Rennie Scaysbrook | August 31, 2018
Wayne Rainey’s all-time favorite racebikes.—Wayne Rainey is a towering figure in the world of motorcycle racing. The Californian, three-times a 500cc World Champion in what is widely regarded as the toughest two-stroke era of all time, has a back catalog that reads like a who’s who of bikes you probably had pinned on your wall as a kid. Or maybe not, as you’ll soon find out.
Wayne Rainey’s All-Time Favorite Racebikes
During a chat with the man himself in his vast trailer at Sonoma’s round seven of the series, we asked Rainey to list his five favorite racebikes. They range from his early days as a junior dirt tracker, right through to when he was the most feared man in Grand Prix racing.
Honda Z50 Nitromethane
“My first bike, I had a Z50 Honda,” starts Rainey. “My dad put a swingarm on it and put it on nitromethane.
“There were 9-11 (yrs) rules, and you could run 1-3 horsepower. “We had a Z50 and it was considered two horsepower. But remember Sean and Kelly Moran, speedway racers? They raced in world speedway and we raced minibikes together. They raced a 120cc Tecumseh with had a pull start and a centrifugal clutch, but they were 120cc. We were a little 50cc. They were considered two horsepower!
“Try as we might, we couldn’t beat these guys. So, my dad looked in the rulebook under fuel, and it said you must run fuel—it just didn’t say which kind! He took me out of school one day going to school and said, “don’t tell your mom.” He didn’t tell me what he was doing.
“We started the bike up and I rode it at Saddleback Park, CA. I was 10-years-old and doing these big slides. I could ride that bike and slide like my heroes, who were all flat track racers. This thing’s was a lot faster. I asked dad what happened? He tells me he put the bike on nitromethane…
I remember in the practice line going out onto the track there’d be like 200 kids going out onto the track, and my dad wouldn’t let me start it up because it’d burn your eyes from the fumes. I just couldn’t start it up too soon. It was probably nine or ten horsepower, I would imagine. They never beat us after that, but it was eventually outlawed.”
Mini Enduro 60 (no pic)
“Then my dad built a little Mini Enduro 60. It was the first flat track bike that had a rear disc brake that my dad made. It had 16-inch wheels and looked just like a miniature flat track bike. He had a 12-double reed. It was a rotary valve. I forget the name of the carburetor but it was off a go-kart.”
1983 Kawasaki GPz750
“Next would be my 1983 superbike that I won from Kawasaki, the GPZ750. When we beat Honda that year, they had a V4 water-cooled, four-valve engine—we just had an old two-valve and we won the AMA championship. That was a very, very good bike. That’s one at the top of my list.”
Mert Lawwil’s Harley-Davidson XR750
“We just did a few races on the XR,” says Rainey. “The last time I raced it was at the Sacramento Mile. Scott Parker and I raced it for the win. I let it off into (turn) three because I was trying to get him to draft past me and he wouldn’t. So I went off in there really deep, so I could get a run out of (turn) four. Then coming onto the main straight I came over to the inside because if he was going to pass me, he was going to have to go around the outside. I thought we could beat him to the line, but when we came by the line, as racers, you know if you won or not. I thought I won, but Parker put his arm up because there were no finish cameras on these close finishes, and him being a massive winner of dirt track races, knew that if it was close to make the officials think, to try to sway them, on who they thought won. They saw Parker do that, so I got second. I was okay with second since I hadn’t been on the podium before. So Parker got the win, but he even says he thinks I won that race. He hasn’t given me the trophy, though!”
1991 Yamaha YZR500
“With my first GP bike that I won the championship on in 1990, we were so dominant we were able to wrap the championship up with three races to go. But I think the next year, the ’91 bike, was a bike that I really enjoyed riding.
“I really felt I rode that bike at a level that I never could any of my other bikes. I felt like that bike was made for my style. From that point on, with all the things that were wrong with the ’91 bike, we thought we could fix pretty easily with all the bikes after. We could never make a bike as good as that ’91 bike. The ’92 bike was painful. Once we even reverted to the old chassis. We had a lot of painful development problems. So, I’d say the ’91 bike is one of my favorite GP bikes.”
Wayne’s Best Race—1993 Japanese Grand Prix
“For sure, my best race was at Suzuka in 1993,” says Rainey. “I got a bad start, caught up and led, then I overheated my tire so I slowed down, dropped back, let it cool off and then I made a run for it again. We didn’t have a lot of top speed there, so my goal was trying to lead it into turn one. If I could lead it into turn one then I could get away through the esses and they couldn’t get me on the straightaway (Daryl Beattie, Shinichi Itoh, and Kevin Schwantz). But try as I could, I could never lead it into turn one. They were just blowing by me on the straight. Then one lap where I came onto the main straight I went to the inside, so if they were going to pass me they were going to have to go around the outside in turn one. When they didn’t do that, I was like, ‘this is my chance’.
“I think it was the last lap because coming out of the hairpin was fifth gear down that long right-hander. Just as we were coming out of that right, still pinned in fifth, I had a big step-out there. Fifth gear. Everything that I had gained, I lost. They were right back on me again.
I think either I don’t know if Daryl passed me on the last lap. It might have been the lap before the last lap, going at the end of the back straight there. But then he ran wide and I was able to get him back on the exit. So, if you ever look at that, try to follow that one spot there on the last lap.
“That was my favorite race because I really enjoyed it, I really loved what I was doing. I really loved the feeling, the exhilaration. I had this strange out-of-body experience there. It was really strange. I was having so much fun and going into that hairpin I remember looking down on myself riding. It was strange. That was my favorite race.”
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