Biking Legends: Mick Doohan

The statistics are impressive by any standards: In a 10-year period between 1989 and ’99, Michael Sydney Doohan started 137 500cc Grand Prix races.

He finished on the podium 95 times, was on pole position 58 times, set 46 fastest laps, and won 54 races. That was enough to win five consecutive 500cc Grand Prix world championships.

But it wasn’t just the stats that impressed, it was the way Doohan went about his racing that made him one of the sport’s most revered competitors.

Doohan’s modus operandi was simple: Destroy your opponents every single time you go out on track. Break down their self-belief and dominate them so overwhelmingly that they’re only ever racing for second place.

In 1997 alone, Doohan, at the height of his powers, set four world records: most GP wins in a season (12), most pole positions in a season (12), most successive pole positions in a season (12), and most 500cc Grand Prix points in a season (340).

And this in an era when there were only 15 races in the championship…