CW 5Q: Mick Doohan

Hangin’ with the Thunder from Down Under

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Five-time 500cc World Champion Mick Doohan retired, unfortunately, due to injury. Practicing for the third round of the 1999 championship at Jerez, Spain, he touched a damp paint line bordering the racing surface. His Repsol Honda NSR500 lost traction, and he was vaulted into the ether, eventually coming back to Earth in a violent, tumbling fall that left him with a broken right shoulder and leg, and a fractured left wrist.

I first met Doohan at Australia’s Eastern Creek racetrack in 1996. I had asked longtime Suzuki man Kevin Schwantz to ride Doohan’s Jeremy Burgess-tuned factory Honda at the annual end-of-season racer test, and the affable Aussie went out of his way to answer my questions. Our paths have crossed a number of times since then, most recently at the Italian GP at Mugello.

Now 42 years of age, a husband and father of two young children, Doohan actually looks younger than when he was competing. “I guess I’m a bit more relaxed,” he admitted. The old war injuries appear to have faded and he walks without a limp, which is a minor miracle.

CW: What brings you to Italy? MD:

“I hadn’t been to a Grand Prix this year. I was in Europe—I still have a place not far away from here—so I decided to come down and have a look. I help (sanctioning body) Dorna a little bit; I’m involved with those guys on an advisory level. So I show up to half a dozen events a year.”

CW: Are you still flying your own aircraft?

MD: “I am. I’m a helicopter pilot and a plane pilot. I very rarely fly planes, but I’m in the helicopter all the time. I have an aviation company in Australia. We run small aircraft—corporate jets—in Australia and Southeast Asia. If you have an aircraft, we crew, manage and maintain it. I own two of them. We manage 12 aircraft in total. We have the biggest group under one umbrella in the country.”

CW: Is that your only business?

MD: “My prime business is property. We’ve started some restaurants and bars in Las Vegas with the MGM Mirage group. The first one opens later this year in the Luxor. I wasn’t very interested until I went out and had a look at the way things operate out there. It looked quite good, so for about 12 months now we’ve been out there getting this thing together. This one will be called the ‘Cat House.’ The restaurant is run by Iron Chef Kerry Simon. He has ‘Simon L.A.’ in Beverly Hills and ‘Simon Kitchen & Bar’ at the Hard Rock in Vegas. The lounge is very up-market. We’ve got another one opening next year, as well.”

CW: Has your racing competitiveness transferred to business?

MD: “I suppose it has. I didn’t like losing races, and I don’t like losing money! Nothing is ever easy, and I wouldn’t say that every week is a winner. On a whole, things are okay. We do a lot of government work, medevac, corporations–that type of stuff. It’s purely business; if it’s not working, then we’re not doing it.”

CW: Do you have any interest in returning to GP racing on a management level?

MD: “It would be difficult for me. To come for a weekend is quite easy. To be away from the office for two or three weeks at a time is pretty tough. It would have to be something very encouraging for me to be here and to put somebody in place of me back in Australia to run the rest of the show. I still have a great love for the bikes, for MotoGP and especially Honda. It would be great to see them pick their socks back up, and I would look forward to doing anything I could do to help them.”

Sound off! What's your favorite Doohan moment from back in the day?

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