KING OF THE RING
● How Doohan inspired Marc’s emotional comeback win... ● ...but can he win again?
‘Doohan was speaking and I was listening’
There have always been striking similarities between Marc Marquez and Mick Doohan.
The most obvious is their fundamental role in making Repsol Honda a feared powerhouse in premier class racing for over a quarter-of-acentury.
But it’s their transcendent talent, bloody-minded determination and uncompromising will to win that’s cast them from the same champion’s mould.
The two standout riders of their generation and two of the fastest and most ruthless racers in history now have something else in common.
They’ve both won the biggest race of their lives – the race to beat career-threatening injuries to return to the top step of the premier class podium. Eleven months after a fractured right humerus bone stopped Marquez’s glittering career in its tracks, the Spaniard was back to winning ways with an emotional triumph at the Sachsenring.
All the mental and physical torture to claim his first win in 581 days was suddenly lost in a tidal wave of tears and cheers. And as the magnitude of his success sank in, he paid tribute to the one man on planet earth who can fully comprehend his journey from the depths of despair back to the pinnacle of MotoGP.
No mere mortal can begin to understand the dark days Marquez has encountered since last July. The pain, the surgeries, the sacrifices, the uncertainty, the thousands of hours of agonising rehab, the doubts.
Doohan understands. Doohan understands implicitly from his own harrowing experience. Marquez’s lack of fitness and speed on his return in Portimao in April was a shock, as he himself revealed: “I always thought I’d come back and come back strong. But the first time I rode in Portimao I knew I was far from my normal level. At that point it was very hard.”
And that’s the reason why Marquez sought a private 30-minute summit with Doohan in the days after they spoke briefly on the grid before the recent Mugello race.
The scars on Doohan’s legs are a constant reminder of his own traumatic experience back in 1992 when he was dominating the 500cc title race. Complications from a broken right leg suffered in Assen nearly resulted in a life-changing amputation. The only way to save his right leg and career was to use the blood supply from his left – so his legs were sewn together for two weeks! This was all after he’d been smuggled out of a Dutch hospital and flown to Italy for treatment that would ultimately rebuild both his leg and his career.
Just two years later and the tenacious Aussie with an otherworldly pain threshold won the first of his five world titles on the 500 two-stroke. Doohan’s words of encouragement obviously gave Marquez a big lift, as the Spaniard himself admits: “When you’re in a difficult situation you try to find help and I wanted to know his feelings and problems in ’92 and ’93. He was speaking and I was listening. He was explaining his situation, but it was like he was explaining my situation with the same problems. He said ‘you don’t understand the bike, you’re not riding like you want, stupid mistakes, stupid crashes, some races you will be fast, some races very slow and you don’t know why.’ All the problems I have this year is what he had in the past. When a legend like Mick, who was an animal on the bike, he suffered but he came back, this gives you good confidence to keep working.” Doohan’s comeback is regarded as the greatest in Grand Prix history. His story is forever etched in racing folklore because it’s such a remarkable feat of human endeavour.
For Marquez to be winning again after such a lengthy lay-off is a superhuman achievement when you consider it was only six months ago that he couldn’t even lift a bottle of water with his right arm.
Marquez will run Doohan’s comeback close if he ever wins another title. But for now, he’s content just to be experiencing the sensations that get pro racers out of bed in the morning. The glory, the danger, the adrenaline, the thrill of the chase. The tough days are not all behind him. But to be winning in just his sixth race back. Well, he seems to be Doohan OK.