The Seven Second Love Affair

Drag racer Rick Stewart, a 24-year-old X-ray technician from Bakersfield, California, who is perfecting his fuel dragster to beat the quarter-mile record of 214.16 mph in 7.42 seconds, along with his partners, mechanic Gene Adams and financier Jack Wayre, enters a weekend race and wins. But the race destroys his engine, and the three men and their families, all racing enthusiasts, spend the greater part of their free time during the next week repairing it. The following weekend Rick nears the record-breaking speed in a qualifying run. In a subsequent record attempt, however, the engine explodes at the finish line, and the car careens end-over-end into an open field. In the final scene the three families are seen huddling around their new dragster. The camera drifts to photographs on the garage wall indicating that the car did indeed set a new record--219.65 mph in 7.30 seconds. The record lasted 8 weeks.