Article about Ewan McGregor's involvement with the GeneRace Team


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The New "Star Wars" Superstar Ewan McGregor: He's one of the most bankable actors around but he's willing to throw in his lot with a motorbike team just to relax

Ewan McGregor is one of the country's busiest actors. Not only is he appearing on stage in an acclaimed West End run of Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs, but he has also been working on a list of films as long as your arm. So you would expect him to spend his Sunday afternoons with his feet up at his north London home, quietly preparing for the next week's labours. But you would be wrong. Yes, he is spending Sunday afternoon in north London, but peace and quiet is not on the agenda.
   He's at a major motorbike show at Alexandra Palace, and he's firing on all cylinders, like a big kid who can't wait to have a go on the latest performance machines, in between signing autographs for fans who seem unable to believe that the man who'll shortly be seen whizzing across the universe in a spaceship in the Star Wars movie The Phantom Menace in real life whizzes across London's streets on a Triumph motorbike.
   A motorcycle fan since his teens, when he bought his first machine - a Honda 100 four-stroke - his enthusiasm today is really fired by his involvement with an up-and-coming racing team. GeneRace, which has become a major passion for Ewan and a satisfying change from the world of the movies; something he can do and just blend into the background as just another member of a committed team.
   'The world of bikes is totally different from the world of acting,' says Ewan. 'Going down to the track to see a race and getting involved with the team is completely something else, it's a release, an escape for me.'
   Ewan, 28, became involved with the team after his actor friend Charley Boorman (star of The Emerlad Forest and The Serpent's Kiss, which also featured Ewan) took his bike to a workshop owned by a remarkable woman called Claire Ritchie. 'Myself, Ewan and film producer Justin Baldwin all have this passion for bikes and wanted to get more involved,' Charley explains. 'We'd go to races and stand with all the punters looking into the pits and knowing where we'd rather be. So we hooked up with the guys from GeneRace, who've made those dreams come true.'
   Claire is the woman behind the team. An ex-racing champion herself, she is the single mum of three-year-old live-wire Max after her husband of 11 years, Graeme, was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident at Brands Hatch in 1997, and died five days later in the London Hospital, Whitechapel. 'We were both originally from Aberdeen,' she says, 'and Graeme moved to London to open a motorbike business, repairing and race-tuning Ducatis. He was a bike racer who worked hard and brought his own money into his racing.
   It was terrible when Graeme died, but he died participating in the sport he loved best, and had been very successful at. It never occurred to me not to ride my own bike again after his death, and I decided to continue his business. Racing is like a drug,' she confesses.
   In the early days, the ambitious GeneRace team wanted to aim for the big goals in motorcycle racing, like the British Superbike championship, but, like every team, needed to raise sponsorship money - and that was where Ewan came in.
   'Charley badgered me to get involved with the team, and I thought it seemed like a good idea,' Ewan says, modestly neglecting to mention that in the early days of his involvement with the project, he was also filming Seventies music movie Velvet Goldmine and the Star Wars movie, but still found time to help by promoting the team as well as getting involved in the racing.
   'I wanted to be a part of the excitement of motorbike racing,' he says. 'To be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect when I went for the first meeting at Claire's but we had such a good night with all the people down there that I really came out buzzing!'
   'Yes - you drank all my beer and smoked all my cigarettes!' Claire laughs, admitting that before Ewan became involved with the team, she wasn't quite sure who he was. 'Someone said: "Let's get Ewan McGregor involved" and I thought: "Yeah, right!". But no sooner had his name been mentioned than he was coming round to my house for dinner - I spent all day cooking and cleaning!'
   'You didn't, did you?' Ewan replies, genuinely surprised that someone should have gone to such trouble for him. But that's the great thing about Ewan; even though he is the hottest actor around, having made an amazing 12 films in four years, he still seems completely unspoilt by fame.
   But it's not only Claire and Max who have had some hard knocks in their quest for success - team rider Pete Graves has made an amazing recovery from leukaemia and is now determined that GeneRace will be a sucess. 'I was diagnosed in 1997 and spent six months in hospital for treatment,' says Pete, now handsome, tanned and fit; completely unrecognisable from the bald, rake-thin figure who rode in his first motorcycle race just six weeks after leaving hospital - and still won it!
   The GeneRace gang is one that Ewan also values, even if it's something his wife Eve and three-year-old daughter Clara don't share an interest in - yet. 'Eve doesn't come to the races although I'd like her to. It's a matter of time; she is a set designer and she's just finished her first screenplay, but she won't let me read it! I'd like Clara to come too, but she's not that good with loud noises. When I start up my Ducati [one of his four bikes], she stands at the window and says: "Daddy, that's too loud!".'
   It's his family that keeps Ewan level-headed about his success, and in turn he is amazed that anyone should think it strange that he wed Eve at the relatively young age of 24. 'When I told some friends we were getting married, they looked at me in a very strange way; almost with horror - in fact, not many of those people are still my friends! And it was the same when we were expecting Clara, I couldn't believe the reaction. But all Eve and I wanted to do was to get married and have children, and it's brilliant.'
   Motorcycles also provide Ewan with an important respite from his busy working life, and one that's become increasingly important to him. 'To be honest, when I first got involved with the team, I didn't know very much about racing, but now it's a much bigger issue and it's so exciting. I love the whole ritual of getting your leathers on, meeting at a petrol station and riding down to the races in a pack before getting to the track.
   'I remember my first track day when I was allowed to ride. I could hardly speak or sleep the night before. But the fear isn't about falling off the bike, it's about looking like an arse on the track!' he laughs, remembering that on that day, Pete was also on the track after having left hospital only two weeks previously, and was still managing to storm around the circuit, making Ewan feel like 'a tortoise'.
   Ewan says he doesn't actively seek out publicity, choosing to only do interviews when he has a movie or play to promote. But he's more than happy to use the celebrity value he has to promote the GeneRace team. 'It's handy to be able to do that, but we're all in the team together and it's Claire, Pete and all our technical team who do all the hard work.'
   Ewan's international stardom has meant he now gets given dream bikes to ride, but there are also downsides to that. 'My insurance is disgusting, but I suppose that's balanced out by not having to pay for the bikes,' he says.
   'And when I'm making a film, I'm not supposed to ride bikes, because if I had an accident and wasn't able to film, I'd be liable for all the production costs until I was able to start working again,' he says, laughing as he mentally calculates the cost of an entire Star Wars mega-movie if he happened to have an accident on his trusty Triumph.