Wayne Rainey
WAYNE RAINEY
CW INTERVIEW
THREE MONTHS AFTER HIS CAREER-ENDING CRASH, THE THREE-TIME WORLD CHAMPION TALKS ABOUT HIS RECUPERATION AND THE CHALLENGES AHEAD
ROBERT HOUGH
A CHILDREN'S BOOK ON THE COFFEE TABLE IN WAYNE Rainey's magnificent Monterey, California, home seemed most appropriate. Atop a stack of bike magazines sat The Little Engine That Could, the story of the relentless locomotive that refused to even consider not making it up the hill.
Challenges for Rainey, 33, are as steep as they are new, now that he’s confined to a wheelchair after a September 5th crash at the Italian Grand Prix that left him paralyzed from mid-chest level down. What hasn’t changed is Rainey’s legendary dedication and focus. He completed a three-month rehabilitation program in just five weeks, attacking rehab eight hours a day. There’s a great deal more recuperation ahead, but Rainey is anxious to move on, and he plans to spend a great deal of time in the weight room at his home building his upper-body strength.
Cycle World spoke to a candid Rainey less than a week after he completed his initial rehabilitation program in a Los Angeles-area hospital. Rainey was at times cracking jokes and at times very emotional, and while it’s clear that he will never again race a 500cc GP bike, it’s equally clear that the racing world hasn’t heard the last of Wayne Rainey.
ft. How is Wayne Rainey?
A. I’m getting a lot better. I’m better than I was three weeks ago. My body’s adjusting like crazy, but I can see light at the end of the tunnel. Things are okay, I can get around okay. I still have a fair amount of back pain, I’m wearing this Kitex jacket (a removable, cast-like brace), which helps support my body. I need help turning in bed, but I’ll get more flexibility and be able to do that myself. There are better days and worse days. Sometimes I look at myself and think, “Gee, I’m in this wheelchair, I can’t believe I’m in this thing.”
There have been times I’ve been real frustrated, which is okay. You have to feel the bad stuff and cry. That’s part of this mess I’m in—this mess I got myself in-and I need to deal with it. I know I’ll never walk again, I accept that.
ft. How much do you remember of the accident?
A. I was out front, but I wasn’t getting away like I wanted to. I was riding over my head, going about 130 mph and I lost the back end. I let off and the front wheel tucked in; it was a pretty basic lowside. I was conscious all the way through it. I felt a real jolt to my back at some point; there was a real deep burning in my back. I’ve always been able to get up from an accident, except one time in Malaysia, when I broke my leg. This time, the only thing that worked was my arms. I thought, “I’ve hurt myself bad, or I’m in shock.”
I never had felt death before, but I felt myself dying. Vision in my right eye had gone black and vision in my left eye was going black. I said, “Hey, God, I’m not ready to die yet. Right then, I felt really calm and my eyesight came back. It was like God said, “Okay, it’s up to you to stay alive.” I was really calm. I just made myself keep breathing.
ft. Has this accident created a faith in God that hadn’t been there before?
A. I’ve always believed in God; I hadn’t been a church-goer.
I have been to church since the accident and plan to keep going. I’ve had a lot of time to think, lying in hospital beds, and I know God just has something else in store for me. There’s a being up there who is much stronger than we are.
ft. At what point did you find out about the severity of the injury?
A. I guess it was Tuesday, two days after the crash. Shae, my wife, had flown over from California and she told me. I was still on a lot of medication, still just concentrating on breathing. The doctors apparently knew pretty early on. At one point, I was sweating, but only from here (points to underarm level) up, which they say is a sure sign of paralysis.
ft. The team had trouble sorting out the motorcycle for much of the year; did a setup problem contribute to the accident?
A. No, not at all. That was the best bike I had all year. Bud Aksland had built some cylinders, and I even passed the Honda on a straight! The bike was great, and I had gotten motivated again.
ft. Was there a loss of motivation because of the struggles to get the bike sorted out?
A. Not really. That wasn’t any fun, having all the problems with the bike didn’t help, but I didn’t really feel motivated until after Donington. With Schwantz’s bad luck there, we were right back in it. For what seemed like a long time, I had been very focused on winning world championships and winning races. As a three-time world champion, I started to feel like I had accomplished what I set out to do. I had actually done a little talking with Kenny Roberts and (manager)
Gary Howard about running a 250 next year.
ft. In addition to the 500?
A. I wanted to run two classes, but I realize now that I really wasn’t happy with racing. I think what I probably would have done was take a year off and come back for another year or two. I was so caught up in this fake little world. With my level of focus and all these people around, all focused on me and the bike, I was in this little world. That’s not reality. There are some people, they finish fifth or whatever and they’re heroes and they’re happy, which is fine, but to me it was all about winning. People would talk to me about things and I’d answer, but I wasn’t really there.
ft. Was that just at races and tests?
A. No, it wasn’t. That’s how bad it was. We could be away from that and even my wife could be talking to me, but in my head I’d be off thinking about something having to do with racing.
ft. Was there a time after the crash that you thought about not having anything to do with motorcycle racing?
A. No there wasn’t, there really wasn’t. I’ve loved motorcycles since I was a little kid. Motorcycle racing’s what I’ve been doing for so long now, and I feel like I’ve been a success.
I’m not going to forget about it because of what happened.
ft. Is it too early for you to have a sense of what exactly you’ll be doing in racing?
A. Not much for 1994, I’ve still got a lot of rehab to do and I’ll still have to go back down to the hospital in L.A. regularly. Beyond that, it’ll be nice to spend more time with family. My son, Rex, had his first birthday in October and I want to spend more time with him and my wife. Watching my son grow is something I’ve never been able to do before.
I want to develop the property behind the house and I’ve had a couple of book offers. For 1995, Phillip Morris has offered some things. All the sponsors have been great, so it > looks like I’ll be involved with GP racing, possibly own a team. I’ll probably be more busy than I was before.
II. Will you be completely away from the sport this year?
A. I’ll be involved, but nothing formal, I’m sure I’ll talk to people and show up at some races. I’ve already talked to Daryl (Beattie, new man on the Marlboro Roberts Yamaha team). I told him that if there’s anything he thinks the bike needs, to scream and yell about it if he has to. Daryl’s used to the way things work at Honda, where it’s more controlled by the factory. We do more on our own, it’s more the team than the factory.
H. You obviously have a huge amount of understanding about racing, do you have a sense of how easy it will be to impart that information?
A. I’m not sure, it’s going to depend some on the rider. Nothing will ever replace the feeling I had racing a motorcycle, but the next best thing, I think, will be to help people ride the best they can and see them do that. What worked for Wayne Rainey may not work for someone else. All I cared about was winning, some other people may not be that focused, but I definitely think I can be a positive element of a team.
(|. Is it true that you plan to ride again?
A. Yeah, I want to ride a 500. I want to do it once, I know I can. I’m also going to have a streetbike built. I told Kenny Roberts, and he said, “You’re crazy, Wayne, you’re crazy, you can’t even ride a wheelchair.” I’ve fallen out of the chair a couple times, gotten myself all scabbed up, but that’s part of the rehabilitation.
Ü Have you had a lot of contact with Roberts in the last three months?
A. Oh yeah, we talk just about every day. He was really, rea’lly upset about this whole mess. It’s hard for him, because we’re such close friends. Kenny’s been pretty devastated. He’s helped me a lot and I’ve helped him too. He’s told me, “When you’re ready, there’s a place in the team for you.”
d Do you have any idea when we might see you at a track?
A. People say, “Come on, come to a test, everybody wants to see you.” I’ll probably go to a test, and I’d like to go to the first race. It’s something I’d like to get out of the way. All the riders and the teams will have the racing to deal with, so I don’t want to be a big distraction.
Q. There is a sense that winning was far more important to Wayne Rainey than the limelight. Are you at all not looking forward to going to a race, considering all the attention you’ll probably receive?
A. The thing is, I don’t want people thinking, “Poor Wayne Rainey.” I’m still Wayne Rainey, I just can’t race a motorcycle.
Ü. Racing a bike was something of great importance to you. How comfortable are you with the fact that you can’t race?
A. I don’t know. I don’t know how it’s going to be, going to the track, and being around it all and not being able to ride. That’s the thing I’ll struggle with the most, but like I said, dealing with all the emotions and frustrations is part of it, and I’ll handle it. I have a great support system with my wife-I’m lucky to have such a dam fine lady-family members, Kenny, all my friends and all the people I’ve heard from since the accident.
I heard from Ayrton Senna, Mario Andretti, and Frank Williams (owner of the Williams Formula One racing team) came to see me. He was in a car crash and is a quadriplegic, so he was a real help. The amount of letters I’ve received-tens of thousands of them-really has amazed me. So many people have written from all over the world. For years, I was so focused on winning that I had no idea how much I meant to people. I never realized how much all the fans were supporting me. It really helps now. □
