IN
THE
WIND
P42
Wayne Rainey Rides Again
O
ne of the greatest names
in motorcycle racing—
three-time 500cc World
Champion Wayne Rainey—
rode a motorcycle for the first
time in 26 years at a private
event held at Buttonwillow,
California.
The Californian, CEO of
MotoAmerica, has not ridden
a motorcycle since crashing
out of the lead of the 1993
San Marino 500cc Grand
Prix at Misano, severing his
spinal cord and paralyzing
him from the middle of the
chest down.
Rainey rode a modified Ya-
maha YZF-R1 at Buttonwillow,
with Saddlemen providing a
custom seat and Klicktronic
fitting an electronic gear
shifter on the left handlebar.
Alpinestars decked Rainey
out in a replica of the suit he
wore during the 1993 season,
the same with Shoei and his
replica X-Fourteen helmet,
and he even had a pair of
his original Nankai Japanese
gloves from his time racing for
Marlboro Yamaha.
"The last couple of days, I
didn't know what to expect,"
Rainey said at the end of his
time on the R1. "It was like
taking training wheels off. I
was wobbling out of the pit,
and I thought, 'I've got to get
on the throttle!'
"Twenty-six years is a long
time to be off one (a motor-
cycle) and then to jump on
an R1, it made me feel young
again." CN
