Motorcycle Career
Gardner began his racing career in 1977 at age 18, riding a second-hand Yamaha TZ250 bike in the Australian championship and finishing second on debut at Amaroo Park. He went on to record his first win a few weeks later at Oran Park Raceway.
He won his first 500 cc race at the Jarama circuit in Spain in 1986, the 500 cc World Championship in 1987 and the inaugural Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island in 1989. For his entire Grand Prix career, Gardner raced for the Rothmans Honda team and was joined on that team by fellow Australian Michael Doohan in 1989.
Gardner also won four Suzuka 8 Hours races in 1985, 1986, 1991 and 1992.
Gardner retired from motorcycle racing following the 1992 season but stayed closely involved with the sport, helping various riders like Daryl Beattie early in their careers. He rode at special events like the Goodwood Festival of Speed on classic Honda motorcycles and raced again at the Goodwood race meeting against fellow bikers James Whitham, the late Barry Sheene and ex-Formula One driver Damon Hill.
Read more about this topic: Wayne Gardner
Famous quotes containing the words motorcycle and/or career:
“Kicking the heart
with pain’s big boots running up and down
the intestines like a motorcycle racer.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“The problem, thus, is not whether or not women are to combine marriage and motherhood with work or career but how they are to do so—concomitantly in a two-role continuous pattern or sequentially in a pattern involving job or career discontinuities.”
—Jessie Bernard (20th century)