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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127994
hether or not Mick Doohan
returns from his latest injuries
makes no difference. The
.
moment that he hit the barrier at
Jere::. marked the eJ;ld of an era. Even
if he does come back and win again,
as he has vowed - and it is by 00
means impossible for a man of his
frighteningly powerful deterrniri.ation
and depth of racing talent - his
unbroken reign at the top has been
interrupted, and an era closed.
An era, let it be said, that was
rather sterile and dull.
Nobody can blame Mick for that.
He was just way too ,good for the
competition. The best' of the rest have
wilted under his fearsome determination and t~wering talent for the
past five years. That's why it was so
significant when Kenny Roberts Jr.
resisted his charge fr?m behind in
Japan.
Throughout Doohan's reign,
500cc-class racing got duller and
duller as he piled Win upon win and
title upon title. When anyone said
this to him, he'd react with characteristic asperity: "What do you expect
me to do about it - slow down?"
He could have afforded to. It was
his particular misfortune tha t when
he reached full strength, returning
from his 1992 Assen leg injuries, it
was to a Grand Prix field that could
muster little better than Alex Criville
in opposition - and the soft-centered
Spaniard was easy meat for Mick.
This year was different. With
Roberts on a transformed Suzuki,
Max Biaggi on an improved Yamaha,
and Honda continuing to slide into
complacency while concentrating
their engineering efforts on the 250
and the new V-twin superbike, Mick
at last had someone to race against,
and he doubtless relished the
prospect.
Fate decreed otherwise. The
Doohan era thus ended without him
ever being able to claim the glory of
winning the title from somebody
really difficult to bea t.
W
When the 33-year-old Aussie mashe said. Two days later came another
ter thumped upside down into the
statement, via the Shell Advance 250
Michelin hoarding and fell back to lie
team of which he is part-owner.
motionless in the gravel, it was hard
"Crashes and injuries are pait of racnot to fear the worst, after seeing the
ing. I always kne"'{ that, and if I was
impact. Even when he did move one
going to let that stop me, I probably
arm, his legs remained ominously
would never have started," said
still.
Mick.
Though, according to Costa, it
Mercifully (though he may not see
would normally take four to six
it that way), the injuries were bad
enough, but fixable: a bmken right
months to recover from his leg
collarbone, lacerations to his back
injury, Doohan is not so patient. In
(from a fixing screw holding the
fact, his team hopes that he'll be back
advertising hoarding!), a fractured
in time for the Czech Republic GP at
left wrist and, worst of all, a fracture
Brno on August 22 - a little over three
months away, the other side of the
to the top of his right tibia, just below
the knee. This is the same leg that he
summer break.
broke at Assen in 1992, a famously
Nobody should be surprisea if
troublesome injury, and was, accordMick wins races again before the end
ing to GP medico Dr.
of the season. Tnat's
Claudio Costa, "very
what he likes doing.
fragmented." Having
That's what he does
suffered very severely
best. And by then,
in 1992 from poor
The moment ,that he
one or another rider
post-operative care (Mick' Doohan) hit the
is likely to be defendalmost losing his leg barrier at Jerez marked
ing a championship
Mick opted to fly to
position. At the same
San Francisco for
the end of an era. Even it he
time,
everyone
surgery. There he
does come back and win again,
should expect - or at
consulted· orthopedic
as he has vowed - and it is by
least hope - that, havsurgeons Dr. Arthur
no means impossible for a
ing seen one more
Ting and Dr. Kevin
checkered flag, Mick
Louie, both of whom
man of his frighteningly powwill finally call it a
have worked on
erful determination and depth
day. He has, after all,
straightening him out
of rac.ing talent - his unbroken
given enough.
in the past.
reign at the top has been
The trouble is, a
Mick had already
interrupted, and an era Closed.
racer at the top of his
spoken about retiring
form often finds it
at the end of this year.
hard to stop - and
Furthermore, he and
when younger guys
his long-term girlcome along to supfriend, Selina Sines, are expecting
plant him, possibly even harder. It is,
without doubt, a kind of madness.
their first child'in August. Everyone
assumed that Mick would take this
An admirable, noble, fine and couracrash as a warning, and quit. This
geous kind of madness, but madness
v~ew might make sense to "normal"
nonetheless. To find out why, one
people, but it fails to take into
need only recall Wayne Rainey's
account the incredible drive that
words, spoken from a wheelchair,
makes Doohan who he is.
about how winning the title once,
The fighting talk began within, then twice, then three times turned
hours.
out to be such an anticlimax that he
"I'll be back. I don't want to leave
was driven to destruction by the
racing in the back of an ambulance,"
overpowering want to do it again.
•
20 YEARS AGO••.
MAY 23, 1979
10 YEARS AGO... .
MAY 17, 1989
ho knew that
Jay Springsteen (H-D)
would still be winning races 20 years
after his win a t the
Ascot Half Mile on
May
12,
1979?
Springer won the
Ascot race after )laving
spent a week in the
hospital. Steve Elkund
(H-D) was second, and,
Hank Scott (H-D) was
third.... Kenny Roberts
(Yam) won the Austrian
500cc Grand Prix, quickly silencing critics who
said that the champ would struggle to get back to top
form after his serious crash while testing in Japan.
Roberts outran the Suzukis of Virginia Ferrari and Wil
Hartog... In a rare upset, Terry Vance (Suz) lost to
Wayne Buckler (Suz) in the Pro Stock Bike final at the
NHRA Cajun Nationals in Baton Rouge, Louisiana...
Brad Lackey (Kaw) was doing his best to bring America
a 500cc World MX title. "Bad Brad" won the French
Grand Prix with 3-1 mota scores... We also profiled
Daytona 200 winner Dale Singleton.
cott
Russell
(Suz) won the
first
AMA
National road race of
his career at his home
track, Road Atlanta, in
Braselton, Georgia.
Suzukis swept the
podium, as David Sadowski and Jamie James
finished second and
third, respectively... Jeff
Stanton (Han) won the
250cc class and Damon
Bradshaw (Yam) won'
the 125cc class at a
muddy Meadowlands Supercross in East Rutherford,
New Jersey... Larry Roeseler (Kaw) won the two-day
John Zink lSDE Qualifier in Tulsa, Oklahoma, beating
Aaron Hough (Kaw) by seven seconds... Dave Thorpe
(Han) stormed to a pair of mota wins for the overall victory at the Austrian 500cc MXGP,.. On the tarmac in
Spain, Eddie Lawson (Han) saw his hopes for a 500cc
road racing titLe defense rekindled after Kevin
Schwantz crashed out with a five-second lead. Lawson
went on to his first GP win aboard a Honda. Wayne
Rainey