'body doubles for Stallone's movie'

[craigmanning]

...I was watching some of my pals driving the film cars for this movie that Stallone is filming. There are some good Canadian boys being the 'body doubles' It's Scott Maxwell wearing the Montoya suit and helmet and driving the Target car #1. Lee Bentham was in the Herdez car, David Empringham was driving the Miller car, with Bertrand Godin in the Pioneer machine. Also driving were Claude Bourbonnais and Kenny Wilden. Tomorrow I'll take a closer look and get all the details for anyone interested.
The 'movie' cars themselves are kinda funny. They're the same cars they use for the CART 101 driving school. They have normally aspirated V-8 engines so they sound like a bunch of NASCARS out there. Lee said he couldn't see very well out of his car and that it was easy to 'flood' it. The driver's gave the general impression that the cars were a joke. There's four guys maintaining these cars and they missed a big thunderstorm for their filming segment,(CART gave them about an hour towards the end of the day) When asked about rain tires for a possible wet weather shoot Claude made a joke about four guys taking care of twelve cars. He said they might be ready by Tuesday!
The only thing that struck me funny was that apart from Scott who was fully decked out like Montoya all the other guys were wearing their own uniforms and helmets! There were alot of old Player's uniforms there. I didn't quite get that, but it helped me spot everyone! Again, I'll pay closer attention tomorrow to see if theres anything worth mentioning here.....see ya, craig!

[Liz]

Judging by what everyone has said about the filming they've seen at their various tracks, this movie is going to be Rocky and Bullwinkle Go Racing. Do you get the feeling that we may look back at Days of Thunder and maybe not laugh quite so loudly? *Sigh*

I'll look forward to more impressions though. Sad, isn't it?

[craigmanning]

...oh, Liz absolutely! I'm keeping my finger's crossed but worried that this movie will make 'Day's of Thunder' look like an epic.

[Liz]

Saw the "Indy Cars" today at the track - wheezing excuses for CART vehicles, very old Normally Aspirated steel chasis things tarted up to look like CART cars - and the part of Baby Mikey is played by Kenny Welden, a former Atlantic driver currently out of work. This movie will shame CART for years to come. Tony George will laugh at us.

This time I think Bernie was wise to turn this project down.

[Nuvolari]

The sad irony in all of this is that it while the flick likely will be a travesty for aficianados, it could excite a wave of interest in the sport among non-racing fans.

But you guys are right: once this epic hits the screens it may make Days of Thunder look like Gone With the Wind.

[KC]

This is all so typical of 99% of Hollywood productions. The book is always better than the film. Stallone probably has not seen a race except for the short amount of time he spent following the FIA circus and the small amount of time he has been following CART. If CART had used their collective brains they might have offered the rights to the series but only with the stipulation that they maintain creative control. Surely no one expected Stallone to actually produce a film with any kind of reality or artistic value.

[Liz]

I don't care if it has any artistic value or not, but screwing up the racing is inexcusible. Can you imagine them making a baseball movie using minor leaguers and saying they were "cameo appearances" by Ken Griffey Jr. and Pedro Gonzalez, not to mention David Wells (they'd have to get two guys to play him)? Or wait a minute - they did make that movie - "For Love of the Game" it was called.

People who don't know anything about sports should NOT make sports movies.