Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

he fell off so often. The old 'to finish first, first you must finish' was not in the think- ing plan at all. "lt was personal the other way too. Over at Team Robefts, Kenny would go out track side, (hen after each practice session Wayne would say, 'What did I look like through there. What's Schwantz look likel' You could always get to him that way. You'd say'man, Kevin looks good through that corner and he'd go: 'You a--holel' ''But it helps if you hate someone. It makes yoLr better. lt drives you more, to beat someone you hate, than just to beat someone." continues Roberts. At Assen in 1991, Rainey outfoxed him- self at the final chicane, a rare error that gifted S.hwantz the win. ''Wayne was so furious when he came in he couldnt see straight. It stayed with him quite a whrle, sard Robens. l"leanrng he wenr out and got blind drunk and wenr pretty crary. "Next day, everything was iust fine again." Schwantz had rather rubbed his nose in it. "On the slow-down lap I patted him on the helmet and he kinda shoves me away," Schwantz said.'Afterward. in the inter- views, lsaid, 'lthink linduced that mistake from when I passed him in Germany.' I just said it as a ioke, but he glowered at me." Germany? That - three races before may be their most famous fight of all. Doohan's tire had disintegrated on the ultrafast Hockenheim straights; Schwantz and Rainey were left, Rainey led the final flat-out run to the last stadium turns. Then. as he hit the brakes - Oh! There was Schwantz out of the slipstrea.n, alongside and sidewaF, out of control, but set to take the lead. Rainey lost by .016 of a sec- ond, but Schwant denies those who feted his daring, courage and skill. "lt's not like I qutrode him, I still think he made a mistake. He braked early. My lirst move is evasive. I had to swerve to avoid running up the back of him," Schwantz explains, "He was concentrating so much on me he'd forgotten where he was," said Rainey. "lf I would have leaned on him, we both would have been off the track, That was Schwana's way of racing. He didn't always think about it a lot." For a swathe of time, the pair illuminat- ed Grand Prix racing. The rivalry nwer slackened, but the personal animosity did. "Kevin would come in raving about, say, '[Alex] Criville, What a cock he is,"'Tonge recalls.'And he definitely squared up to Wayne Gardner at least once. lt was never like that with Rainey." Looking back, it was as if each had found his role. Rainey was utterly dedacat- ed to the championship, winning three titles in a row; Schwantz was playboy prince of pole position, lap times, and daz- zling wins, undermined by a tendency to crash. There was room for both of them after all, The flnal contest of 1993 saw Schwanu newly consistent and Rainey struggling. At midseason, Schwantz was leadinS on points. Th€n he fell and re-iniured his troublesome right wrist. Rainey fought back doggedly, ard by round ll at Brno, had reSained the points lead. He was lead- in8 the ltalian GP when his career was abruptly ended by that awful crash at l4isano. Spinal cord severed, Rainey was helicoptered to intensive care figlting for his li{e. And Schwanrz, finally, was World Champion. The next year, his rival was the risinS Doohan - but Schwanrz's defense was blunted by his wrist iniury and (he would later realize) also from the loss of his career-long.ival and inspiration. He was fitter for 1995, but still not has old self. Fifth and founh in the opening rounds in Australia and Malaysia, he arrived at Suzuka, scene of his first GP win, and three more since then. lt was raining. This was Schwantz country. lnstead he cruised to a glum and distant sixth. Rainey was now running his old Yamaha factory 500 squad. From the pit, he watched and understood. The next day, they were companions on the long flaght home from Japan, and for the first time ever, each poured his heart to the other "Kevin told me that since my crash he'd been having trouble with his commitment. It was shock at my injury fear that he might get hurt, and also not caring so much about beating the new guys," said Rainey. ''Talking to Wayne crystallized every- thing in my mind," Schwantz recalled rhe pivotal conversation. ''Racing had been everything to me. Now lfelt lwas only doing it because other people wanted me to." He never raaed again. But a new friend- ship continued, after years of the fiercest antipathy. "We went from how much we hated to each other ro how lspent Thanksgiving at his house," said Schwancz. How two guys who were such opposite ends of the spectrLrm have gotten to become friends by racing against one another at the level we raced at ... I think that's the most novel factor" C CYCLE NEWS FEBRUARY 15, 2006 27 \ry' (D {, q v/ ta, ;AUIOISES 4 K tl # I 7/ -3 ffi $* a ,}S Four World Chompiom: Roine, Schwontr, Mick Doohon ond Alcx Crivillo. v w v/ \.\' v I t\\ ./ The hatred remained as lierce. "There was enough anger and enough iealousy," Schwantz recollects. "l don't think either of us felt there was enou8h room for two Americans in the world Championship." Rainey's concentration was total, as was his punishint traininS routine- Running doggedly in the Californian hills, he would push himself beyond the point of exhaus- tion by imagining the fiSure of Schwant-r joSginS along - l0 feet ahead, Schwantz won two races in 1988, Rainey one, but in 1989 his consistency outstripped Schwantz's dazle, and he made a strong bid for the title, but losing it at the end of the season to Eddie Lawson. Schwana was fourth. This would set the pattern for the forthcorning years. Schwantz was flashing- ly brilliant, Rainey doggedly consistent. lnspiration vs. perspiration. ''lt was extremely personal," said Suzuki team manager Garry Taylor. "You'd see Kevin staring at the monitors, and Rainey would set fastest time. He'd shake his head, slam the visor down, and we'd all run to pit wall to see what would happen. There was nothing scientific in it - like changing the rebound or finding another couple of hundred revs.lust go for it." Wbs it personal? Very much so- 'All riders need something to focus on to hate,'' explains Taylor 'All the really quick ones - there has to be an almost irrational motivation. lt can be ego. I think with K€vin it was the need to beat Rainey, and by as big a margin as he could. He had to pulverize him - and that was realll wh7 .n F \ I .?--t

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