Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

~ Interview: Road racer Wayne Rainey rOn top of the world By Michael Scott/Photos by Henny Ray Abrams & Patrick Gosl ing ayne Rainey is not about ,to brea k the mold of th e school of Am erican cha m p io ns . H e's done it all, paid hi s du es, and arri ved a t the top read y to win. His life story is almos t a cl iche. in tercha ngeable in a ll sorts of respects with that of Kenny Rob erts, Freddie Sp en ce r. Ed di e Lawson . Rand y Mamo la a nd so on. As he sits on top of the World Champions hip 500cc Road Race Seri es poi nt sta ndi ngs. let 's ru n th rough th a t story quick ly. just to to uch th e sa lient points of fam iliarity. Born to race int o a racing fam ily. Rainey's fat her built him hi s first bik e wh en he was nine. A whiz kid in a mateur dirt trac k and IT racing, he moved o n to the th u ndering professional fl at tr ac k ci rc u it, becoming intimat e with the berm , the cushio n a nd the wi ldly slidi ng mo tor cycle. Almost by chance. he mov ed into road racing, whe re he promp tly won two U.S. Superbike titles; and pu t in o ne exciting Europea n 250cc G P season. In 1988. he was ready to mak e his 500cc class debut. And he arrived at th e to p. mea ni ng to wi n, a nd able to do so. as a member of a team tha t ma tches hi s dedi ca tion. Bu t th is litany of the latter day roa d racer sho uld concea l much tha t is diff erent abo u t th is 28-year-old racer wit h so uthern California sur fer look s. co urteous manners and conspicuously well- rounded a nd co mplete approach to raci ng. Aside fro m a p ropensit y to jubilant wh oops o n the victory rostru m, Rain ey is a laid back individual , wh o keeps a coo l head and never forgets to thank hi s mech anics a nd mentions th e names of hi s sponsors. But he is tough er than he looks . and his riding in 1989 proves it. His technique o n th e red-andwhite Lucky Strike Yamaha has been thrill in g to watch. Because of a philosoph y th at sta tes: " If the thing's not wobbling. I'm not going fast enough ." a nd because of an ap parently uncanny abi lity to go ri ght to the limit of th e machine, the tires. a nd the tra ck without ever fall ing off (w ell, h a rdl y eve r), R a iney h a s provided a n interesting and impressive co u n terpo in t to the inspirational a ntics of Kevin Schwantz, th e de sperate ag g re ssio n o f Wa yn e Gardner, and the cool. ca lm and co llec ted 99-per centing of Eddie Lawson. Rel iably the one who leaps into th e lead from the start, Ra iney has something of Spencer' s ability to make th e mo st of co ld tires. and som ething of Lawson in ' a co nsis ten cy that has seen just one nonfin ish in th e p a st two sea sons . .. a nd that du e to a flat tire. And quite a lot of pure Rainey in his sus ta ined runawa y victory at Laguna Seca, followed by a tactically different decisive last lap overtaking move of L awson at th e H ockenheimring. It is of co ur se way too early to hand Rainey th e 1989 titl e. especiall y with a man th e caliber of Laws on o n hi s tail - yet long befor e the halfway point. GP obs ervers were alrea dy talkin g of Rainey as The W 16 Complete GP Ra cer, a nd the World Cha mpion Elect. ' I first met Rainey in 1984, when he was quite a kid rea lly, attacking th e formidabl e 250cc G P class of th e tim e o n a stoc k Yam ah a T Z on a team run by Kenny Roberts a nd sponso red by Marlboro. It wa s all more lig hthearted th en : first time in Europe, ba ttling wi th a race bik e that he co uld p ush start perfect ly a t m idnight in th e padd ock. but wh ich never seemed to go wh en he tried the sam e thi ng a t the start line. Bu t his r id in g was dead ly ser iou s, a n d a mo ng some no table ,perfor ma nces en route to eighth overall cam e a lap record at Misano, during a stirring rid e through th e field to th ird aft er yet another muffed push start. I got to kn ow him better during the co urse of the last two seasons, as a more m ature r ider. newl y married a nd quieten ed down a lot. And he really is a different cha racter from all the o the r riders cas t in th e same mold. except in sharing th eir formidabl e will to win. Alone among th e U.S. GP racers. Rainey - wh en questioned on some point of controversy - will ex ress hi s opin ion . a nd then ask you yours . You ge t th e feeling that this ope n mindedness runs through hi s entire a pproach to racing. and combines WIth a ded i, cated professionalism to mak e Rainey a formidabl e 500cc cla ss rider. I spoke to him a t th e Salzburgr ing, th e evening befo re th e Austr ian GP. H e was in his motorhom e, with his wife Shae and you nge r sister Ren ee, th e latter visiting from California o n vaca tio n. a nd a remi nder that raci ng rea lly is a famil y affair for th e Rainey clan. " Renee was my greatest fan." said Wayn e. " She must have co me to every race I did until I was 16." T hat Rain ey was born into raci ng is almost too literally tr ue. " My mother lIa was rac ing go -karts, when she di scovered she was three months pregnant. That was me (Wayne is the eldest of th ree ch ildren)." Tha t ended Ila 's racing career. bu t hi s father, Sa ndy Rainey, ca rried on wi th karts a nd took to bik es as well, until he ~roke hi s"leg a t Ascot. and Ila cried En ough . ' So Sandy took to tu ni ng instead . " H e bu ilt me a mini bike wh en I was five or six; th en he built a bik e for my first race a t nine. In those da ys. . we used to go out to Sadd leback Park near L. A." Among th e young Rainey 's com pa nions were future motocross sta r J eff Ward , nascent speedway aces Shawn and Kelly Moran. and a quiet kid with a deep co mpet itive stre a k. That wa s Eddie Law son. and th e two of the m have been two-wheeled companions ever since . . . . altho ug h Rainey was a little mystified to report in Au stria: " Since I beat Eddie a t H ock enheirn, he's hardl y spoken to me." All of whi ch sounds typi call y Law son. and just as th ough th ere's a good grudge match building up . . . an impressio n confirmed th e foll owing day wh en La wson cri tici zed Rainey' s riding a fter th e Aus tria n GP. It doesn 't hurt to remember , however, that Rain ey was inv olv ed in just suc h a rela tions hip with Kevin Schwantz back in th e U.S.• a nd that it takes two to ma ke a 'slanging' mat ch. Rainey clearl y has sk ills in these areas too. Wh a t were 'they saying abo ut a co mplete G P racer? Back to the sixties, when the nineyear -old Rain ey fin ished fourth in h is first race a nd go t bett er, whi le he also gained experien ce of what it was like to approach ra cing in an expe rimenta l way. " Dad kin d of a lways wanted to be different. a nd in the 50cc m ini bik e races we were do ing, he was first a t bringing in a lot of things . We were the first to use nitro-methane fuel; th e first to have a swi nga rm; the first with disc brak es, a nd with spoo l wh eels. H e built me a real mini dirt tra ck bik e. It was all hi s own work. the paint job and all. Mom did the lea th ers. and I had to pol ish th e bik e. I go t to do a lo t of poli shing." Wa yne reca lls tha t hi sfam ily went wit ho ut a lot for his racing, engaged in the long-ha ul trail around the U.S. over man y weekends, as he ra cked u p th e wi ns a nd ga ined experience. , "A t about 14 or 15, I wa nted to be li ke my heroes - people like Dave Alda na a nd Jay Spri ngs teen . I wasn 't o ld enough to think a bo u t a ca reer. I just had dreams and goals; a nd the career just kind of fell into it. I on ly, kn ew th en that I wanted to race motorcycles. " In my Novice year. I raced all over the U.S.A. I won close to 50 events th a t year. Each of th em paid abo ut. 30 bu cks. It didn 't even cover th e gas. " We were fortuna te eno ugh in th at we always had a real fast bike. At this tim e. I was spo nsored by Sh ell Ra cing Specialties, run by Sh ell Thuett, wh o had sponsored Kenny Roberts a t one time. Edd ie (La wso n) rode for th em as well - he a nd I were teammates. I was just o ne year behind him . " It was all dirt track. At th e tim e, I used to wonder wh at road racing would be like, but I never got to do any. It was all Edd ie's fault th at I got started. " In 1980, he was riding for Kawasaki .. . th ey bu ilt a dirt tracker that year, and road raced as well. Then he got hurt at Riv erside, and th ey as ked him who cou ld ride the road racer, and he came up with me. They put me on a street bike - a KZ750. I won 16 o ut of 18 races, and took a few la p records, a nd that got me a sh ot o n Eddie Lawson's 250 GP bike at Loudon." , , Som ething of a baptismal experi en ce. in p ouring rain . on the tandem -twin GP bike. "I had dirt track leathers. dirt track hoots and all. and I won th e race in the rain." Thus followed a full Kawasaki contract. once again teammates with Law son. riding su perbikes in 1982. -T hey were up aga ins t Spencer a nd Mike Bald win on H ondas , a n d finished th e series with Lawson first. Baldwin second a nd Rainey th ird. with o ne race win. Then Rainey had a conversation

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