MOTOR RACING U.S. GRAND PRIX MOTORCYCLE EVENT : Rainey Shines at Laguna Seca

The total domination by Wayne Rainey and Kenny Roberts of motorcycle racing at Laguna Seca Raceway continued unabated Sunday as Rainey ran away with the United States 500cc Grand Prix on one of Roberts’ Team Marlboro Yamahas.

For Rainey, the defending world champion, it was a third consecutive victory here for the former dirt track racer from Downey. For Roberts, it was the fifth victory in three years as a team owner for the former world champion from Modesto.

From the moment Rainey slipped his Yamaha past the Suzuki of Kevin Schwantz in tight quarters on the second turn of the first lap, the 35-lap race around Laguna Seca’s hillside 2.196-mile circuit was all his. At times Rainey’s margin over Schwantz and then Australia’s Mike Doohan was more than 12 seconds.

Rainey’s consistency was remarkable as he rode around the 11-turn course as though he were time trialing. His second lap of 90.827 m.p.h. was the fastest in the race and his 32nd lap was 90.041 before he began slowing down. On his final go-round, the lead was enough to permit him to wave to the crowd as he came down the corkscrew from the top of the hill toward the finish line. The official margin over runner-up Doohan was 6.9 seconds.

“The start was pretty scary as Kevin (Schwantz) and I just about tangled after we crested the hill (on the dogleg first turn), but I managed to get my wheel under his going into the second turn,” Rainey said. “From then on, as long as I was leading, I didn’t care who was behind me, but I would rather race than ride off by myself. When you have go 20 laps all alone it can take a lot out of you mentally.”

Track officials announced a three-day attendance of 62,000, of which 40,000 were estimated to be here Sunday.

It was Rainey’s second consecutive Grand Prix victory this year after a third place finish in the opening race in Japan. He leads Doohan, 55-51, as the 15-race world championship tour heads for Spain and the first of 10 consecutive races in Europe.

“A win is a win anywhere you can get it, but winning here is special to me because it’s in America and I look on Laguna Seca as my home track,” said Rainey, who is planning to build a home this summer overlooking the track in the hills above Carmel Valley.

Roberts, who won six major American road races at Laguna Seca before heading for Europe, where he won three world championships, had only one misgiving about the day. His second rider, John Kocinski, had moved past Schwantz into second place when he fell on the sixth lap and dropped out.

“It was just a case of inexperience,” Roberts explained. “He was going too fast when he went through the first turn and couldn’t get his bike set up right for the second turn (a 90-degree left- hander) and when he asked the bike for more than it could handle, it spit him off.”

Kocinski, who was 23 on Saturday, is a protege of Roberts who won the world 250cc championship last year and both the 1989 and 1990 Laguna Seca 250cc races. This was only his fourth 500cc Grand Prix.

Kocinski’s spill was the only incident during the 76.8 mile race, in marked contrast to the injury-riddled races of the past two years. He was uninjured.

Once Rainey began to separate himself from the rest of the 18-rider field, several excellent races shaped up behind him. Doohan, who has finished second in all three 1990 Grand Prix on his Honda, dogged Schwantz for 15 laps before finally moving into second place as the two raced side by side on lap 22.