Wayne Rainey:

WAYNE RAINEY:

In the shadow of the King

ONCE WAYNE RAINEY SLIPS ON his leathers, he stops smiling. Being a rider on Kenny Roberts' team is serious business, and if Rainey doesn't keep his Yamaha YZR500 on the pace, the King just may dust off his own leathers and go out and set faster times. But so far, Roberts has remained on the pit wall, and says that Rainey, in only his first season on a 500cc GP bike, is making remarkable progress. “Wayne is already running with Lawson and Gardner, who have been out there flogging for years,” Roberts said.

Throughout the week, Rainey consistently lowered his lap times, finally working himself into the pole position. Roberts was pleased, but reminded his riders that there’s more to winning a grand prix than being fast for one lap. “I don’t encourage set-

ting fast time if you’re taking a chance of throwing it away,” he said. That was echoed by Australian Kevin Magee, Rainey’s teammate, who confessed that he was riding gently. “There are not many places you can stick your neck out here and get away

with it,” said Magee, who was later plagued with a fuel-starvation problem that took him out of the race.

Even though Rainey qualified fastest, he claimed he had little advantage over the Europeans who were seeing the track for the first time. “I expected the track to be rough,” he said, “and if I had any advantage it was in simply knowing where the bumps are.”

After running near the front in the

first part of Sunday’s GP, Rainey began fading. “I think we had the wrong tire combination today,” he said. “I don’t think the profile was quite right.” Still, he maintained enough speed to finish in fourth place, and now lies fifth in the GP point standings.

In the end, Roberts was pleased with Rainey's ride, enough so to give the 1987 U.S. Superbike champ some high praise. "I don't think anyone could have ridden that bike any bet ter," said Roberts. "I know I couldn't have, and on this team, that's all that

matters."

Camron E. Bussard