Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Interview: Wayne Raine y Dedicated to winning in 1989 By Paul Carru thers If dedication were the sole ingredient in a World Championship-winning .recip e, T eam Lucky Strike Rober ts' Wayne Rainey would be a shoo-in for the 1989 crown. The Californian has sacri ficed an off-seaso n a t home, packing hi s bags and moving north . with his wife Shae for a wimer · in a Modesto , California, a part me nt - all in th e name o f prepara tion for an a ll-out assa u lt o n th e 500cc World Champ ionsh ip . We ca ugh t up with Ra in ey in Modesto, an d talked with h im abo u t th e season p as t a nd th e upcoming year durin g th e 17-mile drive from h is a part ment to Kenny Rob erts' ranch in H ickm an. 18 Tell us about your preparation for the coming season. What does a typical day in the life of Wayne Rainey consist of? Well , in No vember I started weight tra ining with m y brother, Rodney. We were do in g free weights which I h ad never done befo re, a nd we were do in g that six da ys a week . Then I came u p h ere to Ken n y's and basically I' ve just been ri di ng every day, running abo u t three times a week , pl aying racq ue tba ll, a nd usin g th e Nautilus . machines at th e a th letic cl ub. I've also gotten the opportunity to have ridden the eq uiva len t o f about 17 GPs thus far. I've been on th e bike eigh t da ys - four days on th e old bike a nd fo ur da ys on th e new bike (prior to th e tea m 's test sessio n in Aus tralia... Edi tor). There must be advantages of you being up here rather than in Los Angeles. What are they? When I'm down in L A. I' ve got to load up and drive two ho u rs to go riding. Last year, up here at Kenny's I had a m otorhome here so I was ri di ng every day. This yea r I've rented a n apart me n t an d I driv e m y 17 m iles a nd I ge t to ride every da y. T here's abo u t five rac e tracks o u t h ere, a nd it helps m e a 10l. It hel ped me a lo t last year because I was o n a mot orcycle a lot o f th e time. Part of Kenny's training program includes the use of four-stroke mini bikes on the short track oval. What are the advantages of using this system and how does it relate to road racing? We haven't used the m ini b ikes as much th is year, bu t we still try a nd get on th em as much as we ca n. I th in k the mini bikes are good prac. tice, a nd it 's a lot of fun. On th e mini bikes yo u make a mistake a nd the guy ge ts away from yo u an d it's real hard to make u p time. You're a lways on the edge of fall ing do wn - and you ca n't make mistakes. I think basically it' s more of a reflex thing. It's also good because you ha ve to be rea l aggressive and you're riding h ard with the other guys. It gets pretty co m pe titive. The majori ty of your riding up here, though, is done out in the hills on a motocross track. What does that do for you r road racing? T h e motocross part , more of a fast rough scra mbles o u t h ere, is a good worko ut. You also h ave guys out here th at are a lways tryi ng to beat you , an d so you don' t ge t bored. It 's · easy to ride for a long time o u t here. Your teammate, Kevin Magee, said at the end of last season that he was burned out. He pointed to the fact that he may have overtrained prior to the season up here last winter. Do you agree? . I thi n k Kevin 's bi ggest p roblem wa s that he didn 't ge t much of a break last year. H e was rac ing in J apan an d Austra lia an d the n h e had to come rig ht ' over to Kenny's - we tra ined pretty hard here last year. I think it was a hinderance to him because he n ever reall y got th at break from ra cing an d training last year. For me, I'm basicall y a t h ome when I'm here. Kevin , o n th e othe r hand, is very far from being h ome. I still ge t enough off tim e to wh ere I don 't ge t tired of it. Are th ere times when you just don't feel like riding? There's been a bout two day s out here w hen I just didn 't feel like riding. Wh en th at happen s I don't ride. I just co me out here and work o n m y bike - if yo u just don 't fee1 lik e ridi ng th en it doesn't do yo u a ny good. You're out here just rid ing aroun d a nd yo u 're th inking a bout o th er thi n gs, so it's not very p roductiv e when that happens. It 's best to just go o u t an d do it hard th e next day. Last year you su rprised many with yo u r third-place finish in the 500cc World Championship. You also won the British Grand Prix and were cons is tently on th e rostrum. What was th e high point of yo ur first full seaso n as a 500cc GP sta r? Don ingron (the sit e of th e British G P ) was th e highlight of la st year. It was o ne of the easies t ra ces I' ve been in as far as p hysica lly and mentall y. It j us t seemed lik e I wa s riding around, but I was ge tting away from the other guys. T ha t was a dream race for me. Everyone else was strugglin g, but we were perfect. · I wo ke u p tha t da y an d I just kn ew I was going to beat th em . It was funn y because on th e start ing line th ey (th e TV peop le) interviewed me a nd th ey as ked me wh at it wa s going to ta ke to win th e race. I to ld them I had to get a good sta rt a nd just ride str ong throughout th e race, and th at's just th e wa y it went. I got a good start an d I could have ridden another 30 laps - that's how good the bike and tires were working: The tires were great that day, th ey never went off. You also used AP-Lockheed's · carbon-fiber disc bra kes in England. Tell us about the brakes - a revo lution in GP bike technology. The ca rbo n -fiber brakes work good a t so me tracks and a t o the rs th e steel d i scs work better. Th e ca rb o ns worked good at Donington because there is a right-left th at's a ll downhill - it 's difficult to get it from right to left goin g down th e hill when the throttle is about three-quarters on. The carbon discs m ake it easier to flick back a nd forth because of the weight and th ere's not as much gyro effec t becau se th ey're sma ll er. They're funn y, though, because you go into a co mer and let the brakes o ff and th ey still grip real hard. That was difficult in th e ra ce to get used to.

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