Rad(1986)

POOPER:
Cru wins the Helltrack race, narrowly beating Bart Taylor. Since Taylor’s defeat has cost his bicycle company a lucrative deal with a national department store chain, Duke throws him off of his racing team. Taylor congratulates Cru on winning, and then accepts an invitation from Cru to join his team.

LONG VERSION:
After Cru (Bill Allen) wins the Helltrack qualifying race, Duke (Jack Weston) – seeing how determined and talented Cru is – quickly comes to think that he might be able to beat his star racer Bart Taylor (Bart Conner) and in the process cost him a lucrative deal his bicycle company is attempting to make with a national department store chain. Duke meets with him outside of the diner where he works and offers to make him a star and make him wealthy if he throws the race, but Cru sensibly refuses his offer.

Determined to keep Cru from racing, Duke enforces a forgotten by-law saying that riders with no sponsors – like Cru – can’t compete in Helltrack. After his flunky Eliott (Alfie Wise) informs Cru about this, Cru walks away dejected. He heads to the diner to find that his friends and co-workers have found out about his rejection and are displeased about it, and then his sister Wesley (Laura Jacoby) shows him a T-shirt that she had made for him to wear in the race. After a patron asks her to make a couple of the shirts for her kids, Cru gets an idea to use the $10,000 he earned in the qualifying race to start a shirt company called “Rad Racing” so that way he will have a sponsor to race for. His friends and fellow high school classmates help him with making the shirts, and the next day, he re-applies for entry and gets in.

Duke then throws another roadblock at Cru by having Eliott inform him and his friends about another by-law which states that riders must be sponsored by a company with at least $50,000 in sales in order to be eligible to race. Since they’ve only got a minute fraction of the cash and look to not be able to get the rest by tomorrow, Cru gives up, thinking that all is lost. However, his new lady love Christian (Lori Loughlin) later gives him a pep talk, telling him that he is not a man if he is going to give up on everything just because things aren’t going his way.

The next morning, Cru completes his newspaper route in the way some of the townsfolk were hoping he would do it, and all of the townsfolk have a meeting with the mayor a short time later to discuss whether or not to put up the money needed for Cru to race. After a heartfelt speech from Sgt. Smith (H.B. Haggerty) in support of Cru, the townsfolk donate the money needed (with Mr. Timmer [Ray Walston] – who originally was a supporter of Duke’s but has now seen how duplicitous he is – donating the last $27,000), and Cru is now able to race without any further restrictions.

Before the race begins, Duke orders Taylor’s teammates Rex and Rod (Chad & Carey Hayes) to take out Cru during the race so Taylor can win, which Taylor isn’t happy about because he wants an untainted victory over Cru. Rex and Rod are unsuccessful in carrying out Duke’s orders, and on the last lap, Taylor – who is in the lead – slows down to allow Cru to catch up with him, wanting to race him one-on-one. Cru ends up narrowly crossing the finish line ahead of Taylor, winning the race and the $100,000 grand prize.

Since Taylor’s inability to finish in first place has cost him the deal with the department store chain, Duke boots Taylor out of his racing team. Taylor then comes up to Cru and congratulates him, and Cru – seeing that Taylor is now without a sponsor – then asks if he would like to join Team Rad Racing, and he accepts.