[5] Following his success in the Novice 250cc roadrace class, Kawasaki hired him to compete in the 1982 AMA Superbike Championship as a teammate to the then defending National Champion Eddie Lawson.

[3] The following year, Lawson moved to the Grand Prix circuit and Rainey took over the role of leading rider, earning the 1983 National Championship for Kawasaki.

[3] In 1984, he accepted an offer to ride for the newly formed Kenny Roberts Yamaha racing team in the 250cc class of the Grand Prix World Championship.

So intense was their rivalry that they continued their battle during the 1987 Transatlantic Trophy match races in which they were supposedly teammates competing against a team of British riders.

[2] Also in 1988, he and his Team Roberts Yamaha teammate Kevin Magee won the prestigious Suzuka 8 Hours endurance race in Japan.

[3] He slid into the gravel trap at high speed, breaking his spine against the raked surface designed as a safety feature for car racing.

After several seasons of poor decisions by Daytona Motorsports Group, the organization that operated AMA-sanctioned road racing beginning in 2009, a dispute with Dorna/Infront in 2013 regarding AMA Superbike coverage on shared FIM weekends led to a lack of media coverage for that year's Superbike round at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, as well as the Harley-Davidson XR1200 round at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in both 2013 and 2014, the AMA transferred the commercial rights to AMA-sanctioned road racing to Rainey and his business partners at the end of 2014.

They have one son, Rex, who graduated from Pepperdine University and works at CBS Television Distribution with the Entertainment Tonight and The Insider accounts.