THREE-TIME 500cc ROAD RACE WORLD CHAMPION WAYNE RAINEY
P70
Interview
MISANO, 1993
"I was racing Kevin Schwantz, my great rival, for
the title. We had both matured and grown up a
bit since the early days, but it was pretty serious
business trying to be the world champion. He
was going for his first. He was riding that year
like he had never ridden before. We had Misano,
then Laguna Seca, and finally Madrid, Spain. All
those tracks favored me, at least favored my re-
cord. So, I thought to myself, if I could beat Kevin
at Misano, I thought I could pressure him.
"It all started in the morning warmup at Misano
because the track was damp. I was on one end
of the track. Kevin was on the other. When I
passed my lap board, I'd see Kevin was fastest.
Then my timer would say I was quickest. Then
the next lap I'd come around and I'd see Kevin
was fastest. Then I'd be the quickest. We went
back and forth like that. I forget now who was
quickest after the warmup, but for the race, Luca
(Cadalora) had actually out-qualified me. Misano
was a very special racetrack for me. In 1984 it
was where I got my first podium. But what was
really special about Misano, they run it in the
opposite direction that they do now. They actu-
ally ruined the track running it the direction that
they do now. It was counterclockwise back then.
There were five left-hand turns that you'd go sec-
ond, third, fourth, fifth. When your tire was really
good, which was normally only for one lap, you
could do sixth onto the back straight. But most of
the time it was fifth gear. I looked forward to that
set of five corners every single lap.
"In the race, it was a 30-lap race, and the ef-
fort that I was putting on myself to try to get away
from Kevin, I was only doing it a couple of thou-
sandths a lap. So, after the first 10 laps of the
30-lap race I think I had built up less than a two-
second lead on him. It was just coming much,
much harder than I thought it should. I was really
