P114
CN
III IN THE PADDOCK
BY RENNIE SCAYSBROOK
I
'm lucky my job allows me to
meet many famous people,
most of whom I am fairly indif-
ferent to. After all, they are just
people who have done some-
thing cool with their time on
this planet—actors, designers,
doctors, etc.
And I have met many great
racers of the last 30 years at
one point or another. I've been
doing this job for 12 years but
I've been around the paddocks
since I could walk, thanks to a
family that helped shaped what I
wanted to be.
I love professional sports of all
kinds but I still find motorcycle
racers to be a special type of per-
son. I've tried my best to become
a racer throughout my life but
never had the will or skill to make
it happen. Professional motor-
cycle racers are some of the
purest people in the world. They
have a singular, all-encompassing
goal: a laser-like focus to beat the
other guy. And there have been
many who have impressed me
in my life, but none have a more
revered place in my mind than
three-time 500cc World Cham-
pion, Wayne Rainey.
The reason for this admiration
started out innocently inno-
cently: During the first Australian
500cc Grand Prix at Phillip
Island in 1989, my dad gave
six-year-old me my first auto-
graph book. On the Thursday
night prior to first practice, I was
walking with mom and dad to the
gala event in a huge tent on the
infield behind a blonde couple.
"That's Wayne Rainey, off you
go," my dad said to me. I didn't
really know what to do, so I just
ran up behind him and sort of
nudged him in that awkward kid
way. A minute later, my book
had its first autograph—one that
would be followed by Wayne
Gardner, Kevin Magee, Daryl
Beattie, Christian Sarron, and
Kevin Schwantz—and I was an
instant fan of the guy on the
number 3 Lucky Strike Yamaha.
The following year, 1990, was
the worst of my life as I spent
45 MINUTES WITH A HERO
