THREE-TIME 500cc ROAD RACE WORLD CHAMPION WAYNE RAINEY
P72
Interview
fit. Ten laps is nothing, but I was exhausted after 10
laps, mentally and physically.
"Going into the first turn, I just missed my brak-
ing point by just a little bit. At those speeds though,
an inch or two is a mile. So, when I flicked it into
the first turn, I was off line, so I was off the throttle
a long time. I had a lot of load on the tires. I was
really bent over trying to get it back on line. I got
it back on line and I tried to accelerate. It imme-
diately stepped out and before I knew it, I was on
the ground before I knew anything. Then I thought,
'Damn, I've lost the world championship.'
"I was sliding across the ground, slid into the
gravel trap, and I just felt like I was still going really
fast. I was still flipping a lot because the gravel
traps back then had speed bumps in them. I just
thought, 'Wow. I hope there's not a crash wall out
here to stop me,' because I was going way too
fast. Just about the time I was about to stop, I felt
a huge pop in my back. I lay there on the track. In
my whole 25 years of racing, I had always almost
every time been able to get up, no matter how bad
I had hurt myself. But as I was laying there on that
track trying to get up, I could only move my arms.
I was confused. I could hear the bikes going by.
I was thinking, 'How could something I love hurt
me like this?' Then I felt my legs, and I realized that
my hands felt my legs, but my legs didn't feel my
hands. So the battle started."
RIDING ONCE AGAIN
"I really enjoyed that one opportunity. I had
no desire to ever ride a motorcycle again
after my racing accident. But one day I
just woke up, one month before that event in
Japan, and I just said, why not? So, Keith Mc-
Carty at Yamaha put the bike together for me
and I was able to go out to Buttonwillow. My
wife was there and my brother, Rodney, and
Paul Carruthers. I went out and rode; I remem-
ber when I was done riding, Josh Hayes was
following me. He was in gardening gloves.
I said, 'How fast did we go out
there? It felt like 150 [mph].'
He said, 'You were almost
doing 90.' The speed
has changed a lot
over the years."
