Wayne Rainey, World Champ
Wayne Rainey, world champ
UP FRONT
David Edwards
WAYNE RAINEY RETIRED FROM RACING on September 5th. Leading the Italian Grand Prix, Rainey lost control of his works Yamaha YZR500 and was violently high-sided over the handlebars at 120 mph. By the time he stopped tumbling, the 33-year-old three-time world roadracing champion had a punctured lung and, far worse, was unable to move his legs, paralyzed from mid-chest down. As of this writing, three weeks after the accident, Rainey lays in a Los Angeles hospital, having undergone surgery to stabilize his spine. Doctors hold little hope for a full recovery.
Do not feel sorry for Wayne Rainey. He doesn’t feel sorry for himself.
“This place was like a morgue after we heard about the crash,” said Ken Vreeke, the former print journalist who was handling press relations for the United States Grand Prix, held the week after the Italian GP. “But Wayne telephoned from the hospital in Italy in great spirits, and told us to get our heads up and get on with the job of putting on the best race this country had ever seen. That really helped us through a difficult week.”
Rainey has been racing motorcycles since the age of 9. At 16, he turned Pro, moving through the flat-track ranks to become a rookie Expert in 1979. The next year, riding a Harley, he was the 15th-ranked rider in the nation. In 1981, time aboard Kawasaki’s factory short-trackers led to a tryout on the team’s roadracers. Tutored by go-fast guru Keith Code, Rainey won 16 of 18 club races, resulting in a full Team Green Superbike contract for ’82.
It was during this time, Rainey met Kenny Roberts. Hungry for information, he would phone KR for advice.
“The first thing I noticed about him was that he didn’t ask the same old questions. It was always something new and further advanced,” said Roberts in a 1986 Cycle World interview. “Some guys go three or four years asking the same old question-‘What am I doing wrong?’-but not Wayne.”
Riding a Rob Muzzy-tuned GPz750, Rainey won the U.S. Superbike title in 1983, only to be greeted by the news that Kawasaki was disbanding its roadrace team. Rainey was out of work.
Roberts came to the rescue with a 250cc GP ride. With the former threetime world champ as mentor and team
manager, Rainey set track records at six of the 12 GPs, but inconsistent performances held him to eighth in the 1984 point standings. Rainey was back in the U.S. as a privateer for ’85, notching two 500cc F-l wins, five 250cc wins and just missing victory at the Sacramento Mile in a photo-finish with Scott Parker.
“I’m about 2 inches short of being satisfied with my dirt-track career,” Rainey said at the time. “I really wanted to win a national, but I think I’ve got dirt-tracking out of my system.”
That much was evident as Rainey hooked up with Team Honda for the next two years, nailing down a further 10 AMA national roadraces and taking the 1987 Superbike Championship.
In 1988, Rainey again rode for Kenny Roberts on the GP circuit, this time as part of a factory-backed Yamaha 500cc team. With Marlboro sponsorship, the Roberts/Rainey pairing soon became the dominant force in grand prix racing, winning the world championship three years running in 1990, 1991 and 1992.
After a tough start this year trying to sort out a new and ill-handling chassis, it would have been easy for Rainey to give up hopes of a fourth-straight title. After all, his yearly income was well into seven figures, he has a loving wife, a healthy baby son, a beautiful house on the California coast. Why not ease off, let Yamaha come up with
a better setup in the off-season and come back strong for 1994? Well, quitting just isn’t in Wayne Rainey, a character trait that will serve him well now as he faces a long recuperation and rehabilitation period.
“We never give up, I can’t,” Rainey said mid-season in a Roadracing World article. “I only race to be world champion. I don’t race for any other reason. I explained this to Yamaha, told them that I only raced to be world champion; I didn’t race for fifth, and that if they were happy with fifth, let’s go somewhere else.”
Rainey finished second at the British GP while series leader Kevin Schwantz was involved in a three-rider crash and scored no points, allowing Rainey to close in. A switch to the French-built ROC chassis-basically a copy of the 1991 Yamaha chassis-gave him an edge at the Czech GP, where Rainey jetted to the win. Schwantz, battling a suddenly wobbly Suzuki and perhaps a case of title-drive nerves, only managed fifth place. Rainey, newly confident, came away in the series lead, 11 points ahead of the Texan.
Then came the crash in Italy.
A week later at the USGP, Kenny Roberts, visibly distraught, spoke to the press about Rainey. He spoke not as mentor, not as team manager, but as a friend.
“Mentally, he’s very, very strong... and he’s got a strong wife. But we all know there will be highs and lows. We want Wayne to get on with his life; we love him and we’re just glad he’s here. It could have been much worse; that’s what we’re reflecting on...Wayne knows he went out leading a race, hard on the gas. Guys like Wayne are one in a million. He’s got a lot to look forward to. He’s very positive. He wants to stay in the sport, build riders and run a team,” Roberts said.
It’s good to hear that Rainey intends to remain involved. That we will never see him again atop a GP racebike is bad enough; not to have him as part of the motorcycling community would truly be tragic. He is a thoughtful, caring man, intelligent and articulate, and there are far too few of those to go around.
Wayne Rainey has always been a champion. He doesn’t need a works YZR, doesn’t even need the full use of his legs, to prove that.
