WAYNE RAINEY’S QUADROPHENIA

Wayne Rainey was placed on this earth to be a motorcycle racer. Raised in Downey, California, he started at age 9 when his family lived less than 10 minutes from Ascot Park. Now long gone to urban sprawl, it was one of the most storied tracks in the history of American motor racing. A paperclip-shaped half-mile course sculpted from dirt dug out of a local cemetery, the circuit offered up traction galore with its super-tacky clay base topped with a dusting of decomposed granite. It’s where Rainey, backed and encouraged by his father, Sandy, lit the match on one of the greatest motorcycle racing careers in not only the United States of America, but the world over.