Wayne Rainey (pictured at Suzuka) became the 1992 500cc world champion
The1992 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season was the 44thF.I.M.Road Racing World Championship season. Honda secured the constructor's title in all three categories.
Doohan won the first four opening rounds, the first he nearly didn't qualify for, due to tricky conditions inSuzuka, but ended up winning asRainey crashed out in the rain.Rainey followedDoohan home in second in the following three races, still not fully fit due to a broken femur he had suffered at the end of the1991 season.Daryl Beattie was third at his home race inAustralia, riding as a replacement forWayne Gardner, who injured himself in a crash in theopening round. There were also podiums forCrivillé on hisHonda in thethird round andNiall Mackenzie on his Team FranceYamaha in thefourth round afterCrivillé had crashed out of third from his home race atJerez.
The fifth round atMugello saw one of the only races of the season where the three best riders of the era - Rainey,Doohan andKevin Schwantz were fully fit and able to battle it out.Schwantz had missed thethird round due to injury but was able to take the victory atMugello on hisLucky StrikeSuzuki asRainey crashed out whilst battling for the lead.Rainey did however win his first race of the season atCatalunya in round six, passingDoohan for victory with two laps remaining. Theseventh round of the season sawDoohan get back to winning ways, butRainey had to retire due to being unable to continue after riding in pain following a heavy practice fall.
The eighth round atAssen proved to be crucial to the title race.Rainey left the circuit during practice, still being unable to ride comfortably, all but conceding the title to Doohan. HoweverDoohan was to have his own crash in practice, suffering a double-fracture of his right leg and ruling him out for five races. Gardner also injured himself in practice leaving theRothmansHonda squad without a rider for the race.Schwantz was therefore favorite for the race, but was being heavily challenged byCagiva's four time world champion and veteranEddie Lawson.Lawson took both riders out of the race with a collision, which resulted inSchwantz suffering a broken arm. The series of events left a group of riders chasing a rare victory and it wasCrivillé who took the win, the first of his career.
Rainey was back for the following round at theHungaroring, but changeable weather conditions allowedLawson to takeCagiva's first ever 500cc victory, andLawson's last in a glittering career.Rainey got back to winning ways inFrance for thetenth round, howeverGardner took a popular win at theBritish round, withRainey in second. A patch of oil into the first turn catching out several riders including high flyingSchwantz, and teammateDoug Chandler.
Thepenultimate round of the season saw the return ofDoohan, however he was still not fully fit.Rainey won the race, and whilstDoohan was running in the top ten for periods, he wasn't able to maintain the pace and finished twelfth. In thefinal roundRainey needed to a two-point swing to win the world championship, and althoughDoohan managed a sterling effort to finish sixth,Rainey's third place was enough to secure him his third and finalworld title.[1]John Kocinski,Rainey's teammate took his only win of the season, in his last race forMarlboroRobertsYamaha, and promoted him to third in the world championship table, ahead ofSchwantz. Chandler impressed in his first season in the series finishing fifth, whilstGardner's strong performances when fit saw him good enough for sixth.Juan Garriga was a strong seventh on aYamaha, withCrivillé impressing in his debut season in eighth, ahead ofLawson took ninth, ahead ofRandy Mamola. At the end of 1992 several of the big names of the 80's retired - Lawson, Gardner, and Mamola all left the sport, for different reasons.[1]
The factory Honda riders debuted the"big bang" engine, with theNSR500, where the firing order of the cylinders made the power come out in pulses. The benefit to this was in traction, allowing the tires to adhere between pulses, rather than spin because of thetwo-stroke 500’s peaky powerband. Yamaha came up with their own version for the9th round and Suzuki had it available by mid-season, though Schwantz didn't use it initially. The "big bang" concept is still used in today'sfour-strokeMotoGP bikes.
Luca Cadalora claimed his second 250cc crown by a much larger margin than hisprevious title.[1] He won five out of the first six races on hisRothmansHonda accumulating such a huge points lead that he could afford to be more conservative in the second half of the season. Fellow ItaliansLoris Reggiani andPierfrancesco Chili providedCadalora's strongest competition.[1]Reggiani won two races on his factoryAprilia, whilstChili put in a number of strong performances winning three races, but failing to finish on a number of occasions, and suffered the embarrassment of thinking he had claimed a podium in the fourth round atJerez, only to realise he had slowed down prematurely and had in fact been warming down on the final lap.Helmut Bradl had a more disappointing 1992 season, having runCadalora close for the title in the previous year, the German on the HBHonda failed to win a race, and was often off the pace, back in fifth in the championship standings. 1992 saw the emergence of several future 250cc stars, withMax Biaggi,Chili's teammate, winning several pole positions and winning the final round in his debut season and impressing more and more as the season progressed.Loris Capirossi made the step up from 125s to 250s for the 1992 season. He was largely off the pace at the start of the season as he wasn't given a full worksHonda initially, but once provided with aHonda much closer to the performance ofCadalora's as he proved he had the speed to be a contender. Similarly,Doriano Romboni's performances improved in the final few races when his HBHonda was upgraded. Former 250 world championCarlos Lavado retired at the end of the season having had a very low-key 1992, rarely appearing in the points.[1]
Alessandro Gramigni won the first ever 125cc championship forAprilia, in a tight championship.[1] This was despiteGramigni suffering a broken leg in a road bike accident midway through the season and missing a couple of rounds. Former double 125 championFausto Gresini had been consistent throughout the season on hisMarlboroHonda, but only won one race, finishing second in the championship.Gresini was looking in serious contention for the championship, but had a critical crash when running in second place in theFrench round.Honda'sRalf Waldmann finished third in the championship, but had led the series for most of the year having won three of the first four races. His dip in form after that saw him rarely finish on the podium in the second half of the season.Ezio Gianola won the most races in the class - four, yet a number of crashes and low finishes meant he finished fourth in the championship on hisHonda, this was a marked up-turn in fortune forGianola who had considered retiring after a disappointing1991 season.Aprilia'sBruno Casanova also had a much better 1992 than the previous season, finishing fifth in the championship. His only win coming in the closest race of the season atHockenheim, where the super fast slipstreaming circuit provided a classic 125 race with the lead changing hands almost every lap. Up and comingDirk Raudies ended the season well with a victory in the penultimate round inBrazil, and 125 veteranJorge Martinez became the seventh different winner of the season when he won the final round of the season inSouth Africa.
During 1992Rainey created the International Motorcycle Racers’ Association (IMRA) to pressure track organizers for safety improvements. Michelin came back from a semi-withdrawal and supplied tires to theHonda,Suzuki andYamaha teams. The points system was revised to award points to the top 10 finishers only, instead of the top 15.[1] This system would last for only the 1992 season, a slightly modified version being brought in for1993, that is still used today.
The calendar was shortened to 13 rounds, with the United States, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Austria losing their races.[1] The South African Grand Prix was added and the European Grand Prix continued for another year.[1]
TheHungarian Grand Prix was added to the calendar after a one-year absence on demand of Bernie Ecclestone, who wanted to get more F1 tracks on the calendar.
TheBrazilian Grand Prix was added on the calendar after a two-year absence. On demand of Bernie Ecclestone, the chosen track became theInterlagos circuit, instead of the previously usedGoiânia circuit.
TheSouth African Grand Prix returned on the calendar after a six-year absence due toapartheid policies in the country. The venue used was the new, redesignedKyalami circuit.
Luca Cadalora
Helmut Bradl
Alberto Puig
Masahiro Shimizu
Wilco Zeelenberg
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