Wayne Rainey His Own Story
WAYNE RAINEY HIS OWN STORY
CW BOOK REVIEW
Michael Scott Motorbooks International 729 Prospect Ave. Osceola, WI 54020 800/826-6600 224 pages, $35
IT WOULD BE EASY TO FEEL SORRY FOR Wayne Rainey. The three-time 500cc World Champion seemed to have everything-talent, wealth, a loving family-until a paralyzing crash nearly took it all away from him. Yet even before his unfortunate accident, Rainey was not happy, as journalist Michael Scott has documented in his book, Wayne Rainey-His Own Story.
Scott is a natural as Rainey's biogra pher, having covered grand prix road racing since 1984, and having watched first-hand all but two of Rainey's nearly 100 GPs. He has superbly chronicled the Californian's life, from childhood dirt-tracks through AMA Superbike champi onships on Kawasakis and Hondas, to nail-biting GP duels with long-time nemesis Kevin Schwantz.
Despite winning the 500cc World Championship three years in a row, Rainey was possessed in a way no one could possibly understand. "If 1992 had been a year for self-destruction," Scott writes, "it was only a dress rehearsal. For 1993, Wayne was fully fit, training hard. But more than ever, he was tortured and perplexed by his corrosive dissatisfac tion." In an attempt to create an even greater challenge for himself, Rainey had approached Roberts about riding both the 250 and 500cc classes in `94. Truth is, though, the 33-year-old was burned-out on racing.
Rainey was out front and pulling away when he low sided his factory Yamaha YZR500 during the 1993 Italian Grand Prix at Mis ano. Careening off the
track and into a gravel trap at more than 130 mph, bike and rider flipped end over end. Rainey was struck by the cartwheeling V-Four two-stroke, which slammed him helmet-first into the furrowed earth. The crash smashed Rainey's sixth thoracic ver tebra, severed his spinal cord and left him without feeling from the chest down. Team owner and close friend Kenny Roberts was shattered by Wayne's injuries, but Rainey's wife, Shae, was "proceeding along a path she'd already considered."
With Shae's help, Rainey blitzed through an arduous and often awk ward rehabilitation with characteristic determination. Seven months later, he was back in Europe, this time as a team manager, heading up Roberts'
fledgling 250cc squad. Team Rainey was founded one year later, and by 1996's season-ending GP in Aus tralia, Rainey was back atop the podi um, wheeled up alongside racewinner Loris Capirossi.
In addition to including 77 blackand-white and color photographs, the book is laced with wonderful anec dotes. The Rainey family garage, for example, is described as a "rogue's gallery of broken parts," not the least of which was a Suzuki 90 bored to 100cc and "tuned to the hilt" by Wayne's father Sandy. It would rev to 14,000 rpm, nearly double its original rev limit, and went like a rocket. Un fortunately, the contrivance never lasted long enough to send the younger Rainey to victory circle. "The family had a black cat at the time, named Suzuki," Scott notes. "When it died, they buried it out in the backyard with the old Suzuki engine alongside it. It probably took the cat almost all the way to the afterworid, then blew up." Rainey, via Scott, pulls no punches. He speaks candidly of rivalries with Schwantz, Mick Doohan, Wayne Gardner and for mer teammates Eddie Lawson, Kevin Magee and John Kocinski. "I knew by the end of it, one of our careers would be ruined," Rainey says of the then-grossly outspo ken Kocinski. Rainey is equally direct about his injuries. "I always knew this could happen. I'm just glad it didn't happen on the way to or from the racetrack. If it was going to happen, there wasn't any better way."
Immensely moving, Wayne Rainey-His Own Story is a deserving trib ute to a true champion. Moreover, it's a powerful testament to the human spirit.
Matthew Miles
