Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

with Kenny Roberts mat paid off at Ra iney got his just rewards, howthe time and la ter. Kenny was racing ever , in 1987, riding the V-4 Honda ' GPs a t the time, but they had a agai nst the sparkling b u t erratic mutual contact in Sparky EdmonKevin Schwantz, " We battled it o u t. ston, who had wrenched for KennyIn the en d , he won five, a nd I won in th e ea rly days. " Whe n Kenny ca me three, bu t I was more consistent." He home from Europe, I called him up, shakes his head. " I wou ld have a nd we talked for about two hours, thought Kevin would ch a nge, bu t it 's just about racing. Then a fter that I sti ll th e sa me way . H e wants to be went o u t and won Loudon. I learned th e fastest guy out there all th e time, a lot in th at con versa tio n - it was but I never want to fall do wn with j ust basic stuff rea lly, th at I didn 't a five-second lead." . kn ow , that maybe he'd been taught Perhaps this meant tha t Rainey too , or learned for himself. " leaned more to th e Lawson style of . In 1983, th e Superbike class went riding, a lways with an eye to th e title to 750cc, a nd while Law son went on ra ther than th e race. " I don 't think to Europe, Rainey pi cked up Wes so . I lik e raci ng, a nd battling fo r the Cool ey as his teammat e, and ramlead . I'd rather all th e races were like pag ed to h is second U.S. Superbike Suzuka (where he lost b y a fracti on titl e. Having won the cro wn for to Schwantz) or Hockenheim (whe re Kawasaki, he felt on top of the world. he won by a fra ction from Law son ). Then, sud de n ly, Kaw a saki quit But some times you have to acce p t racing. _ off-da ys - lik e a t J erez. "It was a big blow. I didn 't kn ow "Lagu na was the opposi te. I just what I wou ld do . But th en Kenn y kn ew I was going to win that race . had a lso retired, and he wanted to It was m y best race ever; I was under run a team, so he put one together control all the tim e. The bike wasn 't for me, with Allan Ca rter as th e pe rfect, because I was ge tt ing some seco nd rider." cha tter a nd some wobbles a nd slid es, Marlboro-backed , but on deadbut it was just one of those days when standard 250cc Yamahas without an y nobody was going to beat me. " of the spec ial parts everyone assumed In hi s GP year s, Rainey has sh own Kenny would be getting from th e factory, Rainey a nd the new team trailed around Europe, ge tting star billing, although th ey were still o nly lea rn ing. " It wa s a big n ew e x peri en ce . . . fo r everyo ne . Fo r m e, every thi ng was for eign -- th e cou ntr ies, th e food, the tra cks, push start races. It was a big learning year, a nd it helped me a bun ch ." But th e mon ey dri ed up th e next year, and th e team fell apart; meantime Am erican two-stroke racing was enjoying a last gas p, a nd Rainey went stra ig h t to a job with sponsor Bob MacLean, running 250 a nd 500cc production Hondas. Bu t it was not a good year. " I was leading both classes when I cra shed a t Loudon. I slid a long wa y in th e grass, then hit a boulder. . That put me out for most of the rest of th e year. When I did get fit , Kenny put it together for me to ride dirt track with Mert Lawwill. I had a whole lot of fun, but I didn 't get a himself to be an analytical rider, who chance to do any more road r acing th inks hard about how to improve that year. " his performance. T hus it was when His ta lents weren't forgotten , he first arrived at the GPs, he studied however , in 1986 he was offered a not only his own riding style in terms lucra tive con tract with Ameri can of how to use th e front wh eel, but al so tha t of th e other riders. It was Honda to ride th eir superbike, and a delibera te exercise in im p rovin g an RS500 two -stro ke. At th e same his perf orma nce by an al ysis a nd tim e, Rob er ts had won Lu cky Strike ba ck ing, and was p utti ng tog ether ac tion. Now, he descri bes th a t peri od his 500 team . His chosen riders were as one time wh en Roberts really was Randy Marn o la a nd Wayn e Rainey. directl y influential o n hi s riding It posed a little dil emma to Rainey. style. " I was having trouble with how " I didn 't feel ready for Europe, a nd ha rd you co uld turn it into th e I a lso needed to ge t ba ck on m y feet fi na ncia ll y, to lea rn mo re abo ut co rners. Kenny sa id , 'Look at this racing and to thi n k abo u t wha t I bike. You've been riding stree t bik es needed to do. .Goi ng G P racing then with race tires put on. If yo u turn th em into a co rner too har d, you lose would have been th e worst th ing to th e front end. This is a GP bike. It's do , because mentally I just wasn't mad e to go in just as hard .as you read y. Kenn y was ver y understandca n put it in . Every th ing is adjus t• ing, and kind of put me on hold." a ble o n it. It 's just mad e for it.' Honda 's priority was the U.S. "He helped me a lot with m y Superbike title, though Rainey was whole attitude as much as in sp ecifi c gi ven permission to rid e th e 500 so matters of riding style." . as to get some time on th e GP bike Th is approach is just one of th e with an eye to th e future. T ha t didn 't weapons in the Am eri can riders' work out so easy. "T he bikes were ar senal. But Rainey do es not subso different that I ended up not riding the 500. I could rid e the superbike scribe to th e view that Am eri can I rid ers win races o nly because o f th ei r at 90-percent, and th e GP bike at flat tra ck backgrounds."I don't think what felt like 120-percent, a nd still that has so much to do with it. Look be three seconds qu icker o n th e a t gu ys like (Kevin) Magee, (P iersuperb ike." . Fran cesco ) C hi li , Ch r is tia n SarNordid th e superbike assa ult work ron ... th ey 're a lso s li d i n g th e out. "I ended up losing it on a bikes. technicality. I passed a rider under " I think it is in th e individual th e yell ow flag, but he wa s coasting . app roa ch. Ameri cans ride in a cerin to retire a t the time. I'd won seven tain way . . . it' s wanting to be th e out of nine races, bu t Fred Merkel, best. I thin k th e Eu ropean guys may wh o only won one race, won th e have acce p ted that Americans ar e just cham p ionshi p." better , and the flat track idea is a con ven ient way of explaining it. " Bu t it comes to background, and to personality. I want to be World Champion. If everyone had that deep inside, maybe they wou ldn ' t accept defea t so easy. "Then you have to tak e care of all your own stuff. I keep a lot of detailed stuff like tra vel arrangements in my o wn ha nds - a ll different aspects o f \he bu sin ess. I believe th at makes you mentally toughe r." But he wouldn 't be Wayn e Rainey if he d idn ' t pay th e right kind o f tribute to the people in su p port. "My wife Sha e.deserves cred it. There's a lot she goes throug h a nd has to list en to; a nd she keep s me in line if I ge t to o coc ky ." Sh ae, li st ening in , dimples prettily. ''I'm mor e la id back now I'm married," he con tin ues. " I don't need th e wild life 'no more. I just want to think ab ou t racing. " You need to know that yo u have a go od team . Ra cing isn 't factory against factory th ese days , but tea m ag ainst team. The bottom line with .us is th at it' s Kenny's team. A few people don 't lik e the way Kenny do es things, .but generally he 's always prep ar ed to listen a nd cha nge his ways. H e wants the team com ing up with ne w ideas. " With th at, and th e com p uter and everyth ing, it 's worked o u t th at .o ur bike' s as good as most of th e thmgs o u t th ere. One d ifficulty is that it 's d ifferent from a ll th e other Yamahas, so there' s' no rea r base line, or wa y we can com pare ou r directi on or development." (One maj o r differ ence is, of cou rse, th e Dunlop tires; a no ther is th at th e Lucky Strike bikes have been some 20m m shorter th an all th e o ther '89 bikes -- length removed from th e swingarm a t th e I' tea m 's Am sterdam headquarters in a bid to make the bike more agile.) Ra iney continues: "Our engine is good - (crew chief) Mike Sinclair and the mechanics do a great job th ere. The major problems have been setti ng up the chassis -- I'd get it so it worked a t Laguna Seca, then the same chassis would be no good at th e next tra ck and we'd have to start over. Since Hockenheirn, the handling ha s been better. Now if only we co uld get 10 kilograms (22 pounds) off it." . With the· rumor mill already cra n ki ng out a ll so rts of rider-team com bina tions, how does Rainey see his future? "I'm no t unhappy with th e money I'm making this year, but I'm running with th e guys who're making th e big bu cks, and I don 't see why I shouldn't make the same kind of money next year. When the time comes, I'll look a t wh at is on offer. I'm happy where I am, but I have to think of my self first. Money isn 't th e main motivation, bu t it is during th e winter. That' s part of trying to be professional. It 's a short eno ugh career, so you have to make the most of it finan cially." .T h us Rainey lives a relatively frugal life . His motorhorne is modest next to the chilling flanks.of Freddie Spencer 's custom-built bus, or the vividl y muralled sides ' o f Randy Mamula 's white lea ther palace on wheels. What's mor e, he actually lives in it most of th e tim e with Shae, a nd even dr ives it h im self. He 's not given to jetting back Stateside whenever possible, li ke Law son; instead he and Shae travel arou nd Europe with guide book s and ca m pgro u nd brochu res at hand , making the mos t o f th e down-time between races to exp lore cities a nd lifestyles. T his is a ru le he ha s brok en in 1989, £lying ba ck to th e U.S . twi ce to visit his badly injured best friend Bubba Sh ob ert in T exas. " Bu bba a nd I go back a long way," he says. " He was best man at my wedding. It sure took th e wind ourof m y U.S. GP victory when he got hurt in that way! ' We leave Rainey with a no ther half-a-season to go. he was comfortable with lead in g the cham pion ship. "I expected it to be like this. I' m surp rised Kevin Sch wa ntz isn 't higher, and it 's a real sha me th e way Gardner went o u t. But I kn ew Eddie would be up there, and th at I would be too. I didn 't know if I would be fir st or seco nd, but I figured it 'd be close." Fa r fro m feeling th e pressu re, he instead places th a t bu rden on Lawson 's shou lders. Espec ia lly a fter that crucia l and . uccessful last lap s overtaking move at H ockenheim. "I never expected to wi n , but I kn ew a ll race long that my o ne chance depended o n gett ing a be tter drive out of that last ch ica ne. Wh en I pulled alo ngside, I kn ew I had him beat. " I' ve been surp rised a t his reaction. I don't th ink he th ought it was possibl e th at I co uld p u ll that move on him. I'v e known Edd ie a long time, a nd we were friends until this year -- I have a lo t of respect for him, and what he has done. I was disappointed in Germany that he didn't take th e victory lap, or come to th e press conference after the race, but I th ink it sho ws that he's feeling the pressu re wor se th an me." But even if wh at seem s cert a in to be a protracted a nd tense ti tie battle with Lawson does a lso develop into a sla n gi n g m a tch , be s ure that Rainey will be watch ing his words all th e way. T he well- rounded cha mp ion kn ows , a fter all, that: " You 've got to watch wh at you say in racing, because it can come back and bi te you." •

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