After 75 years, Dunlop has won its last grand prix

This difference even applied to Rainey and Schwantz, two of the bravest, most talented riders of all time. Even though they had slightly less grip than they’d had with Michelins in 1990, they demolished the lap record at many of the circuits they went to, their sideways motorcycles leaving arcs of smouldering rubber wherever they went.

Several 1991 GPs were staged at new or revised circuits, and yet Rainey and Schwantz broke lap records – most of them their own, established with Michelin in 1990 and 1989 – at eight circuits: Jerez, Misano, Hockenheim, Salzburgring, Assen, Circuit Paul Ricard, Donington and Brno.

And this was in spite of a 13% increase in the category’s minimum weight limit, from 115 kilos to 130. Perhaps the easy-sliding Dunlops helped Rainey and Schwantz turn their bikes better, which wouldn’t have done any harm to their lap times.

Nevertheless when Michelin announced it was returning to GPs in 1992 both Team Roberts and Suzuki ditched Dunlop and returned to the French manufacturer. Dunlop’s top finisher that year was Spanish Yamaha rider Juan Garriga, in seventh. And yet only three lap records were broken in 1992, confirming that although the Michelins had more outright grip they didn’t have more outright speed.

In 1993 Roberts decided to take the let’s-be-different route again, so he returned to Dunlop. The tyres were good, at least some of the time.

Rainey won the greatest of his 24 GP victories at round two at Suzuka, where he had his famous out-of-body experience (about which he didn’t speak publicly until after he had retired through injury at the end of that season).

“I remember being at the press conference afterwards and thinking, ‘I can’t tell them this – they won’t let me on the racetrack!’. What happened in the race was a really odd feeing, it was so unnatural. It was like I was looking down at myself going into the fast right before the hairpin and laughing, smiling and giggling. That moment is so clear to this day, I don’t know how or why it happened, but I know it did happen.

“That race was awesome, the best I’d ever done. I was having so much fun on the bike, really enjoying what I was doing, probably more than ever in my career. I’d gotten a bad start, Schwantz was riding good and was leading. I was thinking, ‘Man he’s gonna take off!’. Then I caught him, passed him and pulled out a bit. I was the only guy on Dunlops and my tyres went off a little, so I was able to slow down some, cool the tyres off, drop back to fourth, then make another charge towards the end.

‘Normally you can’t do things like that in a race, you’re normally flat out all the way, but I was able to exploit the advantage I had with the tyres, and that’s what won me the race. I knew I had a performance advantage…