Back on track

Three decades after a crash that left him paralysed from the chest down, former motorcycle champion Wayne Rainey is making an inspirational return to the saddle

Words by Peter Hall

Left: Wayne Rainey will ride his title-winning Yamaha YZR500 at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Top: Rainey in action before his crash in September 1993

Until the afternoon of September 5, 1993, Wayne Rainey was on top of the world. The 32-year-old Californian, a triple Grand Prix motorcycle champion, was leading the Italian GP at Misano when the rear tyre of his Yamaha YZR500 slid across the tarmac, hurling him into a deeply furrowed gravel trap. In that moment, everything changed. The impact inflicted a T6 and T7 spinal-cord injury that left Rainey paralysed from the chest down.

His life had revolved around racing, so just six months later, having sought advice from Formula 1 team owner Frank Williams, who had been confined to a wheelchair since a road accident in 1986 (and who is the subject of a memorial tribute at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed), Rainey accepted a job as Yamaha team manager. Still coming to terms with his disability, he found the role both physically and mentally difficult. His father, Sandy, and former teammate Eddie Lawson put him back on track with a 140mph hand-controlled Yamaha-powered superkart. “Competitively, it gave me my life back,” Rainey recalled. “I could do things as I did before. I’d just do them a little differently.”

He still couldn’t ride a motorcycle, but that changed with an invitation to the 2019 Sound of Engine event in Japan. A Yamaha USA team prepared an R1 superbike for him, fitting hand-operated gearshift buttons, a grippy seat, a lap belt and foot pegs with clip-on boots. He approached his first test ride with trepidation – as might any 59-year-old who hadn’t ridden in 26 years – but soon regained his confidence. “I had a great time. I felt young again!”

It will be an emotional moment when he rides again at Goodwood, this time on his 1992 title-winning Yamaha YZR500. This will be Rainey’s first visit to FOS, and he is excited: “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I want to thank Yamaha for preparing the bike, MotoAmerica for making the project fly and The Duke of Richmond for making it a reality. I can’t wait to meet the fans at Festival of Speed.”

For anyone who thinks disability is a bar to participation in motorsport, the fact that a paraplegic 61-year-old can ride a 160bhp GP bike should prove almost anything is possible. Indeed, much has already been achieved. Consider paraplegic motorcycle racers Talan Skeels-Piggins and Andy Houghton of the Yamaha UK-supported Talan team. Justin Rankin, an American kart racer with cerebral palsy. Paraplegic racing driver Sam Schmidt in his Chevrolet Corvette at last year’s FOS. Paraplegic drivers Takuma Aoki and Nigel Bailly, in their LMP2 Le Mans prototype. Or Billy Monger, who overcame a double leg amputation to win the F3 Pau GP.

Better still, talk to Nathalie McGloin, tetraplegic Porsche racer and rally driver, founder of the Spinal Track charity and president of the FIA Disability and Accessibility Commission. “I leave my wheelchair in the pits,” she declares. “When I’m lining up on that grid with my helmet on, no one knows I’m female or have a spinal injury. I’m just another driver – and that’s the way it should be.” Wayne Rainey will compete in the Hillclimb at Goodwood Festival of Speed, June 23-26. For more inspiration, visit @fia_disability_accessibility on Twitter.