Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

~ By SCOTT ROUSSEAU • The Real King of Laguna Seca ,, H uge" is the best way that threetime 500cc World Road Racing Champion Wayne Rainey describes winning the U.S. GP as an American. Rainey would know. In the six times the race was held from 1988-1994 [there was no U.S. GP in '92), Rainey won three of them in a row, dominating the event in '89, '90 and '91. "Coming back to race in the States, coming to Laguna Seca to race in front of your family for a World Championship... As a rider, that's the ultimate," Rainey says. "Just having the opportunity to show your family and friends what it is you're trying to do is what it was all about." Rainey says Laguna was a tough test to face on a 500cc two-stroke. "The bikes at that time were very vicious animals to ride," Rainey says. "The tire technology was just starting to be understood. The two-strokes were making huge power gains from year to year, and they were very, very difficult to ride at the limit." Rainey says that Laguna was the most difficult event on the circuit. "First, you had really short gearing, and then you had a powerband that was just 4000 rpm wide," Rainey says. "I'm not sure what kind of horsepower I had at 10,000 rpm, but to go from say, 9000 rpm to 12,000 rpm, you'd have a hundred horsepower increase within that rpm. It was like riding an out-of-control bull. '1>.nd the track is very demanding," Rainey adds. "It has a little bit of everything: uphills, downhill corners, banked corners, flat corners, blind corners; it has a wideopen rise in turn one that you go over sideways, wheelying at sixth gear at 180 mph. It's very demanding technically, physically, and then you add in the fact that it's your home GP, and there's a lot of extra stuff once you take your helmet off," With all these things in mind, you would think that Rainey would have been strung that much tighter when it came time to race at Laguna. "No, I wasn't keyed up more," Rainey says. "The only thing for me that was different was that my family, and friends, and all the people who helped me throughout my career were there to see me compete at the top level. But as far as the racetrack goes, or the way I prepared for it, it was no different than the way I prepared to go race at some place like Spa or Mugello," And Rainey says that he had the foresight to eliminate the family and friends distractions as well. "When you come to your home GP, the hardest part 102 JULY 6,2005 • CYCLE NEWS is that you have so many people that want to be involved in what you're doing," Rainey says. "So, what I ended up doing was that I would buy an entire section of grandstands, put everybody there and have it catered, and I would say, 'I'll see you Sunday night. Just leave me alone until then. Sunday night we'll have a party,''' Having picked up the first 500cc pole position of his career at the 1988 U.S. GP, Rainey's pole run at the '89 race was not really that much of surprise to anyone except him. "I was just getting going when the checkered flag came out," Rainey recalls. "I thought that my next lap was going to be a lot quicker." Rainey maintained that pace in the GP as well, the race taking place on April 16, 1989. After pulling away to a lead that was 3.25 seconds after only three of the 40 laps, he went on to add to it - by checking out on fellow Americans Kevin Schwantz and '88 winner Eddie Lawson, who had switched from Yamaha to Honda - to win his first career U.S. GP. It was only the second GP win of his career, and it should have been one of the happiest, but it all went bad after a tragic cool-off lap crash left one of his best friends, Bubba Shobert, with careerending head injuries. "I remember on the podium, Kevin [Schwantz) came to me and said, 'Hey, Wayne, Bubba and [Kevin) Magee crashed into each other, and they're taking Bubba off the track.'" Rainey remembers. "I never thought it would be that bad, but as that night wore on, it was the worst. It turned into one of the worst moments of my career, seeing Bubba hurt like that. He was the best man at my wedding. It was his first year of GPs, and he had bought a motorhome like mine, and we were going to travel together. When he got hurt, that was very difficult, and just how it happened... That really knocked the wind out of me as far as the victory went," When Rainey returned for the 1990 race, held on April 8, 1990, he was a far more seasoned veteran, able to deal with all the pressures that could be thrown at him. He proved it by winning the race again after a 24-lap battle with his old rival, Schwantz. Rainey had been pulling away from Schwantz at the start, but the race was redflagged when Australia's Magee, the man with whom Shobert had suffered his horrific collision the year before, crashed in turn five and suffered season-ending head injuries from which he never fully recovered despite continuing his career later. Schwantz jumped past Rainey on the restart and led for six laps, but Rainey took the lead by out-braking Schwantz into turn I I. Schwantz then dogged Rainey for the next 18 laps, only to highside in the same place where Rainey had passed him. Rainey then went on to cruise to victory over up-and-coming Australian Mick Doohan and flamboyant Italian Pier-Francesco Chili, with 30.386 seconds in hand. "I remember that as we were going deeper and deeper into the race, I started figuring out how to pick up a tenth or two to make it more difficult for Kevin," Rainey says. "I was just starting to figure that out when he highsided. I knew that I needed to keep the pace very intense and keep him on his toes to where if he was going to go with me, he was going to have to go harder than he wanted to go. I was just looking for a tenth, because on those bikes at Laguna Seca, that's a lot." That Laguna race would open the door to Rainey's first career Grand Prix title, as Lawson had suffered a broken heel when the brake pads fell out of his front binders while he was blazing into turn two during practice. Schwantz's crash had left him with a broken wrist. While he had certainly earned it, Rainey's first title came easier than it could have otherwise. Nevertheless, when he returned to Laguna Seca for the U.S. GP on April 21, 1991, it was as the 500cc World Road Racing Champion, and his performance that day would prove that there was no fluke about it. Motivation was easy to find: Rainey's new young teammate, John Kocinski, provided all the incentive Rainey would need. "Kocinski was saying, 'Now we'll see who the real king of Laguna Seca is,' because he had won all those 250cc races there," Rainey recalls. "He'd stepped up into the big class, and he had done well at the first race, but he was making it easy for me to make sure that he didn't beat me because he was running his mouth." Rainey took his third pole in four years at Laguna by stealing it away from Kocinski late in the final session. Then, in the race, Rainey went on to battle with Schwantz for exactly two turns before passing him in turn three and checking out on the field. His margin was as much as 9.2 seconds by lap 16 before he rolled off the throttle and coasted to another cruise victory, finishing 6.974 seconds ahead of Doohan, with Schwantz third. As for would-be king Kocinski? He was running second and losing ground to Rainey on lap six when he highsided himself out of the race in turn two. "He was laying on the side of the track when I went by him," Rainey recalls. "I just looked at him like, 'I guess that 500 is a little more difficult than a 250, huh?'" Of the three Laguna races, the '91 edition was perhaps Rainey's most perfect. "That particular win was very satisfying," Rainey says. "I enjoyed it because I didn't have to ride at the limit. It was really easy to have one thing not work right on the bike and then you'd have a long day at Laguna, but on that day, the tires were great and the bike worked perfect. I really enjoyed it." And that's a mouthful from a man who strived for perfection and made no concessions for anything less. In four U.S. GP appearances, Rainey won three of them. In six GP seasons, he won three championships. "Not bad for an old dirt tracker, huh?" Rainey says. "You know, when you asked for this interview, I actually had to pull my books out and do my homework a little because I have a tough time remembering what happened at a lot of the races that I won. It's easier for me to remember everything about the races that I didn't win. Winning was just what I did, and then I moved on, although those three U.S. GP wins are definitely in my top five favorites. "I still think I won the '85 Sacramento Mile, too," Rainey adds. "It's just that Scott Parker put his hands up first!" CN

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