1993 United States motorcycle Grand Prix

The 1993 United States motorcycle Grand Prix was the penultimate round of the 1993 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season. It took place on 12th September, 1993 at Laguna Seca.

500 cc race report

Everyone now knows Wayne Rainey’s career is over after his crash the previous round and that Kevin Schwantz is the 1993 world champion.

Kenny Roberts on the question of retiring: “I’ve thought about it the last week, but Wayne wants to work in Grand Prix racing. That’s going to keep the edge sharp, because he wants to help the team, he wants to help riders, he wants to follow along in what I’ve done. And that’s going to keep me involved. Wayne’s a big, big part of my team, and if he was disgusted with the whole thing, then yeah, it’d probably take a lot of the edge off. And he doesn’t show any signs of that and that’s probably going to keep me involved, otherwise I … well, you know, I can do anything I want to do, but he’s a driving force right now.” [Duke Video, “Bike 500 GP 1993 Review”. Videocassette.]

Schwantz on winning the championship: “Everybody’s thinking about Wayne, and we all wish Wayne and Shae and Rex the best, but at the same time, I feel like we raced all season … to put ourselves in a position to be there to take advantage of any opportunities, any doors that were open. I feel like we still earned it — we weren’t given it.” [--Ibid.]

Rainey: “Kevin called. I said to him: You deserve it. And hey, I made the mistake. It doesn’t take anything away from what you did to win your championship.” [Scott, Michael. "Wayne Rainey: His Own Story". Page 190. Sparkford: Haynes Publishing, 1997.]

John Kocinski takes the start from Mick Doohan, Schwantz and Alex Barros.

Teammates Schwantz and Barros pass Kocinski.

Barros starts to pull away, and at Turn 11, Kocinski tries an inside pass on Schwantz that doesn’t quite stick allows Doohan to come up and they go down the straight 3 abreast. Schwantz stays to the inside and takes the hairpin ahead of Doohan and Kocinski.

Doohan gets past Schwantz and hunts down Barros and takes the lead. Kocinski also passes Barros.

Doohan’s bike hops a bit on the exit of The Corkscrew and he loses his footing and almost rides it side-saddle but clips the hay bales on the left side of the track with his shoulder. He’s almost hit by two bikes as he slides into the track, and gets up but looks to be in pain.

Kocinski’s win is Cagiva’s first dry win in GP racing; Eddie Lawson won a wet race last year, but a lucky tire choice was seen as the main reason for the win.

500cc classification

Notes

MotoGP_race_report
Name_of_race = United States Grand Prix
Year_of_race = 1993
Previous_race_in_season = 1993 Italian Grand Prix
Next_race_in_season = 1993 FIM Grand Prix
Previous_year's_race = 1991 United States Grand Prix
Next_year's_race = 1994 United States Grand Prix