Introduction
Fifteen years before the Valentino
Rossi era, Yamaha previously dominated the blue
riband class with Wayne Rainey and his name will
forever be linked with Yamaha's dominance of the
500cc two-stroke class during the early 1990s.
Born in Los Angeles on October
23rd 1960, Wayne was the eldest of three children.
His father, Sandy Rainey, was a go-kart racer who
later began working on motorcycles. The two-wheeled
bug soon bit the young Wayne and eventually he would
ride and race the dirt-track bikes that his father
prepared. Through the dirt-track championships,
Wayne eventually took up road-racing, winning the
1983 American superbike championship.
A year later and Rainey entered
GPs for the first time as a 250cc rider in a team
set-up by his friend, mentor and fellow Yamaha-legend
Kenny Roberts. He did well for a rookie, claiming
a lap record, a pole position and a rostrum finish
on Yamaha TZ250 machinery which was fairly standard,
but with no more GP offers he headed back to the
United States.
After being runner-up in 1986,
Wayne finally re-took the American Superbike title
in 1987 before re-joining the Yamaha family for
the next season - this time in a factory 500cc team
armed with the latest YZR500s. 1988 would see Wayne's
debut 500cc win - at Donington Park in Great Britain
- and eventually third in the title hunt. Impressive
enough for a rookie, but this would set the scene
for Wayne's amazing consistency.
The following year would see Rainey
in the hunt for the title in only his second full
500cc year, but - despite his amazing consistency
of 13 podium finishes including three wins - Eddie
Lawson would take the title.
1990 would be the year it all came
together, when his seven wins would see his domination
and trademark consistency take the title, but Wayne
was so driven to win, even the title didn't quench
his appetite for success. He said later: "When I
crossed the line and I was World Champion I had
this burst of emotion. I felt great, for about two
tenths of a second, then it was gone. It left me
feeling really disappointed."
The title was retained in 1991,
although this time it was a harder battle, against
Mick Doohan. The following year saw the last of
his titles come against the odds following Doohan's
early season lead. 1993 was becoming a titanic battle
between Kevin Schwantz and Wayne for the title but
tragedy struck at Misano, in Italy. Ten laps into
the 30-lap race which Wayne was leading, he crashed
into Misano's turn-one - a 130mph right hander.
The accident left him paralysed from the chest down,
but he fought back straight away, turning up at
the 1994 Australian GP for a hero's welcome, he
eventually ran a factory Yamaha team for four years
until 1998 when he quit racing.
Statistics show that the Californian
won a total of 24 wins in the 500cc class, taking
three back-to-back titles in 1990, 1991 and 1992,
but his influence went much further than that.
Race Stats
- 1969 - 1st dirt track race
- 1976 - Debut in AMA championship
- 1982 - 3rd in AMA SBK
- 1983 - AMA SBK Champion
- 1984 - 8th in 250 cc World Championship
- 1985 - Wins two races in AMA SBK
- 1986 - 2nd in AMA SBK
- 1987 - AMA SBK Champion
- 1988 - 3rd in 500 cc World Championship
- 1989 - 2nd in 500 cc World Championship
- 1990 - 500 cc World Champion
- 1991 - 500 cc World Champion
- 1992 - 500 cc World Champion
- 1993 - 2nd in 500 cc World Championship
- 1994 - Headed 250 cc team
- 1996 - Ran a 500 cc team with riders Loris Capirossi
and Tetsuya Harada
- 1998 - Retired from racing
Race Stats - Summary
- 500cc GP entries - 83
- 500 cc GP wins - 24
- 500 cc GP pole positions - 15
- 500cc GP podium finishes - 64
