How a MotoGP legend is preparing for an unexpected comeback at Goodwood

“Wayne, you’re basically f*****, but the best thing you can do is to get back out there and do what you love to do, and that’s racing.” These were the words the late Sir Frank Williams said to three-time 500cc world motorcycle champion Wayne Rainey in late 1993 when the American hero was in the early stages of recovery from the Misano accident that ended his career and left him paralysed from the chest down.

Rainey had dominated the premier class from 1990 to 1992, with three straight championships, and was battling arch-rival Kevin Schwantz for the 1993 title. Leading that fateful Misano race, Rainey crashed exiting the first corner and suffered life-changing spinal injuries.

Williams had gone through his own life-changing accident in 1986, when a road crash left him as a quadriplegic. Upon hearing the news of Rainey’s incident, Williams was keen to meet the Californian, and did so three weeks into his treatment at a rehab facility after six weeks in hospital. That’s when Williams, who died last November, offered that piece of encouragement, which Rainey revealed to Autosport for a tribute to the late Formula 1 legend. That, and observing how Williams carried himself in his wheelchair, proved a pivotal moment for MotoGP legend Rainey. He checked out of the rehab facility the week after his meeting with Williams – he’d originally been scheduled to be there for at least two months – “and never looked back”.

Rainey did get back to the thing he loved, taking on a managerial role with Yamaha’s 500cc team from 1994 to 1998 before retiring. Nowadays, he helms the MotoAmerica series in the US, which has brought about the revival of the AMA Superbike Championship and – with Dorna Sports backing – has helped get top US talents into the MotoGP and World Superbike paddocks.

But while Rainey did get back to racing and has become an instrumental figure in US motorsport, he hasn’t ridden a grand prix bike since his accident. “When I was in hospital, one of the thoughts I had to get through the day was trying to figure out a way to get back on a GP bike. But as time passed that thought diminished,” he tells us in a conversation prompted by the announcement that Rainey will ride his 1992 title-winning Yamaha YZR500 at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, set to take place on 23-26 June.

Rainey on his way to the 1992 500cc world title, his third consecutive world championship, a year before a tragic accident cut his racing career short

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

While the news came somewhat out of the blue, the reality is – as with many things – that it’s been three years in the making due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The original idea was for Rainey to ride his 1990 bike in 2020, and when that couldn’t happen the hope was for him to be able to ride his 1991 Yamaha the following year, but a scheduling conflict got in the way.

The dream was first sparked when Rainey rode a modified Yamaha R1 Superbike at Suzuka in 2019 in a display that also featured fellow American bike GP icons Eddie Lawson and Kenny Roberts Sr. Logistically, the effort behind Rainey’s 500cc return at Goodwood has been a globe-spanning affair largely orchestrated by current Yamaha MotoGP boss Lin Jarvis. While helping guide Fabio Quartararo to the 2021 MotoGP title, Jarvis was also greasing the wheels at Yamaha in Japan to get the Rainey project off the ground.

“Lin has been very instrumental,” adds Rainey. “You know, a lot of this started happening in the middle of last year when all this started getting serious. He was able to get the wheels turning over there and answer a lot of the questions that needed to be answered from both our side and Yamaha side and also Goodwood side. So I think Lin saw the enthusiasm that this could possibly bring. And he thought it would be a cool idea as well to try to make this happen for both myself and Yamaha.”

"My son Rex is gonna be there. He’s 29 years old, and he was just 10 months old when I stopped. So, he’s never heard a GP bike, certainly he’s never seen me ride one" Wayne Rainey

One of Rainey’s old mechanics, Howard Gregory, will work on the YZR500 at Goodwood, with crack road racing team and multiple Isle of Man TT winners Clive Padgett’s crew also involved.

While Rainey owned his other two championship bikes, the 1992 machine was in Yamaha’s possession at its museum. Initially it was reticent for the project to go ahead because it was worried about the costs involved, since the 30-year-old bike was thought to have needed new parts developed and machined for it. But the bike was in better shape than originally feared, according to Rainey, and Yamaha has “just enough parts” to see it through.

Rainey also uses a battery-powered trike that fits his wheelchair

Photo by: MotoAmerica

Of course, the YZR500 was never designed to be ridden by someone with Rainey’s injuries. As with the R1 he has ridden, the YZR500 will have an electric gearshift added so he can go through the transmission with his hands. The carbon brakes have been swapped for steel discs, because those don’t require as much force to get up to temperature. On top of that, his footpegs will be more like bicycle clip-ons and the material of the seat, to which he will be strapped, will be changed to something with more grip to counteract the fact that Rainey has no feeling in his lower body. Some padding will be added to the fuel tank “that I can lean against because really the only thing I can kind of feel the bike through is my hands”.

Rainey admits that this adapted way of riding is “a strange sensation”, but he will get some test time on the bike during the week before the FoS, either on the hillclimb or at the Goodwood circuit, orchestrated by the Duke of Richmond.

Rainey has never been to Goodwood before, so his first visit will be an immensely emotional affair. And it’s not one he’s taking lightly: “I’ve actually started training, I’ve got an Ohvale minibike and I’m going to ride a couple of other bikes just to get the balance part down because it’s such an odd feeling. I want to be prepared.”

The personal significance of this moment is not lost on Rainey. Even after his Suzuka run, he didn’t think that riding a GP bike again was possible. But with determination from himself and Yamaha, and advances in technology, he will turn back the clock in a display that will inspire many like him in the way Williams did to him back in 1993.

“To be able to pull this off with all those incredible people behind it and being able to do this with my family too… My son Rex is gonna be there. He’s 29 years old, and he was just 10 months old when I stopped. So, he’s never heard a GP bike, certainly he’s never seen me ride one. So, this will be his first experience there.

“I think I’m going to have a lot of friends showing up and there’s certainly going to be a lot of fans. That’ll be fun to see. So, I think I think it’s going to be a cool, cool event for everybody.”

Rainey is expecting an emotional debut at Goodwood Festival of Speed next month

Photo by: MotoAmerica