Originally from the Gold Coast, Queensland, Doohan raced in Australian Superbikes in the late 1980s. In 1988, he won both races as the Superbike World Championship visited Oran Park, as well as the second leg of the Japanese round held earlier in the year. He also won the final Australian motorcycle Grand Prix to be held in the TT format at Mount Panorama before the race became a round of the World Championship the following year and moved to Phillip Island. He is one of the few 500 cc or MotoGP World Champions to have won a Superbike World Championship race.
Doohan made his Grand Prix debut for Honda on an NSR 500 cc two-stroke motorcycle in 1989. Late in the 1990 season, he claimed his first victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix on his way to third in the championship.
In 1991, Doohan was paired with fellow Australian Wayne Gardner on a Honda RVF750 superbike and won the Suzuka 8 Hours endurance race.
Doohan appeared to be on his way to winning his first world championship when he was seriously injured in a practice crash before the 1992 Dutch TT. He suffered permanent and serious damage to his right leg due to medical complications and, at one stage, faced amputation of the leg. At the time, Doohan was 65 points in the lead of the championship, but could not compete for eight weeks after the crash. After an arduous recovery, he returned to racing for the final two races but could not prevent Yamaha rider Wayne Rainey from winning his third consecutive title by four points from Doohan.
In 1993, he struggled with the healing of his leg and the ability to race the Honda at elite level. It was during this time he switched to a left thumb-operated rear brake, as his right foot was no longer able to perform this function.
In 1994, Doohan won his first 500 cc World Championship. Thereafter, until 1998, he dominated the class, winning five consecutive 500 cc World Championships. In 1997, his most successful year, Doohan won 12 out of 15 races, finished second in another two, and crashed out of the final race of the season at his home GP while leading by more than six seconds.
Despite up to eight rivals on non-factory HRC Honda motorcycles, Doohan's margin of superiority was such that in many races he would build a comfortable lead and then ride well within his limits to cruise to victory. His chief race engineer, Jeremy Burgess, was credited with perfecting the suspension and geometry of the racing motorcycle. Between 1994 and 1998 the bike was said not to have had many changes, with Honda engineers reportedly becoming frustrated at Doohan's reluctance to try innovations such as electronic shifting.
One notable trait of Doohan's post-crash riding style was the use of a thumb-operated rear brake, operated by a "nudge" bar similar to a personal water craft throttle, mounted on the left handlebar.
In 1999, Doohan had another accident in a very wet qualifying session for the Spanish Grand Prix. He again broke his leg in several places and subsequently announced his retirement. Jeremy Burgess, Doohan's chief engineer for his entire career, later became Valentino Rossi's chief engineer.
After Doohan retired he went to work as a roving adviser to Honda's Grand Prix race effort. At the conclusion of the 2004 season, Doohan and Honda parted company.
After his success in Grand Prix motorcycle racing, Doohan tested a Formula One race car, the Williams FW19, at Circuit de Catalunya in April 1998. He found the car difficult to drive and crashed against a guard rail.
In 2001, Doohan drove a Mercedes Benz CLK55 AMG works rally car with co-driver Mark Stacey in the 2001 Targa Tasmania rally. He was in thirteenth place on day three when he crashed the car; he and Stacey were uninjured.
In June 2011, Doohan made an appearance at the Isle of Man TT, completing a parade lap, and paid tribute to his former Honda racing teammate, Joey Dunlop.
In the 1996 Queen's Birthday Honours, Doohan was inducted as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for his contribution to the sport of motor racing. He received an Australian Sports Medal in 2000. He was awarded the "Key to the City" by the City of Gold Coast in 1997. He was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 2009. The first turn at Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit is named after him. In 2009, as part of the Q150 celebrations, Doohan was announced as one of the Q150 Icons of Queensland for his role as a "sports legend".
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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