Photo: Goodwood Festival of Speed

Today, the Goodwood Festival of Speed announced that Wayne Rainey, three-time 500cc World Champion, is getting back on his championship-winning YZR500 nearly thirty years after the crash that left him paralysed.

If you?re a motorsport fan, whether it?s bikes or cars that tickle your fancy, the Goodwood Festival of Speed is an event that ought to be on your bucket list. Every summer (well, unless there?s a global pandemic going on) legends of motorsport, past and present, meet up at Goodwood and take it in turns to ride (or drive) up the famous hillclimb course on (or in) bikes (or cars) that have either made their mark in the history books, or are in the process of doing just that.

One man that definitely did make his mark was Wayne Rainey. 30 years ago, the bloke was on fire. He won the 1990 500cc World Championship, then he won it again in 1991 and again in 1992. He probably would have won it a fourth time if he hadn?t have crashed during the Italian GP at Misano and seriously injured himself. That?s injured seriously enough never to race a bike again. In that crash in 1993 he broke his spine, which left him permanently paralysed from the chest down.
Legend

Photo: Goodwood Festival of Speed

But despite not racing for the past 29 years, Rainey is still an absolute legend of the sport.

Since his crash in 1993, he?s done a bit of kart racing and had a go on a converted road bike, but he?s not once got back on a race ...