Rainey Returns To Racing
RAINEY RETURNS TO RACING
AYNE RAINEY HAS returned to GP racing as the owner of Marlboro Team Rainey, just six months after being paralyzed in a racing accident. The team is competing in the 250cc class with Kenny Roberts Jr. aboard a Yamaha TZM250.
Rainey, who says he’s fit, strong and excited by what lies ahead, announced the new team at the Australian Grand Prix, the year’s first GP. It was his first public appearance since he was injured, and support from fans and competitors was immense.
“It was quite overwhelming,” he says. “It’s nice to see now that people care about me as a person, not just when I was some guy winning races.”
Roberts Jr. missed the Australian GP and the next two races while recovering from a broken arm suffered in an offseason training injury. Jimmy Filice, the 1993 AMA 250cc champ, was signed to debut the bike at the Japanese GP.
Rainey had said he would be away from racing for the entire 1994 season, after being permanently injured in a crash during the Italian Grand Prix (see Cycle World, March,
1994), but the three-time world champion says he couldn’t stay away.
“I got home and got adjusted to being there in about a week,” he says. “I got a fishing boat and did that. I told Kenny (Roberts) I was ready to jump back in, so we decided to see what we could stir up with Philip Morris.”
The stirring was apparently successful. Rainey, who says he is adapting well to being in a wheelchair, got down to business. “I put the team together in two weeks,” he says. “We’re trying to get ahead of things, but we’re behind. There’s so much that needs to be done. We’re just going to go for it.”
Although Rainey had little time to get everything in order, he says he has a big advantage over other owners and managers.
“I’ve pretty much done it all,” he says. “When I watch, I can pick up things that maybe other guys can’t. I’ll have to go by what the rider is saying and what I see and make decisions based on that.”
The tricky part, Rainey says, will be knowing just how to pass along his ideas. “I don’t want to tell a rider something that could hurt him because he doesn’t have the experience or the understanding,” he says.
Rainey says he’s also coming to grips with the other aspects of team ownership, things that he says are in some ways more demanding than riding.
“I have to do all these things I haven’t really done before,” he says. “I have to deal with the sponsors, the press, the politics of the sport. It was easier before; I just rode. It’s a huge challenge, trying to place key people in the right jobs, making sure you have people with good attitudes, where everybody works well together.”
Although Rainey the racer was known for his fearsome determination to win, Rainey the team owner says he knows there’s a long road to the podium.
“It’s so new that we’re not expecting great results,” he says. “This year is going to be a learning experience. If we could win a race this year, that would be great. It would be like me winning a race.”
Robert Hough
BUELL TO GET VR1 000 ENGINES?
I s a streetbike based on Harley-Davidson's VR1 000 engine getting closer to reality? It would seem so. Erik Buell says the first street application of the new liquid-cooled, 996cc Twin will likely hear the Buell name.
“There are no guarantees, but I’d be very surprised if it didn’t happen,” he says. “For us, it’s a natural to do something with the engine when it’s available.”
The engines won’t be coming any time soon, though. “This is in its earliest stages,” Buell says. “The bike has to be competitive on the track before it’s sold on the street. It will take a lot of work before the engine is street-legal. It’s not just a matter of installing a wet clutch.”
