PEOPLE
He was so secretive about it, he didn’t even tell his wife, Shae. But in the end, after one night wishing that things would fix themselves, Wayne Rainey had to talk.
It was August 1, the day of the 1993 British Grand Prix, the tenth round in a season made up of 14 races. The reigning world champion was facing what in that moment looked like one of his toughest racing experiences, not knowing that five weeks later his career would end prematurely and in a super dramatic fashion, changing his life forever.
The 32-year-old from California was chasing his fourth consecutive title in the 500 class. At Donington, the day before, he had suffered a huge crash: he hit his back badly crushing several vertebrae, hurt his ribs, and tore off a couple of fingernails. But mainly, he had a head concussion that gave him some worrying problems with his vision, which was not sharp.
This last thing, he didn’t tell anybody. He went to sleep hoping that on Sunday morning he would wake up and everything would be fine. But that was not the case. During the warm-up he was way off the pace. His crew chief commented: ‘Wow, your back is really bothering you!’ At that point, the American could not keep his secret any longer. He had to share with his team what was wrong, and take some action. His crew chief listened and expressed his view: ‘You can’t ride.’
But the reigning world champion wasn’t going to drop out of the Grand Prix so easily. There was a lot at stake: the title was a matter between him and Kevin Schwantz from Texas, who was 23 points ahead of the Yamaha rider in the
