Wayne Rainey: His Own Story

by Michael Scott

Now available in paperback, this is the official biography of the legendary American triple 500cc world motorcycle champion Wayne Rainey. It covers his two lives - from childhood up to the moment he crashed in Italy on 5 September 1993 severing his spinal cord, then afterwards struggling to come to terms with being in a wheelchair, and returning to the track as a racing team owner.

320 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1997

About the author

1946-

Librarian's Note: There is more than one author by this name on Goodreads.

Reviews

[Stewart Jarvis-Grove · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a bike grand prix fan in the era Wayne raced and watch him, Schwantz and Doohan in awe. I was a fan of all three and I had a lot of respect for what they could do on a motorcycle.

I remember the Misano race where Waynes riding career ended. It shocked the hell out of me and I always wondered how long he could continue dragging results from his Yamaha. I knew the results were more to do with him than the bike but I had no idea how much he struggled and always wondered.

I decided to see if there were books written by my favourite riders so kept an eye out in book shops but had no look so decided to try online and found a book about Doohan by Mat Oxley and this book by Michael Scott about Rainey on eBay and grabbed them both (I haven't been able to find a copy of Peter Cliffords book on Schwantz yet though).

There is a lot of good information in this book and I have learnt a lot more about Wayne as a person and about his riding career but I struggled with the writing style. It baffles me when an author decides to give a synopsis to the book at the beginning and then start the tale from the beginning. That annoyed me straight away but then I found I had to slow my reading down considerably to take in what Michael is trying to say and at times work out who the narration was coming from (Wayne, Michael or an interviewee).

Having said all that I did enjoy the content. I just wished it had been written better. 3/10

[Tufty McTavish · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's an air of inevitability when reading this book. Later on there's even a race countdown towards the life changing accident suffered by Rainey. I must admit I know very little from this era of MotoGP - I started following the sport when Doohan was dominant - so the most interesting section was when the timeline started to overlap with events I was vaguely familiar with. But having read this I want to see the races for myself and read about some of the other famous names from that era.

One problem I had with the book was the somewhat scattershot sprinkling of events, especially early on. It seemed to dance around subject lines in an awkward fashion.

[Richie · Rating 4 out of 5]

im a fan of wayne rainey..a true champion..winning the gp championship on a uncompetitive bike and how unfortunate it was that his injury kept him from winning a fourth championship. great book!

[Igor Brezovic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Masterpiece. GReat inside look into the mind of the champion.