When troubled teen Ellie Lansing (Grace Van Dien) cops the raw end from a school bully, she packs up her things and road-trips to her birthplace of Petaluma, California. There, she hopes to learn more about her father, Elliot (Casper Van Dien), who was killed in a car crash only days before she was born.

First published in the February 2025 issue of Street Machine

After she gets sidelined with car trouble, an understanding local sheriff (Jack Kelly) drops Ellie at the panel shop owned by her uncle, ‘Tipsy’ Tim (Sean Patrick Flanery), who she’s never met. She soon learns that Tim has spent the past 16 years at the whim of the bottle, drowning his own pain following his brother’s death.

It’s quickly apparent that Ellie is a natural at working on cars and is also a dab hand behind the wheel, and so Tim lines her up a summer job at the shop after convincing her mum, Jessie (Christina Moore), to let her stay.

Ellie is nothing if not persistent, and she has soon wrangled Tim into taking her to the local speedway, where she takes the wheel of his Malibu and shows up the town’s rising dirt-track star, Buck McCreadie (David Gridley). Further arm twisting from Ellie sees her and Tim getting his old Modified-class race car up and running in preparation for the new season.

With super-nerd friend Merle (Matthew Joel Kranyak) and his MILF-spec mum, Loretta (Amanda Detmer) helping them out, Ellie and Tim attack the Modified class with plenty of gusto but only limited success. An impatient Ellie believes she’ll do better if she steps up to the Late-Model Modified class to try for a win at the Nationals, but a lack of funds and experience quickly bring her back down to earth.

After Jessie discovers her daughter has been racing against her wishes, and Tim’s booze-hag ways land him in hospital, it seems Ellie’s motorsport dream is done and dusted. Thankfully, her cashed-up step-dad, Vance (John Ducey), reboots the team with Jessie at the helm, allowing Ellie to have a crack at the $100K prize money at the Nationals and hopefully put a few family demons to rest in the process.

VERDICT: 3/5

While undoubtedly a made-for-TV production with some rather questionable acting and a very predictable script, Lady Driver is an easy-to-watch, family-friendly flick brimming with good, clean fun – speedway mud aside. Sure, there are myriad plot contrivances that border on magic, and the staged car action feels a bit tentative and unnatural at times, but your kids won’t mind, and it may even light a bit of a fire under them to get out and help you in the shed!

VEHICLES:

• 1965 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu
• 1968 Chevrolet RS Camaro
• 1969 Oldsmobile 442
• 2013 Ford F150 SVT Raptor
• 1988 Ford F-Super Duty
• 1982 Ford F350
• Porsche 911 Carrera
• 1998 Ford Crown Victoria

STARS:

• Grace Van Dien
• Sean Patrick Flanery
• Christina Moore
• Matthew Joel Kranyak
• David Gridley
• John Ducey
• Casper Van Dien
• Jack Kelly
• Amanda Detmer

DIRECTOR:
Shaun Paul Piccinino

ACTION:
Plenty of speedway racing, along with the odd bitumen powerskid.

PLOT:
A rebellious teen searching for answers from her past discovers a natural aptitude and love for dirt-track racing.

AVAILABLE:
YouTube, DVD

COOL FLICK FACT:
The scenes depicting Ellie racing the #32 car at the Nationals are drawn from actual racing footage of highly successful US speedway driver, Bobby Pierce.