Doohan, whose girlfriend Selina is expecting their first child, is the second most successful 500cc racer of all time, with five world titles and 54 race wins out of 136 starts. “Most times we would be the first team out of the place and joked with the other crews as we were walking past their garages to go home. Doohan lay prostrate in the gravel trap after the crash, fortunate to escape being hit by his machine, which hurtled through the air into the fencing along the track. Please “Selina (Doohan’s then girlfriend), who was pregnant, had flown up from their house in Monaco and was on the flight when we got on board. Smart eventually picked up a job with Australian racing heavyweight, Frank Matich, who had made his name on four-wheels, but who had established a bike team under the leadership of his son Kris. While the world of 500cc racing was a little different to production bike racing back in New Zealand, Smart settled into his new role with few problems. “They basically sewed his legs together for skin grafting and then just before the race in Brazil they cut his legs apart bandaged him up and stuck him on a plane to Sao Paulo,” recalled Smart. Burgess was the team boss and there were two other mechanics and Smart, who drove the truck and was the general hand and tyre guy at the race tracks. “We used to have beers most Sunday afternoons on the Gold Coast when we were not racing,” Smart told Speedcafe.com. For support, please contact [email protected]. “We then heard the commentator mention Mick’s name in Spanish and we knew it wasn’t going to be good.”. That included me and the bags,” recalled Doohan. While Doohan was sure to miss tomorrow's race, there was no immediate comment from his team or doctors on how many weeks he might be out of action. The unbelievable ordeal proved Doohan’s superhuman determination and refusal to give up and that same staunch desire to succeed was once again demonstrated in 1994, when he finally realised his dream of a world title. he said. The first practice session was immediately halted after Doohan's accident, but restarted later with his team-mate, the Spaniard Alex Criville, taking provisional pole. Smart says that losing that championship just made Doohan more determined than ever. they can to create a true meeting of independent Premium. “I think when I first met Dick he was working for a Kiwi guy guy called Ian Pero,” Doohan told Speedcafe.com. Speedcafe.com has been established to provide a daily motorsport news service to the industry and fans in Australia and internationally. MICHAEL DOOHAN, the 500cc world champion, broke his left wrist, right leg and left collarbone after crashing at 110mph during qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez de la Frontera yesterday. Want an ad-free experience?Subscribe to Independent Premium. “And so at that stage he was doing that he was coming back. I’m still not sure how he did it (made the trip). All that came unstuck with a practice crash at the next race in Holland which left his right leg with serious damage to a point where amputation was being considered by the local doctors. “The crash wasn’t anything unusual to be honest,” he said. “Normally when you crash you go off the side of the track but because I was almost in a straight line, I went up the road and the bike was on top of me. After a season Smart was offered the opportunity to step into a mechanics role where he forged an incredible successful career over the next 15 years. Despite all the success, Doohan or the team never became complacent. Log in to update your newsletter preferences. All Rights Reserved. “We had the odd problem like an engine braking while warming it up the night before a race in Spain, but we just changed it before we went home, which wasn’t that difficult on those bikes. Oldest first, -1) ? “I was his chauffeur, driver and nurse, basically I was there to help him with anything that was needed. “With Mick’s ankle fused there was zero moment so the thumb brake was developed,” said Smart. POLL: Which championship win is McLaughlin’s best? During the operation, the supervising surgeon Costa did his best to guide the seemingly incompetent and blundering doctors. The 1993 season was basically a recovery year for Doohan and the Honda team rallied around him as he recorded one win at the San Marino Grand Prix on the way to fourth in the championship. “My blood was so thin they wanted to get the internal organs back first before they worried about the leg.”. But are tougher laws enough to prevent phones being a dangerous distraction? Want to discuss real-world problems, be involved in the most engaging discussions and hear from the journalists? After first being taken to the track medical centre, he was taken to hospital. It was his attention to detail and his no frills dedication to the job that kept him a part of one of the winningest combinations in motorcycling history and which sees him in a similar role for Doohan in his successful aviation business to this day. “Once he got that ball rolling, man, it was just easy,” said Smart. continue to respect all commenters and create constructive debates. If it wasn’t for the persistence of the Grand Prix doctor and his determination to get Doohan the right medical care, the Australian would have certainly lost his leg, but the fast-acting Italian effectively kidnapped the patient along with fellow rider Kevin Schwantz. Doohan, 33, suffered a broken leg, wrist, and collarbone, and muscle damage to his back. MICK Doohan is a name that will forever be synonymous with the world of motor racing and the motorcycling elite. try again, the name must be unique, Please Doohan had re-broken his right leg, left wrist and right collarbone and had muscle damage in his back as well as major other bruising. It’s that simple.”. “He was always good on the tools and very thorough. “We had done an all-nighter and were coming into this town and JB yells out ‘look out’. try again, the name must be unique, Please Smaller engine, battery pack to power Volvo XC40, Electrification plans roll out for Volvo’s new compact SUV, but it will be a long wait for Australia, 2018 Honda HR-V receives a mid-life facelift, Mild styling changes and active safety are introduced as standard to Honda’s small SUV, Mark Webber: The time I photobombed the school photo in a Corona, The path from Aussie country boy to international racing legend started on a Queanbeyan dirt track. “When I joined the 500s they were looking for a guy and Dick and JB (Jeremy Burgess) got along so he got the job. Only one of those has more consecutive titles. From dangerously sub-standard medical care, Doohan found himself in the care of among the best doctors, and the rider underwent treatment that involved sewing his healthy leg to the diseased one to help return the blood supply. I guess that was our ‘Days of Thunder’ moment.”. “There was a pile-up in front of me and JB just yells out ‘go for the smoke’. Community “He is trustworthy and if there is something that has to be done, he just goes and does it. Try our daily email, The best way to get your news first, fast and free! “Not long after that, they were going to amputate the leg and that’s when Costa heard. His NSR's rear wheel promptly ‘spun up' and he was highsided at over 200 km/h. Just before his move he met a Kiwi production bike racer by the name of Rod Harris, who he ended up doing some races with. He was going to get fit.”. Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube. 'active' : ''"> During this time he also did some spanner work in the US with expat Kiwi Ian Pero , following races up and down the West Coast from a base in Los Angeles. “Mick was very headstrong and you could see him in a race, no one was going to beat him. Newest first, -1) ? Later that night, the local medical team finally realised something was badly wrong and took Doohan back into surgery to try and restore the blood circulation that had been cut by a botched operation and severe swelling. In 1994 Doohan finished on the podium in all 14 races, including nine victories and clinched the first of five consecutive titles. After an off-season break back in Australia and five championships in the back pocket, there didn’t seem to be an end date to the success that Smart was enjoying. We all went to the same school’, which I thought was a bit of an odd thing to say.”. “We had a little self-contained Marriott apartment just south of San Francisco and I think Mick was in hospital for about three weeks after the operation. Doohan lost control of his Repsol Honda on his fifth lap of … “That’s just the way he was. “Yea, I remember that day quite well, it was not a good Friday,” Smart told Speedcafe.com. “Don’t try and reinvent the wheel, just keep it simple. The next day, once again, Costa tried to intervene for the sake of Doohan’s leg and possibly his life but, again the Dutch doctors prevented him helping. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Comments require approval before being published. “Then they put me in a half cast and elevated my leg which again apparently you don’t do.”. Dick Smart was a mechanic for two of the greatest riders in the modern era of grand prix motorcycle racing, but he had many other roles, including that of nurse. Create a commenting name to join the debate. try again, the name must be unique, Please A security guard was also reportedly hit by the flying debris and taken to hospital. Once that first title came Smart said they went to every race track knowing they had a chance of victory. “I had to learn a few things on those bikes initially, but to me they’re easier than working on a street bike, because everything was accessible. 'active' : ''"> “We worked with Honda and then Brembo and eventually we ended up with a thumb brake mounted under the left-hand handlebar and I think we just took the footbrake off. “He joined our aviation business 10 years ago or so and has worked him into the role of Aviation Manager and is an important part of what we do.”. “I’m quite happy to roll along with what’s going on. > View, Zarco: No way to avoid taking out fellow Ducati > View, WORLD WRAP: Mansell extends British F4 Rookie Cup lead > View, Angry Hamilton claims stewards are ‘trying to stop me’ > View, Have your say in the Speedcafe.com Motorsport Survey > View, Ricciardo takes responsibility for Turn 2 penalty > View, Visibility drama hampered Bottas at start of Russian GP > View, Waters’ first solo Supercars win ‘a long time coming’ > View, Quartararo reclaims championship lead with Catalunya win > View, Bottas capitalises on Hamilton's mistakes in Russia > View, AMRS WRAP: McAlister scores maiden TA2 round win > View, SUPPORTS: Amadio completes dominant Sports Car double > View. “We were all mates and racing was our life.”. “I looked at the Dutch doctor and asked him who’s the gun orthopaedic surgeon and he said ‘we’re all the same. Our journalists will try to respond by joining the threads when Doohan had made up his mind that he needed to get back to San Francisco to renowned Orthopedic surgeons Dr Ting and Dr Louie as soon as possible. “When he turned up he wasn’t looking good. “The pits were opposite to that corner and I just heard this noise and just caught a glimpse of this muffler flying through the air. The chain of near catastrophic events that nearly cost Doohan his right leg started with a crash during qualifying at the 1992 Dutch TT that would horrify most riders, but with typical stoicism, Doohan recounts the event as unspectacular. “We have had the odd blow up over the years as you do because you don’t always agree, but we just get on with it. A Spanish source quoted medical officials as saying Doohan had broken the tibia and fibia of his left leg. Smart rode a bit of motocross and some minor road racing before he decided to join the exodus of his mates to Australia in 1984. The 1992 season would be more memorable in more ways than one. It allows our most engaged readers to debate the big issues, share their own experiences, discuss “And it got better and better as the years went on because we used to ask them, ‘Could you do this and could you make this a bit more friendly?’ And they would.”. Costa concurred that surgery could give Doohan a fighting chance at getting back in the saddle for the very next race in Hungary, rather than missing four races, including the Dutch competition he had already forfeited in the accident. “I think if you asked Mick he would have preferred to have the foot brake, but the thumb brake worked and that started another revolution in the paddock. Newest first, -1) ? Are you sure you want to submit this vote? So next thing every rider and his dog got thumb brakes on their bikes.”. “It was a real disaster,” Smart recalled. Eleven years of racing have left their toll on Doohan who walks with a pronounced limp and decided to quit because he was struggling to recover from a horrific crash in Spain in May. A series of events and a chilling sickness that could have easily killed a less determined human, staggeringly, weren’t even enough to keep Doohan off the bike that year. Most liked. “He would put his bad leg up on the couch and have his good foot on the pedal and work out like you’ve never seen him, trying to keep his physical core fitness up. Mick wasn’t happy bringing that winning streak to an end. real-world solutions, and more. “There was a lot of complication and that’s when Dr Costa got involved and got him out of there. His fractures were also pinned in an advanced cage of carbonfibre hoops and steel bars to help the bones heal correctly. “We made sure the bikes were right and that everything was prepared for the following day. try again, the name must be unique, Please Independent Premium Comments can be posted by members of our membership scheme, Independent Premium. “There was a bit going on, but it was good for me to have him around.”. “I had a British neurosurgeon saying come to the UK and an American guy who was saying come to the US, but I said let’s just get it done, let’s just go here. Are you sure you want to delete this comment? You can also choose to be emailed when someone replies “Incredibly he got on the bike and finished sixth, but we lost the championship by four points.”. “I’m not one for the limelight, we just did our job every day. “What about if we bolt it together?” he asked the doctor. “We had a few issues with the brakes on the way to Spain, but thought he would take it easy and risk the trip to Italy with low gear being a priority. “I’d just gone over the start/finish line and apparently they’d put out the red flag out for somebody dropping fluid and I went into turn-one which is about 160 to 180km/h and when I came out the thing snapped sideways and flipped me off and over the top. A tough Kiwi-born racer who was a loyal lieutenant to Honda factory team boss Jeremy Burgess through all of Mick Doohan’s 500cc championship seasons and for the first three of Valentino Rossi’s seven, Smart just got stuff done. “We (team members) were sort of loaned out to other teams and kept racing so we did not get to see much of Mick unless we had a weekend off and could get to Italy.”. “It didn’t matter what happened, he was going to win that race.”. You can find our Community Guidelines in full here. Subscribe to our daily newsletter, the best way to get your news first, fast, and free! “It was pretty cool when we won the first championship, but at that point we never thought we would go on to win five in a row,” said Smart. WhichCar is now home to Wheels, Motor, 4X4 Australia and Street Machine magazines. “He replied that he thought that Mick would have been about that point of the track according to the stopwatch. “To be honest we all used to have a crack at driving the truck, which wasn’t the best in the world,” said Smart. “Mick’s Japanese teammate Tadayuki (Okada) got underneath him on the last corner to win the race. At the end of the 1998 season, which included victories in the last four races of the year, the then Honda Repsol team and Doohan clinched a fifth successive title and were one the most successful teams in 500cc history. Everything spiralled except for my leg so I sort of broke it myself essentially.”. There are few riders who have been so consistently fast on the track and only two have more motorcycle Grand Prix championships to their name. Tomorrow we chat to Smart about Doohan’s retirement, his years working with Valenino Rossi and his own life beyond racing, which ironically has him working with Doohan again. He raced in Australian Superbikes in the late 1980s, and also won both races as Superbike World Championship visited Oran Park in 1988 as well as the second leg of the Japanese round held earlier in the year. “I was leading the championship by a long way by that point in time and there were two weekends off, which was a big break.”. “In 1997 I think we had won 12 of the first 13 races of the season, including 10 in a row when we turned up for a race at the Sentul circuit in Indonesia,” recalled Smart. While Doohan continued to have medical treatment the team were already looking at developing a thumb-operated braking system which would play a significant role in the success that was to follow. Smart settled into the Gold Coast lifestyle which had a strong motorcycling culture and he was right in the thick of it through his relationship with Feeney. WORLD WRAP: Mansell extends British F4 Rookie Cup lead, Angry Hamilton claims stewards are ‘trying to stop me’, Have your say in the Speedcafe.com Motorsport Survey, Ricciardo takes responsibility for Turn 2 penalty, Visibility drama hampered Bottas at start of Russian GP, Waters’ first solo Supercars win ‘a long time coming’, Bottas capitalises on Hamilton's mistakes in Russia, AMRS WRAP: McAlister scores maiden TA2 round win, SUPPORTS: Amadio completes dominant Sports Car double. “A crash is not ideal at the best of times … but certainly, a little downtime helped.”, France bans mobile phone use in stationary cars. Essentially, what I am lead to believe is that they had closed the wound before actually seeing if the internal bleeding had stopped. It was the allure of his maiden title and an unstoppable desire to win that lead to Doohan’s fateful decision in the hours that followed the crash in Holland. In 1991, Doohan finished on the podium in 14 of the 15 races, including three wins, and finished second in the title chase to Wayne Rainey who won six races in a season where you dropped your worst two results. For the next six weeks Smart’s skills as a truck driver were conveniently converted into chauffeur, but there was not much correlation between his mechanical skills and being a nurse. Doohan even recalled Smart’s time as a nurse in California. I tried to spiral out from underneath it but that was the wrong thing to do. Pulling over and stopping your car to use your phone is now illegal in France. “The first thing he wanted when he was out of hospital was an exercise bike. Users are encouraged to flag/report comments which should be removed. Smart grew up in New Zealand and was a student at Timaru Boys High before he picked a mechanical apprenticeship at the local Holden dealership where his father had sold cars. Amazingly, he still finished the year in second place. “He then went back to America or Europe, I can’t remember, but I picked him up at the airport in Jo’burg (Johannesburg) for the last race in South Africa and he looked a different man. By submitting above you agree to the Speedcafe.com Privacy Policy. “He had a fitness test and got on the bike and I think we finished 12th and picked up a couple of points, but it was a hard weekend. “The reliability of the Honda meant that the only thing that was really going to stop you was a crash.”. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Originally from the Gold Coast, near Brisbane, Doohan attended St Joseph's College, Gregory Terrace, Brisbane. “I remember after him getting to Italy one of Dr Costa’s assistants would put him in a station wagon and, driving like Italians do, drive him every day down to a decompression chamber to try and get the blood flowing. Sharing the full story, not just the headlines. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? 'active' : ''"> “They had a catering truck waiting on the ground and that’s how he got loaded on to the plane. 'active' : ''"> Can you imagine the ride in that car? Doohan is second in the world championship with 33 points, behind Kenny Roberts Jnr on a maximum 50 after the 25-year-old American won both races this season for Suzuki. “I ended up in California after that crash and Dick came with me to do all the heavy lifting. “I remember JB (Burgess) and myself had a memorable moment driving from a race in Spain to a test in Italy. Observers estimated he was doing about 110mph when the front wheel wobbled and threw him off. The injury was a double spiral fracture – enough to put any normal human out of action for many weeks followed by more months of physiotherapy, but Doohan was already formulating his plan of recovery from the stretcher. While the 1992 crash at Assen was a massive setback for Doohan’s career, the racing icon agreed that the close call was a significant factor in keeping him largely in one piece for the rest of his professional racing days. Early in his new gig, Smart forged one of his longest and most important friendships of his life with talented rider and later industry heavyweight, Paul Feeney. “I guess that was really the start of a long working relationship and we have been mates for a long while. “When the lap times got down to what they should be he said ‘okay, let’s go and have a bit of a look’. “The track was a little damp and Mick (Doohan) just sat in the garage and watched and waited as the others went out. 'active' : ''"> will be published daily in dedicated articles. “He dug in and went, ‘right, I’ve got this’,” said Smart. “Mick was winning everything with a thumb break. the same level of attention, but we have preserved this area in the interests of open debate. “The Italian surgeon (Costa) was able to come in to the surgery but he wasn’t able to operate. He wanted to win every time he was on the bike.”. It was a serious crash and badly broken leg that eventually forced Doohan into retirement in 1999 following a disastrous Spanish Grand Prix qualifying, but it was a broken leg some seven years earlier that nearly ended the Gold Coast legend’s career when it had barely started. POLL: Which championship win is McLaughlin’s best? Are you sure you want to mark this comment as inappropriate? A gargantuan effort wasn’t enough to seal a win that year but, incredibly, Doohan only missed out by “about four points” riding with a seriously weakened leg and compromised health following the assault his body had endured. “He got up on them and it just spun the back wheel. Oldest first, -1) ? Doohan returned for the last two races of the season in an effort to clinch the title in what is regarded as one of the bravest efforts in motorsport history. Smart says the day the championship was clinched in the Czech Republic is a little vague, but the team would have treated it like any other. That all came to a numbing halt on Friday May 7, 1999 when Doohan was involved in a crash that would ultimately end his career. The strange remark should have been a warning flag, but the surgery went ahead that night. That all came to a numbing halt on Friday May 7, 1999 when Doohan was involved in a crash that would ultimately end his career. Basically he was removed from the surgery during the operation because he could see they were doing some things wrong. “I remember saying ‘Jesus JB (Burgess), that was a Honda muffler’. The WhichCar Network: Everything car buyers need and car lovers want. But the path to two-wheeled legendary status, the sporting Hall of Fame and a Member of the Order of Australia is littered with shattered bones and paved with death-defying resilience in the face of adversity. Due to the sheer scale of this comment community, we are not able to give each post Doohan was transported to hospital in a nearby town and while the local authorities were doing what they could, the 1992 crash had the team prepared for such an incident. Guidelines. “Selina had to get back to Monaco because she was pregnant with Alexis, so I stayed on with Mick and I was there for about six weeks,” recalled Smart. "It just looked like he was pushing too hard and went over the limit," said fellow rider Carlos Checa. Doohan won the opening four races of the year, was second in the next two and then won again in Germany to give himself what looked an unassailable 65-point lead in the championship. “The ripple strips are not flat and I guess there was some water sitting in the dips of them. Some comments may require approval before being published which can take up to 48 hours. Screwing the bones back together should have saved precious weeks and kept Doohan’s dream of a championship alive, but it was his impatience that would eventually result in terrible complications. to your comment. A building that Feeney built at Lakeside to host the riding school, remains in place to this day. Doohan finished ninth in that first season and then fourth in his second and clinched his first victory in the penultimate round of the championship in Hungary before finishing second in front of a home crowd in Australia to team-mate Wayne Gardner at Phillip Island. The most insightful comments on all subjects “We had a process and Honda had a process. Enter your email to follow new comments on this article. “The team just told me to go with him (Doohan) and just do whatever I needed to do,” said Smart. They removed him again and put it back up.”. “Mick had a little citation jet and we managed to get him on it and directly into London where some tickets had been booked on a British Airways flight to San Francisco. “The Italian doctor came in in the morning and stated to take this cast off and lower my leg to get some circulation happening. “Yea, I remember that … Botched surgery and an unfaltering hunger for his maiden title almost cost Doohan his leg – or worse. Chronic gangrene; it wasn’t there yet but it was starting.”. “He had broken everything, but Dr Costa had given him plenty of stuff for the pain. Independent Premium. The existing Open Comments threads will continue to exist for those who do not subscribe to “I know everyone was pretty nervous, but we just kept our heads and didn’t change what we did every day,” said Smart. He organised a medical aircraft to come and pick myself and Kevin Schwantz up and take us back down to Bologna. Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile, There are no comments yet - be the first to add your thoughts, There are no Independent Premium comments yet - be the first to add your thoughts, Motorcycling: Doohan hurt in 110mph crash, Email already exists. © Copyright Are Media Pty Limited. I enjoyed it. He said last year that he still loved racing but this season, in which he faces his toughest challenge yet, could be his last: "I think new century, new job."
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