Today in motorcycle history, May 27, 1990

 

 An American one-two finish at the 1990 German motorcycle Grand Prix as the rivalry of Kevin Schwantz and Wayne Rainey continues at Nurburgring.

 

  A rivalry that began at the 1987 Superbike National Championship and lasted until the career ending injuries suffered by Wayne Rainey at the 1993 Italian Grand Prix that left him paralyzed from the chest down.  Early into the 1995 season, after a conversation with Rainey, Kevin Schwantz decided to retire from the Grand Prix circus, partly due to nagging injuries and partly because losing the one great rival that had fired his competitive intensity made him view his own mortality much more clearly. 

  Schwantz had accumulated 25 Grand Prix wins during his career, one more than his great rival, Wayne Rainey.

  Kevin Schwantz and Wayne Rainey were both inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1999.  The FIM named them each a Grand Prix "Legend" in 2000.  In 2007 Rainey was also inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of  Fame.

 Schwantz co-designed the Circuit of the Americas racetrack with Tavo Hellmund and with the assistance of German architect and circuit designer Hermann Tilke.

 Wayne Rainey has refused to give up racing despite his disability and now races a hand-controlled Superkart in the World SuperKart series based in Northern California.  He lives in Monterey, California in a house which was built overlooking the Laguna Seca circuit shortly before his career ending accident. 

  The nearby circuit has named a corner in his honor, the Rainey Curve, a medium-speed, acute left-hander that follows the famous Corkscrew.