"Something inside me told me: 'This is it, this is the way to go'."

Wayne Gardner was born on October 11, 1959, in Wollongong, a coastal city 80 km south of Sydney. Wollongong is Australia's steel-making capital, a tough, working-class city in a stunning location between beautiful beaches, and bush-covered escarpment.

He was the eldest child of Norm and Shirley Gardner. A sister, Vicki, was to come along a few years later.

From the start, Wayne was a daredevil and a likeable rogue, the kind of kid Australians call a larrikin. He was always looking for adventure, always testing himself, always looking to go one better than the rest and always on the hunt for speed. Bicycles, 'billycarts', anything that moved.

When he was 13, his passion for speed and fascination with anything mechanical led him to his first go kart, built by his father from scrap steel and an old 125cc lawn mower engine. Many adventures followed, Wayne racing 'round back streets, dodging police and angry neighbours.

One day, while he and friend Barry Sisson were scavenging in a junkyard, they came across a find that was to change Wayne's life, and ultimately take him to fame, fortune and a world championship. A motorcycle. At least, it had once been.

"It was a rusted heap of junk," Wayne says. "It was half-buried, the engine was seized and rusted up, and it had no back wheel. It was a Yamaha 80 Agricultural bike, and must have been sitting there for donkey's years. But we reckoned we could fix it up, so we eventually got up the nerve to ask the factory manager if we could buy it. He only wanted beer money and said we could have it for $5, so off we went to our moneyboxes to get $2.50 each." So started Wayne's love affair with two wheels, an obsession that was to take him through a succession of motorcycles, junior mini-bike clubs and races to his first dirt-track meeting at the age of 15.

He won all six races that day and stuck with dirt-track racing for two years, developing the famous wheel-spinning, sliding, 'let-it-all-hang-out' style that was to revolutionise Grand Prix racing thanks to Wayne and American dirt-trackers like Kenny Roberts, Eddie Lawson, Wayne Rainey and Kevin Schwantz. All had grown up on a dirt diet and all went on to win 500cc world titles.

At the end of 1976, Wollongong Motorcycle Club member John Zammit persuaded Wayne to try road racing. He put road tyres on his 125cc Yamaha dirt-tracker, headed to Sydney's Oran Park Raceway and finished second. After the meeting, Zammit allowed Wayne to take his TZ250 Yamaha racer out for a few laps.

He was hooked by road racing, and knew immediately what direction his life was going to take.

"I was convinced this was what I wanted. Something inside me told me: 'This is it, this is the way to go.'"