Il racconto sul sito ufficiale di Wayne Gardner (nel 1989 92.000 spettatori! su quelle colline sul mare un autentico spettacolo):
Island Hero: Australian Grand Prix Winner
"Wayne wanted it more than any of us today. There was no way we were going to beat him."
Phillip Island and Wayne Gardner--two names forever linked, after the extraordinary events of April 1989 and September 1990.
The island circuit, arguably the finest in international motorcycle racing, renamed pit straight Gardner Straight as a permanent reminder of those two sensational Sunday afternoons, when the home-grown hero beat the best in the world in two unforgettable races.
Australia had never hosted a Grand Prix, but Wayne's world championship in 1987 led to its first in 1989. Wayne saw it as his personal crusade to switch a whole nation on to motorcycle racing.
For the week before the race, he appeared on numerous television shows and did countless interviews. The result was unbelievable interest in the race across Australia, but Wayne admitted during qualifying that he felt completely burnt out.
On race day, 92,000 fans were treated to one of the greatest races in GP history, as Wayne overcame his weariness and ran on pure adrenalin, battling wheel-to-wheel in a four-way dice with the Yamahas of Wayne Rainey, Christian Sarron and Kevin Magee. The lead changed 19 times from lap 9 to lap 25, before Wayne took charge with three laps to go. The delirious crowd went wild as Wayne took the chequered flag from Rainey and Sarron, spilling onto the circuit to hail their hero. All around the nation, millions of people had watched enthralled. Motorcycle racing had arrived in Australia, and the Gardner legend had begun.
Rainey put it simply: "Wayne wanted it more than any of us today. There was no way we were going to beat him."
It would be impossible to better the '89 Phillip Island GP, or so we thought. Until the 1990 race. It was the last in what had been a largely disappointing season for Wayne. With only one win that year he arrived dispirited, with a broken bone in his wrist, and hinting at retirement. But getting back to his favourite strip of bitumen brought out his best, and Wayne was quickly fired up for a big one.
Michael Doohan started on pole, but the race quickly developed into a four-way fight as new world champion Rainey, Kevin Schwantz and Wayne joined him at the front. But Wayne was in trouble. His wrist was going numb and, worse, he had a broken fairing bracket and his fairing was flapping and scraping on the track. Wayne thought about pulling out, then put his head down and chased hard.
With typical Mongrel Dog determination Wayne finally pushed his broken bike past Doohan with two laps to go in a daring move at the end of the straight now named in his honour. The move shocked Doohan and nearly blew him off the track. Gardner, too, was lucky to hold it together. "When I went under Rainey and Michael I had a lock-to-lock slide. I was in front though, and I just tried to put the last two laps together smooth and sweet," he said. "I said to myself: 'This is my race, and no-one is going to take it away from me'."
No-one did. The legend was complete.
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