Early in 1988 Mick Doohan was asked how he would approach his first year of superbike racing with the Marlboro Yamaha Dealer Team. His reply was: "I'm pleased to be taking my racing further. I'll try as hard as I can without overdoing it. I'll cruise along and take it as it comes."

Doohan's remarks proved somewhat understated. He rarely cruised. As for taking it as it comes.....he went !!!

In fact, in the following months he jetted around the race-tracks of Australia and Japan like a lightning bolt. The cream of Australian and overseas superbike talent were left wondering what had hit them.

By October 1988, just 10 months into his first year racing superbikes, Mick Doohan had confirmed offers on the table from Japanese manufacturers Yamaha, Honda, and Suzuki. They were all chasing his services for the 1989 500cc world championship grand prix season.

Doohan had long harboured a burning ambition to race in the 500cc grand prix series. In 1989 his goal would become reality.

So what prompted the scurry by the Japanese factories toward the end of 1988 to secure Doohan's signature for the premier class of road racing the following year?

In short, his 1988 results were outstanding. He won 16 times from 33 starts on Yamaha four-stroke 750cc Formula One and superbike machinery in Australia and Japan.

Doohan's results that year included winning both heats of the Australian round of the inaugural World Superbike Championship at the Oran Park circuit on September 25. He broke the previous lap record a staggering 39 times that day, and lapped series leader Davide Tardozzi of Italy on a Bimota in both races.

Sydney-based motorsport journalists who attended the Oran Park meeting were in raptures. "It was a flawless performance," wrote Mike Kable in "The Australian." Alan Kennedy said in "The Sydney Morning Herald: "Doohan even had time to wave goodbye to Tardozzi as he thundered past."

Doohan delighted spectators at Oran Park that day by sliding the Marlboro Yamaha Dealer Team FZR750 at every opportunity. He claims he was "just having some fun."

"Sometimes you can get around the corners just as fast keeping the wheels straight," he said. "But I just love the feel of getting sideways and the back wheel spinning. You come around the next time and you see the rubber you've laid and you want to try and go a bit longer."

That's pretty enlightening considering Doohan, in his own words, was supposed to be spending 1988 in cruise-mode.

Another factor that made Doohan a target for 500cc grand prix teams in late 1988 was three superb victories in Japan in the second half of the year. His wins were in the Japanese round of the World Superbike Championship at Sugo, the TBC Formula One race at Sugo, and the Fuji SuperSprint at Fuji.

Those results were crucial for Doohan's future because he was displaying his class before the Japanese manufacturers. It was the same formula for success that had taken his Marlboro Yamaha Dealer Team predecessor Kevin Magee into 500cc world championship racing.

On home soil Doohan was equally dominant in 1988, especially in the annual Bathurst meeting at Easter. He won the Arai 500 endurance race with Marlboro Yamaha Dealer Team partner Mike Dowson, and then took the chequered flag in the Australian 1000cc Grand Prix on a waterlogged circuit the following day.

To fully understand the merit of Doohan's achievements in 1988, it must be pointed out his closest rivals in Australia were themselves top-flight performers.

When Doohan joined the Marlboro Yamaha Dealer Team the "Big Three" of Australian superbike racing were his Brisbane-based team-mate Mike Dowson, Albury's Rob Phillis riding for Kawasaki, and long-serving Honda spearhead Malcolm Campbell of Tasmania.

Dowson has a top 10 finish to his credit in the 500cc world championship. He has won races in the World Superbike Championship and the Formula One TT World Championship, and finished second with Kevin Magee in the 1986 Suzuka Eight-Hour.

Campbell earned 500cc world championship points in the 1988 French Grand Prix and in the past decade his record in domestic racing includes winning the Castrol Six-Hour, the Australian Superbike Championship, and the Swann Insurance International Series. Phillis, a five-times Australian superbike champion, is now a front-runner in the World Superbike Championship.

The previous year (1987) Dowson, Campbell, and Phillis were the yardstick by which Magee was judged in domestic racing.

Continued on page 2...