Motorcycling: Rainey to run his own team

Wayne Rainey, the three-times former world 500cc champion who is permanently confined to a wheelchair, is to manage his own racing team. Rainey, who suffered spinal cord damage in a race fall at Misano Adriatico, in Italy, last September, will enter Marlboro Team Rainey in 250cc world championship races this year. Kenny Roberts Jnr, whose father Kenny Snr is also a former world champion running his own outfit, will be Rainey's rider, making his debut at next month's Japanese Grand Prix. Rainey made the announcement at the Eastern Creek circuit, near Sydney, where the season's opening grand prix, the Australian, is being staged. John Kocinski put his Cagiva on pole position, with Italy's Luca Cadalora alongside the American after lapping only 0.129sec slower than the American's record. Australia's Michael Doohan and another American, Kevin Schwantz, who has a cast protecting a broken arm, completed the front row.

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