Mick Doohan

Born in Brisbane (Australia) on June 4, 1965, Doohan began his adventure in motorcycling in early childhood thanks to his parents, owners of a Honda dealership at the time.

Little Mick begins his journey in the world of motorcycles at the age of seven, but is at nine years of age that he starts racing and participating in races on weekends, together with his two brothers. The father accompanies them to the races and creates a small track to allow his boys to train.

Mick doesn't like the school, so at the age of 15 he decides to leave it and starts working at construction sites. But the passion for motorcycling is too strong so much that Mick quits his job, at the age of 19, to devote himself full time to the sport that gives him many rewards. Parents worried about their son's future didn't immediately approve of that drastic decision, but changed their mind 12 months later, when Mick signed his first real engagement.

In 1988 the young Doohan began his adventure in the Superbike World Championship as a Wild Card where he obtained a victory in Sugo (Japan) and won both heats in Oran Park (Australia).

These three successes, together with the excellent results achieved in previous racing experiences, opened the doors of the MotoGP world wide, just in 1989.

1990 is the year of the first victory in the premier class, obtained in the Hungarian GP but also of three other podiums reached in the United States GP, Australia and Italy.

Doohan ends his second year in 500 with an excellent third place overall behind Wayne Rainey and Kevin Schwantz, but a champion is not satisfied with being in the shadow of direct opponents and the desire to assert himself projects him towards the new season more charged than ever .

1992 starts well, Mick takes great care of the physical preparation and the bike is particularly performing, so much so that he gets 5 wins (four in a row) and two second places, but the satisfactory season is interrupted in June, on the occasion of the Dutch GP in Assen where Mick, during some test laps needed to test a new set of pistons, falls off the bike and breaks his right leg, with the risk of amputation.

Thanks to the intervention of dr. Claudio Costa, this danger is averted, but the Australian's leg remains forever compromised on a functional level and his long hospital stay precludes any possibility of returning to the track to continue the road to victory in the world championship.

Mick returns to the limping track on the occasion of the Interlagos GP (Brazil), concludes the race with the twelfth place while in the last round in South Africa he gets the 6th place.

In 1995 Mick started at his best and with the number 1 on the NSR 500 windscreen, he won the first two races in Australia and Malaysia and got a second place in Japan.

In Spain and Germany he falls and loses the head of the ranking that goes to Australian colleague Daryl Beattie. But Doohan wins the next 4 races (Italy, Holland, France and England) taking back the lead of the classification and putting the definitive seal on the 1995 world championship with a race in advance (Argentina).

1997 is the year of new records and the fourth consecutive world title. With this important milestone reached, Doohan equals Giacomo Agostini and the late Mike Haylwood.

The three champions are now united by the victory of four consecutive world championships in the top class. Doohan achieves the record of races won in one season, 12 of which 10 in a row, an absolute supremacy lasting 6 months, with stratospheric detachments on opponents and victories in total solitude.

Closes the season with 340 points scored.

1999 starts uncertainly, the bike has tuning problems and in the first two races Mick gets only a fourth and a second place. On May 8, 1999 in Jerez, the third round of the MotoGP season, Doohan fell at 200 km / h with his Honda NSR 500 Repsol during qualifying and suffered a fractured wrist, collarbone and leg. It comes out with three plates and 18 metal screws scattered around the body.

For most of the season, the rider was vainly expected to return to the track, but at the end of the season Doohan officially announces his retirement from racing.

Here ends the career of a great champion who with 5 consecutive World Championships and 54 GPs won in the highest class is the third strongest rider in the history of motorcycling, behind Giacomo Agostini and Valentino Rossi.