Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

00 00 ~ ....... $-c V ..0 S v ..... 0... Baldwin tries to be competitive on the three-cylinder Honda RS500. v Cf) Mike Baldwin. a.k.a. Klaus Kroeter of Team Samurai. exits the SpaFrancorchamps pits for the American Built cameras. West German' actor Oliver Striale plays Kroeter in the off-bike scenes. Dressed in black from head to toe. he looks like a bad guy. American Built : ,A n ~arly review By Henny Ray Abrams Hollywood came to the races at the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, sucking normally rational and sane people into the vortex of hysteria that it created. Plans were ch a nged, concessions made, safety com p ro m ised a ll be'· h I cause a few peop I e. ~It c apboards and Panavision cam- 18 eras had convi nced the powers-th atbe th at th eir movie would do for , mo torcycle racing wh at " Ga ndhi" did for fasting. The mo vie is called " American Built" a n d as described by the director, Rocky Lang of Midwood Productions, t he story, written by Scott Swanton, is a bo u t a "y oung guy from a sm all town who builds a racer to race against the top guys. The subtext," he said, " was about achieving manhood, the seduction of clea n spirit, and friendship." " Was that team spirit or queen sp irit? " a British journalist asked. They said it was five years in the making and saw it as " an incredible commercial vehicle." That's where they lost mos t of us. The good gu y, first seen in ,a set . of two-piece Dainese leathers, 'is named Cody Gifford, a privateer fro m a small town outside of Boston wh o goes to Europe to co mpe te against the "big guys." He 's p layed by actor Alex MacArth ur with Irishman Donnie MacLeod doing the ri di ng scenes du ring th e Grands P rix, I asked someone if th ey knew about any of MacArthur's previous credits and they said, "Yeah , I th ink h e' s o ne o f Madonna 's exboyfr iends." In fact, he had a minor part in th e sma ll movi e abou t a budding lesbian rela tio nshi p, " Deser t H earts," was in th e NBC Movie of the Week " Desperadoes," and is in "Rampage," a movie troubled by distribution problem s. For a good guy , he had th e disturbing habit of acting like a bad gu y. Officially introduced to an overflow media crowd at a brief press conference hosted by Pepsi, a lastminute backer of the film, MacArthur, who wore his leathers all the time, slouched back in his chair and sm ugly answered the few queries he received. Seated next to him were his American Alex MacArthur stars as good guy Cody Gifford . prod ucer, Jori Gordon, and Lang. Kevin Schwantz, wh o was asked to attend by Pepsi, sat at Lang's side. The highlight of th e press conference was an exchange that involved a journalist, producer Gordon, actor MacArthur, and racer Schwantz. J ournalist: (To producer) Are you go ing to let him (MacArth ur) ride one of th e (G P) bikes? Gordon: We thought we'd wai t until filming is alrriost over.' Journalist: (T o MacArthur) Have you ever ridden a motorcycles Macarthur: I have two Harleys. Schwantz: (Referring to the GP machines and Harleys) Yeah , they're similar. When the Saturday press conference ended, Schwantz was wished good lu ck by Gordon and Lang who are both working on their second feature film . The first is titled " All's Fair," stars George Segal and Sally Kellerman, and IS due for a September release. Although officially introduced on Saturday at Spa, filming had begun on Friday and most of us had already been exposed to th e crew of abo ut 60 that had invaded the paddock. The scene was simple: Gifford was to walk up the paddock and tum past the T eam Samurai truck toward th e garage. It was don e repeatedly with unerring disbeli evability. As the scene was being read ied for fi lm in~, a few problems with credibility Immediately surfaced. First of all, beca use of probl em s with cro wd contro l, th e pi t area at th e Belgian G P is traditionally so crowded that for the race weekend it q ualifies as Belgium's thi rd largest city behind Brussels and Antwerp. Naviga ting yo ur way from one spot to ano ther means dodging locals with cones full of " frites" (French fries) sla the red in the traditional wa llowing goop of mayonna ise. Excep t for th e few extr as in dona ted tea m j ack ets, Gifford 's stroll , was un i m p ed ed , a ltho ug h highl y ,u n n a tu ra l. H e wal ked with th e top of hi s two- pi ece leath ers lied arou nd his wai st, gloves in han d, helm et nowh ere in sigh t, and with a vert ica l bounce that made it look like hi s Alpi nes tars were sp ring-loaded, Marlboro Yamaha T eam Agos tini crew ch ief Kel Ca rruth er s, who happen ed ' to be walking by th e ro ped-off scene, said, "T hey ough t to teach th at guy how to walk," and con tin ued on hi s way. After about three or four takes, it was iri the can . Gifford's nemesis is West German Klaus Kroeter, played by West German actor Oliver Stritzle with Mike Baldwin doing the riding. Baldwin handled the part professionally, doing whatever they asked, no matter how preposterous, and retiring to his motorhome. His only objection was that his stage name, Kroeter, had retrogressed into "Scro tum," which is not th e sort of name anyon e would want hung on them. Kroeter was described b y th e producer as a " World Champion. Been a World Champion, Seen it all. I suppose he 's a bit arrogant and doesn 't like the fact that a you ng American is giving him a run for his money." Kroeter, the bad guy , wears allblack leathers, and a black helmet, and rides a black bik e (do we see any stereotyping here ?) for Team Samurai , the mythical dynasty in racing. Like MacArthur, the tall, slender, blonde-haired Stritzle wore his leathers all the time. What happens in the movie is that Gifford, having achieved some success in the U.S., starts to do well in Europe and is noticed enough by Team Samurai to be offered a Samurai ride. Eventually he has his clean spirit seduced, then leaves the team and wins a G P aboard his " American Built" bike, actually a Honda RS500 painted white. Had they suggested his ma chine was really Americanbuilt, such as a Buell or a Harley, the movie would have gone from fiction to science fiction. ' Team Kata yam a 's Chas Mortimer was chosen to handle the care and maintenance of th e tw o RS500 Hondas th at th e producers are leasing for MacL eod and Baldwin at a cost believed to exceed $100,000, The movie is budgeted betw een six and seven million dollars, depending on wh o you ask. Gifford has -four sets of Dainese leathers to coincide with h is ride th rough manhood. Sin ce MacLeod and MacArthur are different sizes, two sets of each were needed. Stritzle an d Baldwin ge t o ne each, in black. T he prod ucers originally asked Arai for 28 helmets, but modified th eir req ues t wh en they co uldn't convi nce ' Ara i th at they needed th at man y. At th e last minute, they had to borrow a set of boots fro m Randy Mam ol a. Filming was to take pl ace at Spa, Rij eka in Yugoslavia, and Paul Ricard in France. They were to stay an extra da y at Spa and an extra two days at Paul Ricard wh ere th e race th at Gifford would win would be filmed. T he factory teams (Cagiva, Gauloises Blondes, HB , Lucky Strike, Marlboro, Pepsi an d Rothmans ) were pa id $5600 a day to participate in th e extra filming with th e riders getting the bulk of the money. Among the riders who didn 't stay at Spa were Eddie Lawson, Marlboro Agostini 250cc rider Luca Cadalora subbed; Schwantz, off to Bologna for a knee operation; and Mamola who would have only two da ys to spend at home before returning to Paul Ricard for testing. (Continued on page 41)

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