"It's a fair y tal e," he said, " Fin ish ing
third, seco nd and then first. I couldn 't
have asked for a bett er way to do it."
Winning the title has led to a busy
o ff-seaso n , a barrage o f interv iew
requests a nd numerous trips abroad to
pi ck up awards , do chari ty events, etc.
'" reall y didn 't know what to
expec t," Wa yn e sa id. '" figure' will
do th e best I ca n with th e press a nd
not say no to a ny th ing - a nd ' hav en 't.
So I'v e been pr ett y busy. I just wish
America was more interest ed , but' just
ca n' t seem to get any th ing going here."
H is h o me town o f Down ey h a s
recognized Rainey's efforts . He was
Grand Marshall in th eir pa rade, a nd
he's been fea tured in the local newspaper, but th a t's abo u t wh ere it ends.
To make things worse fo r a n alrea dy
When World
Champion
Wayne Rainey's
not road racing
on the GP
circuit. motors
still playa big
part in his life.
underpublicized sport , Rainey's home
is also home to th e Los Angeles Lakers,
Rams, Raiders, Dodgers, Kings and
California Angels. For every Wayne
Rainey there's a Bo Jackson, a Magic
Johnson, a Wayne Gretsky .. .
'" expected to get a little bit more
recognition o u t of Amer ica ," Rainey
said. " Bu t we're fighting a long uphill
battle here and the main reason is
because we're not on TV. I think it's
going to be a wh ile before we ca n get
racing big here in America."
Maybe it' s m oney. Th e general
public isn 't a wa re th at these World
Champion motorcycl e racer s ea rn
money that 's almost on par with the
rest o f th e sporting world's heroes.
H ow does a n extra million dollars for
winning a titl e so u nd?
" A million dollar s? Yeah, probably
so," Ra in ey says. " It 's got to be clo se
.
the envnonmen t For infor mati on reg ard ing an MSF nd er c ourse . p lease call 1·800 ·44 7·4 700 00 1101th ink and ride
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