The 1990 Japanese motorcycle Grand Prix was the first round of the

1990 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season The 1990 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season was the 42nd F.I.M. Road Racing World Championship season. Season summary 1990 marked the beginning of the Rainey era with the Marlboro- Yamaha rider taking 7 wins and scoring points in every race ...

. It took place on the weekend of 23–25 March 1990 at the

Suzuka Circuit The , more famously known as the , is a long motorsport race track located in Ino, Suzuka City, Mie Prefecture, Japan and operated by Honda Mobilityland, a subsidiary of Honda Motor Co, Ltd. It has a capacity of 155,000. Introduction Soic ...

500 cc race report

Wayne Rainey Wayne Wesley Rainey (born October 23, 1960) is an American former Grand Prix motorcycle road racer. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, he won the 500cc World Championship three times and the Daytona 200 once. He was characterized by his s ...

's pole of 2:09.589 is the first sub-2:10 lap at Suzuka. Rainey gets the start of the new 4-column grid, followed by

Mick Doohan Michael Sydney Doohan (born 4 June 1965) is an Australian former Grand Prix motorcycle road racing World Champion, who won five consecutive 500 cc World Championships. Biography Originally from the Gold Coast, Queensland, Doohan attended ...

Eddie Lawson Eddie Lawson (born March 11, 1958) is an American former four-time Grand Prix motorcycle racing World Champion. His record of not crashing and consistently finishing in the points earned him the nickname "Steady Eddie".Kevin Schwantz Kevin Schwantz (born June 19, 1964) is an American former professional motorcycle road racer. He was the world champion of the 1993 FIM Road Racing World Championship. Early life Schwantz, whose parents owned a motorcycle shop, learned to ride ...

and

Wayne Gardner Wayne Michael Gardner (born 11 October 1959) is an Australian former professional Grand Prix motorcycle and touring car racer. His most notable achievement was winning the 1987 500 cc Motorcycle World Championship, becoming the first Aus ...

. Rainey is opening a gap, but Schwantz moves into second and leads the chase. Entering the back straight, Schwantz looks behind him to see who's back there, but Lawson's proximity probably blocks the view. Perhaps Schwantz had a feeling something bad was about to happen. Going into 130R, Gardner barely manages to pass on the brakes and move into second place, while Doohan brakes for all he's worth, getting the back wheel in the air, and loses the front end as he leans it in. Unfortunately, he's inside of Lawson when he falls, so Doohan's bike hits Lawson's rear wheel hard, taking him out too. Lawson, who came out of 1989 without a race crash, begins the season with a DNF and a broken left ankle. Rainey has a large gap, and Gardner and Schwantz are scraping fairings for second. Last lap and Rainey has an untouchable lead, and Gardner goes slightly wide heading towards the chicane, but manages to hold Schwantz off; as they flick it right and then left, Schwantz touches Gardner's back tire and drops his bike. Because it happened at such a low speed, Schwantz is able to get back on quickly and still cross the line in third place. Schwantz: "I thought I had Gardner sorted out pretty good for the last lap going into the chicane, just as soon as I got up the inside and he saw my wheel he came in and I think he was still going in too fast. He went into the chicane real deep. I got turned quick because I knew he was going to be wide. He came back across and as I was coming down , we hit. I guess it all depends on how you look at it as to fault it was I'd say it was his."Schwantz, Kevin
''Blurred Past''
kevinschwantz.com 1994.

500 cc classification

References

{{Motorcycle Grands Prix 1990–1999 Japanese motorcycle Grand Prix

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

Motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruising ...