The "balls out" battle between MotoGP's true greats

The rivalry between Wayne Rainey and Kevin Schwantz is legendary in grand prix motorcycle racing history, and the fact that it enthrals so many even today is testament to the staying power of their stories. For fans of two-wheeled racing, it's at least the equal of four-wheeled aficionados' recollections of the Ayrton Senna versus Alain Prost versus Nigel Mansell era.

By the 1991 500cc season, both were established stars on the grand prix scene, and along with Mick Doohan they dominated that year. But the Schwantz/Rainey rivalry was an old one, dating back to their time in the AMA Superbike championship in the US in the mid-1980s.

"I'd heard he didn't like me, so I immediately didn't want to like him," says Schwantz of how their rivalry blossomed. The racing between the pair in the States was fierce, but it was when they headed to Britain for the USA vs UK Transatlantic Match races in 1987 that things really got "hot and heavy".

"We raced like we were on opposite teams!" Rainey says. "We had the dominant bike that year, our team was really strong. I think it paid £100,000 if one rider was to win all nine events. I think we raced at Donington Park and Brands Hatch. Only one rider could do it, so in the first race Kevin ended up beating me and then in the second race we ended up banging each other hard a couple of times and I beat him. So, then it was just a race to see who could win the most races. So, that's kind of how it all started. We pretty much didn't like each other too much off the track, we raced each other hard."

Both had grand prix experience by this time, but Schwantz was the only one with 500cc races under his belt, while Rainey had done a full 250cc season in 1984 on a Roberts Yamaha. Both would make their full-time debut in the premier class in 1988, Rainey once again joining Kenny Roberts's squad on the works Yamaha, with Schwantz racing for Suzuki.

Schwantz drew first blood as their already well-established rivalry burst onto the grand prix scene. The Suzuki rider won the opening round of 1988 at Suzuka and would win in the wet at the Nurburgring later in the season. Rainey wouldn't get his first win until the British Grand Prix at Donington Park in early August of that year, but his consistency netted him the higher placing in the championship - third to Schwantz's eighth. And it was consistency that would set the pair apart in 1989, when Schwantz won more races (six to Rainey's three), but his patchy form meant Rainey was runner-up in the standings and Schwantz fourth.

"He was immediately the guy once 1989 started," says Schwantz. "He was consistently scoring points and was the guy in the hunt for the championship. And that's always been Wayne's strong suit. He can get more out of stuff than most guys can, and I didn't really realise that until Yamaha didn't have him anymore. I was like, 'Wow, that's the same team and bikes Rainey used to race and put them at the front every weekend', and whoever was riding at the time had no consistency, no nothing. So, you just have to give all the credit... that was just Wayne."

That, as Rainey explains, was something Schwantz made him work at to achieve: "He made me work hard. I really had to work hard to try to be in better shape, do a better job on track and try to get better results. I think I was pretty fortunate to actually do that throughout our rivalry together."

Rainey dominated the 1990 season on his YZR500 to claim the first of his three world championships. Schwantz won five times and was runner-up, but some 67 points adrift. The board was reset for 1991. But there were variables to contend with. First up was Michelin's decision to supply only Honda for 1991, forcing Rainey and Schwantz onto Dunlops. This wasn't a big deal for Rainey, who'd previously ridden the British rubber but had to run Michelins in 1990 at the insistence of Team Roberts title sponsor Marlboro. But it threw a bigger curveball Schwantz's way.

"We had to figure out how to make our bike work with Dunlops," Schwantz remembers. "In testing and everything leading up to the season, it had been a struggle. I could get a couple of good laps out of them, but I couldn't get any longevity out of 'em, I couldn't get any real life out of 'em. I knew we were going to struggle at race distance to try and do stuff. It left us kind of chasing our tail all the way up to the start of the season."

The other factor was Doohan on the Honda. The Australian had made his 500cc debut in 1989 and taken his first win the following year in Hungary. From the off in 1991, having - as Rainey notes - "figured out" what it took to ride the Honda, Doohan was a serious title threat.

"For me, I guess to my own weakness, I never thought much about the championship. Every thought of every day was about how to be better than him [Rainey]. 'I've just got to finish in front of him. If he's second and I win, or if I'm third and he's fourth, then my day was a success'" Kevin Schwantz

For all of his struggles in pre-season, the opening round at Suzuka went the way of Schwantz. It's a race that stands out for him as the best of his career, and that featured a fightback to victory after initially being dropped by the leading trio of Doohan, Rainey and John Kocinski (Yamaha). Rainey, third behind Doohan in Japan, dominated the next two rounds at Eastern Creek and on home soil at Laguna Seca, before Doohan took to the top of the podium with a demolition display at Jerez.

Tyre woes for Rainey dropped him to ninth at Misano following a pitstop, with Doohan winning again. Schwantz, who had amassed just one podium since the opening round, was seventh, and at this point Doohan was in control of the championship.

The German GP at Hockenheim featured a reversal in fortunes, with Doohan hitting tyre troubles as Rainey and Schwantz engaged in the first of their famed head-to-heads of 1991 in the late stages. Rainey led the pair exiting the final chicane on the old layout before the stadium section - that was something he didn't want, but his momentum on acceleration had left him no choice.

He'd won a similar battle with Eddie Lawson the year before, and knew a Schwantz pass into the stadium section would seal the deal. Sure enough, his early bid left the door open for Schwantz to mount "a hell of a move" to draw alongside into the right-hander into the stadium and edge ahead to take victory.

The next infamous encounter came at Assen three rounds later. In between, Doohan beat Rainey in a thriller at the Salzburgring, while Rainey eased his Yamaha to victory in the European GP at Jarama - that was a last-minute replacement for the Yugoslavian GP, which was cancelled when war erupted in the country.

The Assen race was red-flagged due to rain and restarted. Rainey led Schwantz onto the final lap, the Suzuki rider having cut down his countryman's once solid gap. A small mistake by Rainey at the final chicane sent him through the gravel and allowed Schwantz - who produced a lap record that would stand until the Assen track layout was changed in 2002 - to steal victory. Rainey admits that, to this day, it still frustrates him.

"He [Schwantz] ended up getting the lap record, and that lap record stood 'til they changed the track," says Rainey. "Those [MotoGP] guys were even riding four-strokes, but he still had the lap record there. But I know that lap [I was on] would have obliterated that lap record. So what probably upsets me the most is I lost the lap record and the race, not so much that Kevin won."

Had the roles been reversed, Schwantz's disappointment at losing that race almost certainly would have been because Rainey had won. While Rainey always wanted to beat his great rival, his full focus was always on the championship. Not so for Schwantz.

"For me, I guess to my own weakness, I never thought much about the championship," Schwantz admits. "Every thought of every day was about how to be better than him [Rainey]. 'I've just got to finish in front of him. If he's second and I win, or if I'm third and he's fourth, then my day was a success.' Everything was based off of him and that's just because of the rivalry we had between us."

But that's not to say Rainey didn't have an eye on Schwantz: "I wanted him to give up, and the more I could beat him the more I knew he knew he couldn't beat me consistently, and that was something I really worked at. So, I had my run to try to win the championship, but I was also trying to get into Kevin's head, because I thought if he could ever get it together and get his bike sorted out in a way he could ride it consistently, he could be a really big threat."

Rainey righted his Assen wrong at Paul Ricard with victory over Doohan to go equal on points with dropped scores taken into account. Rainey and Schwantz would battle again at Donington, the Suzuki rider keeping his title hopes alive with victory. Rainey edged closer to his second crown with victories at Mugello and Brno, and sealed the deal in the penultimate round at Le Mans with a safe third as Schwantz won. Both would miss the inaugural Malaysian GP at Shah Alam through injury, Kocinski winning as Doohan secured runner-up spot in the standings ahead of Schwantz.

"It's probably the championship I enjoyed the most because of the rivalries that I had with Kevin and also with Mick, and just the way the bikes were difficult to ride; but also they were very satisfying that if you got the result you felt quite strong, your rivals knew where you were strong," opines Rainey. "That year I was the most consistent guy with the podiums and wins and stuff. It just gave me confidence."

Rainey would win a third title in a wild 1992 season, with Schwantz securing his crown in 1993. It would sadly be the last year of their rivalry, as Rainey was paralysed in a crash at Misano that season. But those epic days continue to endure as part of MotoGP folklore, largely because of the respect both had - and still do have - for each other.

"It wasn't fabricated at all; it was full-on wanting to beat each other," Rainey concludes. "But as Kevin has said, we did respect each other in the way we gave each other room in the right way. Of course, we leaned on each other hard, we passed each other as hard as we would pass anyone else, but we would not really punt each other off track trying to get one over on each other.

"All the way up to the last race that I had with Kevin, it was balls out, trying to go as fast as I could to beat him. And I know it was the same with him with me..."