IndyCar goes to Hollywood: Champ Will Power announces racing short film based on his life

Two-time IndyCar champion Will Power has announced his involvement in a short film about racing, which is based on his life. The Team Penske driver's announcement comes a week after F1: The Movie, starring Brad Pitt and produced by Apple TV, became the highest-grossing sports movie of all time, earning $570 million globally, and surpassing Disney's Cars 2.

The Hollywood movie had seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton as the executive producer and a contributor to the script. Directed by Joseph Kosinski, the man who also directed Top Gun: Maverick, the crew shot a lot of the racing sequences during live race weekends.

Now it is time for America's premier open-wheel racing series, IndyCar, to take a share of the limelight. Will Power has revealed that he put on the performer's cap for a short film directed by his brother, comedian Damien Power. In a recent interview with SpeedFreaks, the 2018 Indy 500 winner shared key details of the project.

"In the offseason, we did a short film, which he's (Damien) entering into film festivals, together. So that's completed now. It's a short film, it's like 20 minutes. It's actually not a comedy; it was a serious piece. So it was difficult acting. I acted myself in it, and it was actually very draining when it's not light-hearted. It is quite deep in a way," he said. [21:46 onwards]

The short film, the title of which Power didn't name, would be his brother Damien's second big project after the comedy series, Expanded Minds Only. The first season of the series was released in 2023, with episode one featuring Will Power and his secrets of peak performance in IndyCar.

When Power was asked if the new short film was about him, he replied:

"It is actually about me, yes. Yes, it is."

The Australian driver also shared that his brother is trying to enter the short film in "one of those big" film festivals coming up within a week or so. While he couldn't recall the name, he could've been referring to the 82nd Venice International Film Festival, which will take place from August 27 to September 6.

Will Power is at a crucial junction in his IndyCar career. The 44-year-old is in the last year of his contract with Team Penske, the team he has been racing with since 2009. However, the Roger Penske-owned team is reportedly intending to replace him with young prodigy David Malukas.

Will Power felt like "crap" after long days of acting for his brother's short film

Will Power at the IndyCar Iowa race weekend - Source: Getty

Will Power shone a light on how "grueling" the shooting for a movie can be. Even though they were shooting a 20-odd-minute short film, the long days made him feel grateful for his racing career.

In the aforementioned interview, the IndyCar veteran spoke about the production stage of the film, saying:

"It was interesting. It made me realize how lucky I am to be a driver. Like a lot of people are like, 'I want to be an actor. I think it'll be awesome.' I'm like, 'Oh my god, I don't want to be an actor, man.' It's grueling because you spend the whole day doing these scenes over and over and over, from different angles and so on. And you get to the end of the day, it's like you got six more days."

Comparing it to a day of racing, he added:

"Whereas, you go do a race and you finish, it's like, 'That was just so awesome.' You drive a car for a day, like you go testing, you feel awesome after it. But at the end of filming, you feel like crap."

Will Power holds the record for most pole positions in IndyCar, with 71 poles to his name. He won the Grand Prix of Portland on August 10 to achieve his 45th career victory and end Team Penske's unexpected streak of misfortune this season.