Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

whole field's within two seconds in qualifying - and you give them 20 seconds to begin with - by the time you catch up your tires are gone. "You work all week to get good lap times," says Wayne. "You work on the tires and chassis, but they let you go out there and you end up racing the-pace car for half a lap. You want to pull into the pits. And you think: '1£ I can't start the bike, what am I doing here?'" Rainey' problems can be sourced primarily to hi choice of modifications which were run on hi bike, namely the Hans Hummel cylinders, which were about the only variance from stock on his production TZ250L. "We started using Hummel cylinders, as other teams have. but they use either flat-slide carbs or modified round-slide carbs so they can start better. But we just haven't had time to test. "Hummel cylinders have such big intake ports," continues Rainey, "that there's no velocity pushing when you open the throllie. The pon's not small enough to suck the air through, so the air/fuel mixture is wrong. And if you give too much throttle, there's just dead air, only fuel going in and flooding the cylinder. You have to In contrast to the rough handling that he received from his competition, Rainey found out that living and eating in Europe wasn't as bad as it was_ described to him by his predecessors. "What surprised me the most was how good the food was. You always hear stories about Europe being bad food and not being able to cope with the different languages and cultures. But I had nothing but fun trying to learn all the dirrerentlanguages, eating all the good food. I mean. the food over there is much better than in America." Rainey admits that the only exception is Mexican food, which he car-. ried a healthy supply of inthe mOlorhome he borrowed from Roberts for the season. Among the European riders, Rainey says, "I know Christian Sarron pretty well, Sito (Alfonso) Pons, and some of the other guys. I had dinner a lot with the Carruthers; Jan (Kel's wife) cooks real good. But what I missed the most in Europe was my family and my girlfriend." The sacrifice to compete in the 250cc GP road racing wars in Europe, as Rainey sees it, was well worth it. "The 250cc class I liked, because there were the MBAs, Rota xes, Ya ma- WaIne Rainey· .'5 i .he eyes By Hanny Ray Abrams and Don Cox There's something comforting about looking into someone's eyes and knowing that they're telling you the truth. Instead of spending half your time with deceptions, you can concentrate on the. person, his ideals, rewards and frustrations. With Wayne Rainey, you get the truth. 20 Wayne has something in his directness which puts you at ease. Perhaps it's his eyes, which, despit his age of 25, look older. Actually, it's not the eyes, but the areas around them which are lined more heavily than people two and three times his age. They add maturity, and this past season in Europe. Wayne Rainey has had to mature - both on and orr the race track - more than he would have liked to. "1 wanted another year of road rac· ing experience in America, but 1 lost my ride with Kawasaki," says Rainey. "Fortuna.tely, Kenny Roberts put this team (Team Marlboro-Roberts) together. We had some ideas at the end of January, and 1went over to Europe at the end of the month. We talked to AGV, Dunlop, Daine e and Spicli, and worked out all ohhe contracts to see if there was enough money, and there was enough to go racing for a year. "Kenny and 1 talked about dirt track racing, but he could only find enough money for himself. Then Honda said they would give us road racing bikes, but we wouldn't get any salary. 1 could have gone dirt track- ing or road racing, and financed my own thing like Wes Cooley is doing now, but there's not enough money in America to do a good private effort." . So Wayne went to Europe. More accuratel y, he went first to South Africa for the opening round of the 250cc World Championships, and there began a problem that plagued him for the entire season: bad starts. 'The starts really hurt my season," Rainey says. "Five or six times 1 was on the front row ohhe grid, but i was usually 33rd or 34th into the first turn. " "He's the best rider out there," observed friend and 500cc World Champion EddieLawson, "But hecan'tget the bi ke started." About his starting problems, Rainey is eloquent. He has obviously analyzed, re-analyzed and anguished over the situation. "Last year 1 raced against Mike Baldwin, and he was on a superior bike. In Europe 1 was in the same situation, but 1 had a dozen guys who are as good as him, except 1can't·start the bike. "I know how to push-start a bike. I expect myself to go out and start it up in four or five paces. Sometime. it goes - and most of the time it doesn't. "You have to be with the front pack when they go, because if the Although he turned the fastest laps during several 260cc Grands Prix in 1984. Wayne Rainey was hindered by slow starts and a lack of powar. crack the throttle open a Jittle bit so there's just enough air going under- . neath the slide into the cylinder. And it's got to be warm for some reason; rotary valve engines start right upso riders who have bikes with them can just even paddle-start. I push." Wayne fell in practice at Kyalami, injuring the lillIe linger on his right hand. He was able to qualify fifth, only to be put out by transmission problems while running eighth. The next round was in Italy, on the Continent - Roberts' country. After qualifying eighth, Wayne put in his best finish 01 the season - third after another horrendous start. The Grand Prix season was interrupted by the Match Races at Donnington Park in central England. There, Rainey rode, and was subsequently pitched off of, one 01 the outdated reverse-cylinder, in-line-four 500a: Yamahas, which netted him a broken right foot. A trip to the States later, his injured foot was tended to' and he headed back to Spain. "I got a bad stan, got hit in the first corner, and was knocked olf the track. I just thought about riding with my broken foot and I really didn't push it for the first five laps; then I worked up to 10th. But it seems that I can qualify good and get on the front row, but then get a last place start. " has, Monnets, Pernods, Hondas, and 36 guys who are sometimes within two seconds in qualifying. It's good, close racing, so you know that when you did good, you did good." But one thing which hampered Rainey more than anything else was his machinery. He had, basically, one bike and one mechanic. Between himself and MarLboro-Roberts teammate Alan Carter, there we.re three bikes available, but because of Carter's propensity for mechanical misfortune, Rainey could ride only one. This meant that Wayne rode the same bike for both qualifying and practice. But practice laps were a rare thing, since Rainey's mechanic, Bruce Maus, had to spend valuable time performing necessary maintenance. Therefore, not only was track time limited, but so was the time needed for proper tire development, suspension and chassis adjustments, and engine and pipe testing. The fact that Rainey could stay ahead of his more seasoned competitors in spite of his disadvantages and still be competitive - has been, testament to his abilities. At the Belgian round Wayne's problems amplified. "In practice I had worn out cylinders, and we had to pull them off because they were . going to break. They had been on my bike since Austria (four races pre-

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