Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Rainey Days at Honda f not intrigued, three-time 500cc World Road Racing Champion and former AMA Superbike Champion Wayne Rainey was certainly curious as to why we would ever want to discuss his days as a factory Honda Superbike rider. "Why would you want to talk about that?" was Rainey's first response. "Nobody ever asks me about that." That's why. Well, that and the fact that Rainey's 1987 AMA Superbike title and sole Daytona 200 victory came while piloting a Honda. But even more interesting than that is how Rainey, who won an incredible six of nine AMA Superbike races in 1986, finished second to teammate Fred Merkel in the series standings that season, or how he managed to fend off a charging Kevin Schwantz to win the 1987 title. Or how, by God, did Honda ever let Rainey, who was clearly set for big things in Europe, get away to Yamaha? Rainey's blanket response to all of this is that he doesn't really think about his time spent with Honda very often. ''But I guess I do have to thank Honda and Gary Mathers for giving me the opportunity to race for the team and to restart my career," Rainey adds. Restart his career? Actually, that is sort of correct. After spending the 1982 and 1983 seasons racing a factory Kawasaki in the Superbike class, Rainey earned the 1983 AMA Superbike Championship and was "rewarded" by being sacked after Kawasaki pulled out of road racing. "They fired everybody, so I went to Europe for a year ['84] and then came back and raced for Bob Maclean ['85] for a year, and I used that time with Bob to start a relationship with Honda. Gary Mathers and Rob Muzzy had already gone to work for Honda, and Gary approached me about racing for Honda in 1986. Gary gave me that shot." Rainey joined "Flyin'" Fred Merkel in the Honda camp and was drafted for double duty, campaigning both the Superbike and Formula One classes for Honda. Switching from the heavy four-stroke production-based Interceptor to the flyweight 500cc two-stroke each race weekend provided a steep learning curve. "Yeah, I learned that you have to focus on one type of bike," Rainey says. But as far as the demands of racing both classes goes, Rainey was up for it. Although he collected only a single race win in the Formula One class that season, at Road America, he was consistent enough to ultimately land fourth in the series standings by the end of the season. But on the Superbike, Rainey was magic. Unfortunately, he got off to a shaky start when he chunked a tire on the 15th lap of the Daytona 200, ultimately finishing a lucky fourth. That race was followed by a controversial Sears Point event, in which Rainey and Suzuki's Kevin Schwantz were docked a lap each for failing to heed the waving yellow flag and passing lapped riders in the process after Scon Gray went down. The pair crossed the finish line one-two, but third-running Merkel was awarded the victory instead. Protests by Rainey and Schwantz did not reverse the outcome. "Schwantz and I were lapping riders," Rainey recalls. '~d the guy that we were lapping had broke, and he I 94 APRil 20, 2005 • CYCLE NEWS was coasting, but they had a waving yellow in that corner. But when you're at speed and somebody is coasting, it's impossible not to pass. The guy wasn't racing. They said we passed a rider under the waving yellow, and Merkel won that race. That basically cost me the championship. Then after that they decided not to DQ guys for passing riders with broken machinery." Rainey crashed out of the race at Mid-Ohio later in the year, but those three miscues marked the only three Before leavin f times that he failed to 2'a ctory Hand: Sour thbe SOOec Gp w OO wi per ike 'd ars Wa win. Rainey saw the his d n and an AMA S "er. Despi~ yne Rainey s checkered flag first in ays With Honda. uperbike Cha",p~~~~i.~ses~at i::;:~::;:Years as a six of nine races, includp, Rainey rarely ta,~aYfona ing the series finale at Road Atlanta. s about And the win streak spilled over into 1987, too, as "What Honda did for me really was preRainey earned his only career Daytona 200 victory, lapping up to second place in the race. He then went on to pare me to go back to Europe," Rainey says. "When we win the next two rounds, at Gainesville, Georgia, and won the championship in '87, I was ready to go back. I Brainerd, Minnesota. Consistency the rest of the way felt like I had done all that I could do in America." would land Rainey his second career AMA Superbike title Unfortunately, Honda didn't feel the same way. that season, even though Schwantz basically did what "We had worked really hard to win the championship Rainey had done in '86: won more but finished less. in 1987, and it was important for me to win that cham"It was preny cool." Rainey says. "Through the year pionship because I knew that 19B8 was going to be a we also had those Camel Challenges, where we raced turning point for me:' Rainey says. "My goal was to go to five laps and the winner won $10,000. I won a few of Europe, but Honda only offered me the chance to keep those that year. I also remember that was the year that racing Superbikes in the States." It was a big letdown, but looking back on I't now, we went to the Trans-Atlantic Match Races in England, and Kevin [Schwantz] and I won everything. That was Rainey feels that the decision had more to do with the upper brass at Honda never being a Rainey fan. kind of where our rivalry started, too. We were banging "I never really felt like Honda was totally behind me:' into each other preny good over there, and we really Rainey says. "The team that Honda had put together was woke the Europeans up as to who Wayne Rainey and basically from Kawasaki. Gary Mathers and Rob Muzzy Kevin Schwantz were. We were on the American team, were from Kawasaki, and Sparky Edmonston was from Kawasaki. We were Kawasaki guys racing Hondas, and but we were racing each other like we weren't." Recall that Rainey had already done a stint in Europe we just never really fit into Honda's scene even though back in 1984, and he admits now that at that time he did- we won the championship for them." In stepped Yamaha and Kenny Roberts, who offered n't feel he was ready to be there. "Kenny Roberts had put a 250 team together just Rainey a 500cc GP deal that would pay the same amount before the season started that year, and we basically got of money that Honda was offering _in other words, chickthe bikes at Daytona, raced there and won, and then en feed by GP standards. Hmmm... What to do? went straight to South Africa:' Rainey says. "I had never "I said yes to Kenny and cut my ties with Honda, who been out of the States before that, and I went to Europe also provided me added incentive to go beat them in and had to drive my own motorhome and live in it by Europe" Rainey says. "It's funny because in '89, when we myself. I remember that was when they had push starts, were racing against Eddie and he was on the Honda, difand I wasn't very good at those either. I had some good ferent people from Honda would come and tell me that races, but I came home at the end of the year. I knew they were pushing to get me back to Honda, like there that I still had a lot of work to do before I could race in was another door open for me over there." the World Championships." But Rainey never stepped through that door. By contrast, after '87 Rainey knew he was ready to Instead, he stayed with Roberts for 1990, and the rest take on the world. is Yamaha history. CN

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