Rainey days
For many of us the first time we got a glimpse of Wayne Rainey was as part of the great Rainey and Schwantz double act in the Transatlantic Challenge races of 1987. This shot of the 1983 and 1987 AMA champ is from Brands Hatch, the first event, during their titanic struggles to be top Transatlantic dog. Unsurprisingly, the Brits really didn’t get a look-in and the American team ran away with the title but Kevin Schwantz and Rainey ran away with the accolades. Looking back now, it seems simple to think that they should have talked things through to win the £100,000 purse for the rider who won all the races, but each rider’s need to beat the other proved a stronger lure. Wayne – in his excellent biography written with Michael Scott – says: “The team spoke to me about that, and I said I would talk to Schwantz about it. But it was never, ever said because there was no way I was going to let him think he could win all the races.” Schwantz’s attitude mirrored that of Rainey and the chance of the US team sharing the money disappeared. In its stead was real tooth-and-nail racing between the two Americans: smooth Rainey from California on the Honda VFR750 Interceptor and gangling Texan Kevin on the bucking Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R750. Schwantz took the first race win in the series at Brands, despite a bit of elbowing from Rainey. In the second, Rainey was in front and a last-gasp attempt by Schwantz saw the Texan rub along the VFR’S rear tyre. Wayne said: “I left tyre rubber all over his leg and his fairing. We both come in and he says: ‘What the f**k are you doing? You could have killed us both. I said: ‘What d’ya mean? Just paying you back for what you did in the first race...’”
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