Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

wh y we are all doing it. " But hi s downto-eart h sense of proportion app lies to this as well. " Basica lly, it 's on ly th e Number One tha t you get to put o n your bik e for the next year. You win it, then you . take six mo nths ho liday, then you go down in hi story . Wayne Rain ey is the World Champio n now, but come the star t of the seaso n th e whole th ing started a ll over again. The titl e is a bonus for a year's raci ng the icing o n th e cake. What I like is winning races." He's done a bit of tha t over the years, starting in mot ocross because his la te fath er (a Honda deal er ) thought it would be less dan gerous than ro ugh riding the Queen sland bu sh trails. He was dirt tra ck racin g so los a t nine, sidecars at 12, and carr ied on with sho rt-ci rcu it and motocross until 1984, when he had a go at road raci ng . The young Michael was the last of three motor cycle-mad brothers , which meant he had to work hard wh en ever they went o u t together. H is eldes t brother Co lin was a to p speedway rider, wh ile the next one alo ng, Scott, has recently picked up a professiona l Su zu ka Eig ht-Ho ur, fini sh i n g an impressive th ird. Willing, now guru in residence for Team Marlboro Roberts, had groomed Magee through the Oz superbike ranks to GP level, and he chose Doohan as Magee 's replacemen t for th e 1988 seaso n. " I tho ught tha t'd be grea t it'd pay my bills." Doohan was marvell ou s o n a su perbike, and racked up a string of wins in 1988 both at hom e and in j apan - an ac tivity that does no har m to one's repu tation with the factory bosses. Now Barry Sh eene, a new- Queen sland resid ent, wa s a lso taking an inter est , a n d wa s a no the r beni g n in fluence wh en Doohan visi ted Assen i n 1988 to "sta rt putt in g thi ngs together." T he result was that this young Aus tra lia n (the n -jus t 23) went from roa d-raci ng novice to Rothrnan sHonda works rider in just five years. It was a ll far more than he'd expec ted when he decided to give up o n swimming pool in stallat ion as a career in 1987. " I tho ug ht then th at I could makea livin g a t bike racing, but I never tho ug ht that I'd make any money." it dow n. In my first road race, I push ed the bike down and wa ited fo r it to slide. T ha t's why I sit over th e front. That 's ho w I feel comfortable." (Eager readers are urged no t to try these techniq ues o n the public roads.}, " My brothers are th e same . It may be something in the fam il y. It 's no t something · I learned fro m copying any body." H e is not o ne to dw ell o n th e differen t elements of hi s style, and likes to give the imp ressio n th at he doesn 't reall y understand exac tly wh at it is he does to mak e the bike behave at these extre mes of performance. This is hard to believe - what else does he think abo u t at the race tracks? Or maybe it reall y is all subconscious. " I' ve watched a few videos, bui I' ve never been influenced by o ther riders' techniques. Maybe a few guys in Oz in the early days - not Kenn y Roberts , Barry Sheene and those people. I used to th ink they were all crazy. " I g uess you learn things all th e tim e from wa tch ing ot her riders, but I've never act ua lly wat ched anyone to see ho w they do it." It co uld steer better. Hondas always cou ld. I don ' t kn ow if it's an im p rovement over last year's bike, becau se that was prett y good by the end of last year, and it was also lighter. But I don't feel too good wh en Wayne says he doesn't like th e new bike. I thi nk maybe it's a dummy. " Bu t if you look at like j erez, from last year to this, we're q uicker, with th e"same tires and extra weight. It 's gotta be good." H e has no favor ite tracks. " I like an ywh ere, as long as I can get the bik e set up. Wh en I can ' t, it's different .like last year at Yugosla via and Assen .' Doohan is terse and laconic, and gives little away. That doesn 't mean he is unf riendly, and those wh o kn ow · him well agree that he is a lot more relax ed th is year th an last. One major reaso n is Kelly , hi s new girlfriend and cons tant com pa nio n since the Australian GP. Kell y is a gen ui ne head -turning blond, who dr esses to make the most of a slinky figure. Doohan values her com pa ny as mu ch for her independence. " I met her in Sep tember, and we career as a top Australian superbike rider. Michael's more Iumin ous career has relied o n chance (and tal en t) to pu t him whe re he is toda y. "A fri end crashed my RZ350 Yam aha road bike. H e o wned a motorcycle wreck in g shop, an d he fixed it for me for nothing o n co ndi tio n tha t I tr ied a race H is first year was marred by injury - first th e gruesome finger that was tra p ped ben eath a han dlebar a t Phillip Island , second- race of the year, th en ma ngled aga in at th e Suzuka 8-H our: con cludi ng wi th a po st-season bro ken arm in factory tests in japan. He fin ish ed ninth overa ll, mi ssin g on ly three races, but was in pain for all of them excep t the fir st and the last. The next year, 1990, was rather better, with Doohan steadily impro ving until by year-end he won in Hungary, and almost again in Phillip Island. He fin ished th e season as every bo dy's favorite for 1991. Su perbike riders tend to beaggressive with their bikes, and Doohan is no excep tio n. He was spinning and steering the rear of his Honda like a veteran by the end of '89, and since then his confidence has increased even more. Wayne Rai ney is ano ther examp le of a 500cc class convert who likes to th row h is GP bike arou nd - but Doohari' s style is unique - an tis bent as he powers on out of th e tu rn s, making forceful use of coun terlean and footrest weightin g as he swings and swive ls th e p ow er -st eer in g NSR ben eaih him. " It comes from a dirt bike . .. get o ver on top of it, and push His keep-fit regimen is less forma l than tha t watched over by team th erapis ts bea ring bala nced-diet fru i t dri n ks; and he also ma kes li ght of it. " I try and keep fit , becau se it helps you r concent ration, bu t I don ' t kn ow if I'm doing the righ t thing. I run a bit. A fair bit. I run a ll th e circuits." Lightly bu ilt, he hardl y looks strong eno ugh to con tro l a bu cking 500cc GP bike, bu t says: " I don 't know if you need to have that mu ch strength. I do heaps of push -ups and sit-ups, to work o n my arms and ches t. I think a lot of it comes fro m the stomach muscles and th e body mor e than the arms." He's cagy too abo u t h is mechanical abi li ty, preferring to credit ex-Gardner crew ch ief j erry Burgess, an o the r Au strali an ). " I'm no t really sure . I just come in and tell j erry wh at I think it feels like. j err y is the silen t key to ho w I'm running, and he kn o ws exac tly wha t I mean ." No r is he forthcoming abo ut th e Honda - keeping well in lin e with compa ny po licy with his vagu e replies abo ut th e 1991 version of th e NSR, developed with much mor e testing in pu t from Doohan tha n hi s' injured tea mma te Gardner. " I do n't kn ow if it's good or bad. get along great. She has a mind of her own, ins tead of chewing bubb legum and pl ayin g with her ha ir. If anythi ng, it helps my racin g to have someo ne alo ng I can hold a conversatio n wit h. For th e last coup le of years I've been by myself at th e trac ks, and it was kinda lo ne ly in between races. I' m not a good tourist. " Doohan faces the raci ng future wi th the same eq uanim ity that he does the . .present (" I don't reall y su ffer from prerace nerves. I just th ink of it as ano the r practice sessio n.") He has o ne more year after th is to run wit h hi s HRC contract, and ho pes to race for five or six more years at least. He doesn't really mind how it all happens , as lon g as it does, and while he 's not married to Honda, he doesn 't have any hankerings a fter hi s rival s' bik es. " You do look at the other bik es, and the gr ass is a lways gr eener. T he Yam aha is very good a ll ro und, and the Suzuki last year was fast. But I've got used to th e H on da and its cha rac ter, and I can' t feel that they're a ll that much different from one ano ther anyway." Well , not th e way he look s a t it. After all, look wh at he's achie ved so far , and all becau se he go t lucky. 01 · on it. " T wo months after hi s debu t at Surfer's Paradise, he won th ere for the first tim e - the first of 26 wins o ut of 57 starts in Production and Su perbike class races from 1984 to 1987. In 1985, he was one of th e few people in the world ever to win races o n an RZ500 Yamaha (a producti on replica of th eir GP bik e), and in 1986 and 1987 he was th e dominant for ce in dom esti c P ro duction cl a ss racin g o n a 250cc Yamah a. An early influence in his career progress was Mik e Dow son, then one of Australia's top riders; a second was Dows on 's th en team boss Warren Willing, who gave Doohan h is first maj or break with a guest ride in m id-1987 on a Marlbo ro Yamah a FZR750, where Doohan fini shed fifth in a race won by Kevin Magee , temporarily his teammate. That same year , he made his international debut a t the

• Cover