Keanu Reeves had no trouble keeping his car above the 50 mph mark in his professional auto racing debut at the iconic Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The Speed star competed in the first race of the Toyota GR Cup alongside Cody Jones from the sports and comedy group Dude Perfect, briefly spinning out on the track but sustaining no injuries, per the Associated Press.
Around the halfway mark of the 45-minute race, Reeves spun out onto the grass sans collision on the exit of Turn 9. He rejoined the race after signaling that he was uninjured, ultimately finishing 25th out of 35 competitors with a high placement of 21. He also avoided a first lap crash in Turn 14.
The Matrix actor competed in the Toyota spec-racing series (in which racers drive identical or very similar vehicles from the same manufacturer or supplier), classified as a support series (a lower-tier of racing that can help players advance) during this weekend’s Indy 8 Hour event. He is slated for a second race tomorrow.
Photos and videos of the actor online showed him driving the No. 92 BRZRKR car, a nod to his speculative fiction novel co-written with China Miéville called The Book of Elsewhere set in the BRZRKR universe, itself a comic book world created by Reeves and Matt Kindt.
Previously, Reeves participated in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach in the celebrity race, winning that event in 2009. The John Wick actor is a well-known motorsport enthusiast, often appearing at MotoGP and Formula 1 events, including narrating Hulu’s four-part docuseries Brawn: The Impossible Formula 1 Story. In 2011, he and business partner Gard Hollinger launched custom motorcycle company Arch, which served as a jumping off point for recently greenlit Roku documentary series The Arch Project.
The actor is slated to appear at American Cinematheque’s 30th anniversary Q&A and screening for Speed on Tuesday, alongside co-star Sandra Bullock.
