

Header Image: Malcolm Finch, Performance Engineer at Team Penske, on Scott McLaughlin’s car. Photo: Lyn Paton