Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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,-I:I- I Wayne was the one who had everything. Honda had just given him by far the best superbike out there. He ought to be able to win. Ialso disliked him for what he had." The first confrontation of 1987 was at Daytona- Rainey won the 200-miler after Schwane had fallen off while miles in the lead. "lt s Monday now," Schwanrz recalls telling the press after the weekend, when asked if he'd cmshed because of Rainey's pressure and continues to say "lt'd have been Tuesday before he'd have caught me." It really got going far from home the fol- lowing month, in a cold and frequently damp England, at the Easter ["latch races. fhe two cleoned up their bump-ond-grind qct once lhe rccing moved to Gtond Prix rqGing, but rey wEr. olwoy. logc-th.r cl rhe frcnr of 50occ GPs. I I title to Rainey's hitherto arch rival Fred Merkel. But Schwantz had already replaced Merkel in this role. "l lust didn't like him," Rainey said sev- eral years later. "He was the only guy in racing that I never really liked- Besides Fred l'lerkel ... and the], were big buddies. It seemed to me Kevin had even/thin8 pretty easy.-. his mom and dad around, looking after him, while I'd been racing on my own for years. He had everythinS he wanted. I felt Id really had to work for what l'd got." Schwanrz compleres the circle: 'My inr- tialopinion of Wayne was that I wasn't sup- posed to like him. I was friends with Fred, and Wayne was the enemy. But to me, price. This was a private grudge match. And brutal. ''The closest we ever came to knockinS each othe. down or takinS a swin8 at each other was at the Match Races," Schwane says now "There, and for the rest of the year in the States, it was push, it was shove, it was banging fairinSs, rubber on leathers - a full contact sport.'' Schwantz won the Brands race one after suryiving a side-on rammin8 attack from Rainey. Race two reversed the posr- tions. lr was at this point that they nearly came to blows. "l'd left tire rubber all over his leg and his fairing," Schwantz recalls. "Man, I thought he was gonna Bet unglued when \ ,t I 1' Roiney (leftl is not too pleored with Schwonh (righr) olter their cpic Germqn Grqnd Prix bofile d Horkenheim. J Friendliar tim.r: Schwontr ond Roiney qt the U.$. Grond Pdx. CYCLE NEWS . FEBRUARY 15, 2006 25 I # Y e I .C 1 t* TEAM People still talk about that Transatlantic Series. Chuck Aksland, now Team Roberts manager, laughs: "lt kinda came to a head there. They were really set for blood... these two relatively unknown American guys banSing each other's heads against the wall. And they were meant to be on the same team." There were 100,000 British pounds for the rider who won all nine races. The British team was weak, on virtual produc- tion bikes vs. fully sorted AMA Superbikes. The Americans could have nominated a winner and shared the money. But neither Schwantz nor Rainey was prepared to con- cede a single race to the other - at any I rl v \ "=E tl ) F: