Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

seil.ed and he lost the front end. In Germany he chose the wrong tires: the rest of the front row was equipped with slicks. but Rainey chose intermediate. "They told us after the re-start that they wouldn't ,stop the race a second ti me, so I used the intermediates." Rainey finished sixth. Given the right tires, he could have won. After qualifying on the pole in Yugoslavia, Wayne gotof[thegrid in 22nd, but worked his way up to the frolll before being forced back to fourth when his tires failed. With the "Boss," Roberts, watching at Assen. Wayne was fourth in practice and well off the start before the Dutch rain began to fall. "I was 10th going into the first turn, but then they red-flagged the race because it was raining. On the re-start the bike lit, because I heard it. Sol jumped on, but then it didn't walll to take any throule and just died. I then had to jump back 0[[ and push - 40, 50 yards - and it finally went." After a lot of harassment from the "Boss," Raine)· pressed on to finish 12th. "I don't know why these guys stay up all night working on your bike," kidded Roberts. "You can't start the thing." "Kenny wasn't impressed with the way our bikes ran this year," recalls Rainey, "and neither was anybody else on the team. So there's a lot of 'race resu It. Anderstorp saw Rainey get of[ to a decent start, finally. But after yet another round of man-handling from some o[ the competition, he finished 131h and collected no points. The final GP round at Mugello was an unfortunately fiuing end to Rainey's first season o[ racing in Europe when he retired [rom the action early with a slipping clutch. Wayne's [inal placing [or the year was eighth. The points earned for all his efforts amounted to just 29. Rainey, however disappointed, is not deterred. He has a sel£-confidence which is more than justified. "I've liked all the circuits. Silverstone I liked particularly; it's smooth and fast. Assen was a little different because I've never ridden a track that narrow, and it took a little time geuing used to it. I like Missimo in Italy; it was the second GP, and things went preuy good there." Compared to the circuits that he raced at, Rainey's relationship to Roberts during the year produced these observations: "It was difficult with Kenny and without him!" says Rainey. "Kenny has a pretty busy schedule. He's contracted to Yamaha America to do public relations, he drives a Ford race car whenever he can, he goes to a driver's school and gets to practice racingFormula Atlantic cars, and hehas a family at home. Silverstone was One of the most personable big-name racers. Wayne Rainey has never lost his willingness t9 talk to fens or sign autographs. 24 vious), with about 2,000 miles on them. We also changed the gearing, and I told Bruce to take a tooth off the rear, but he thought I meant to put a tooth on. Sol did a lap and came back in, telling Bruce that we still had the same gearing on, then I went back out for two laps before I blew it up, because I was two teeth over-geared. I was trying to get the track lines down and I was thinking about gearbox ratios and tires, and on top of that we had that mis-communication. I just couldn't seem to run with anybody down the straights. Sarron had about 10 mph on me; I've never been passed by anybody down the backstraight the way he passed me. . ':We were not getting the help we should from Yamaha," declared Rainey. Team Marlboro-Roberts is a paying Yamaha customer and is treated like everybody else. "We bought our parts like any other team. We didn't have any trick parts - you had to make them. "Last year (1983) I had Steve Johnson to work on the motors, and Mark Johnson on the chassis. In Europe I had Bruce doing both; he was up until four every morning, and that's not good. Last year we had a lot of parts we could change, like the front end; but in Europe we were stuck with one set of triple clamps. I changed the bike quite a bit. The swingarm was shortened, the seat was moved forward, and the gas tank was cu t a bi t to try and get some weight on the front end so I could get it to hook up better. Every track I went to the front end would slide, and after making all those changes, it kept sliding a little more than I wanted it to. But that was the best that we could do." The reason it was the best that could be done was because of the Dunlop tires. Only 18-inch tires in any variety of compounds are made for the 250. Wayne tried a If-inch on the front end, but didn't find it to be stable. Quality control in the production of the tires has been a problem - with 9Iu-ef-,oundness and side-to-side deflection plaguing them. What that does is kill the drive going into the corners, since the front end wants to bounce up and down like a pogo stick. Sarron, who won this year's 250cc World Championship, and 1983 World Champion Carlos Lavado, both used l6-inch Michelins. "They ran a wider profile, [ront and rear," says Rainey. '''Their bikes turned a little easier than ours and their engine setups were different. I'd say that they had [our mph on us down the straights, and the only time I had a chance as far as winning was on the short circuits. That was the way it was all year: Every time we came to a short circuit, ~had the fastest times or laps, and the only things that kept me [rom winning was the start." Lavado and Sarron. They're the two names who come up most when Rainey speaks o[ the competition. "They seemed to be the most can: sistent qualifiers, and they also seemed to have the 'best-setup bikes. So, i[ I could've beql able to race with the leaders, I'd say hey were the guys to be racing wjthA raced with Lavado in South Africa; at N urburgring I had intermediates while he had slicks, and I passed him once. I think that if I had 'slicks I could have wOn that race. "Some of the guys don't hang out as much as I do, and they use more front end on the corners to scrub off speed. Whereas I don't go in quite as hard as they do, but I seem to get the bike turned a little quicker and I get on the power a little ea~ier than they can. Sarron doesn't lean off the bike; he stays in the middle o[ it. I got behind him and watched, but I can't figure how he goes so fast, because it looks real uncomfortable - but it works for him. Toni Mang goes in real slow - slower than the s'lowest guys - but he comes out real hard and he knows the circuits real well." Austria's Salsburgring was the next circuit after Italy and Rainey was on the front row o[ the grid - but he was racing the Porsche pace car at the start. The day ended when his bike Returning to the U.S. to race at Laguna Seca on a bike Kenny Roberts designed and built. Rainey won and got in some valuable track testing time. things that could make the team better that Kenny would like to do. I think that if the team goes next year, it will be a lot beuer. Instead of getting our bikes a week before the first Grand Prix of the season for testing, maybe we could have them during the winter." The following week in Belgium he never got up to racing speed in qualifying aT in the race and was forced out early with overheating. He returned to the States [or an easy win at Laguna Seca on the bike he won Daytona with. Maus finally got the chance to do some engine development work, which he hoped would give him.an advantage in theremaining GPs at ~J1verstone, Anderstorp (Sweden), and Mugello (San Marmo). "When we went back to Laguna Seca in July, that was the first testing of the year. Everything else had been \I'one in timed qualifying at the Grands Prix. But at Laguna, we tested a new frame and didn't get to do mucb else, because we had lots of engine problems and throttle sticking. I started on the last row and was fifth going into the first turn." But the hoped-for improvements for Europe weren't to be. At Silverstone, Wayne was down on power, qualifying 19th. Fourteenth was the only the sixth race that he'd been able to be with the team. "Kenny has ideas I don't think about," continues Rainey. "I tried them; sometimes I didn't understand .them, but I did them anyway. Sometimes they worked [or me, and sometimes they didn't. But he gave me a lot of confidence, and he's got good ideas on setting up the bikes, because he's three-times World Champion. "When you listen to Kenny. he makes it sound like racing is the easiest thing in the world to do. But, when you get out there on the tTack, it's so much different. So, at the start of the year, ~ was pumped up too much and crashed a few times, then I settled down. "I don't know how it's going to go next year," comments Rainey. "I don't know if there'll be another American . on the team, either. "As to which class I'll ride, it doesn't matter to me. I'd love to ride a 500, because I know a lot of the problems that I had on the 250 wouldn't happen, because I'm used to heavier bikes. But I'd also like to go for the 250 class again. because I now know whal to expect. "'But it' all going to work out," Rainey says. "'I know I can run with them, if I get a good start." •

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