REVIEW: Wayne is a speedy little doco on motorbike champ Wayne Gardner that crosses the finishing line in fine style

REVIEW: Wayne is an enjoyable documentary on pioneering Australian motorcycle racing ace Wayne Gardner. Not exactly a classic of the form, but a fitting tribute to a fast (and fast-living) rider.

WAYNE (M)

Rating: Three stars (3 out of 5)

Director: Jeremy Sims (documentary debut)

Starring: Wayne Gardner, Donna Kahlbetzer, Eddie Lawson.

Too real on two wheels

This enjoyable documentary on pioneering Australian motorcycle racing ace Wayne Gardner is not exactly a classic of the form, but remains a fitting tribute to a bloke who rode as fast as he bloody well could, and had a blast while doing so.

Australian motorcycle champion Wayne Gardner is the focus of documentary film Wayne Screening in MIFF 2018

What the doco Wayne does very well is chart the immense distance - both literally and metaphorically - Gardner had to traverse to become the first Australian to win the coveted 500cc World Championship.

A Wollongong boy through and through, Gardner first connected with his need for speed as a teenager, after buying a rundown ride for five bucks at the local wreckers.

Inside a decade later, Gardner had slowly ascended through the ranks - cheating death, courting luck and flouting convention along the way - to become top dog in one of the most dangerous competitive sports on the planet.

Especially in the mid-1980s, where on-track safety and off-track lifestyle choices were not, ahem, quite as evolved as they are today.

Wayne Gardner is thrown from his motorcycle and headed for a crash in the 1990 Czech Grand Prix, in a scene from documentary film Wayne Transmission Films

The race footage sourced from that rough-and-tumble era serves as an exciting eye-opener for both seasoned motorbike racing buffs, and those of us who know nothing of the sport and probably never will.

The interview sequences are satisfying enough, without ever really drilling down too far into Gardner’s knockabout persona.

The standout contributors - aside from Gardner himself, whose honest turn of phrase is a delight throughout - are the subject’s very supportive ex-wife Donna, and his long-time American arch-rival (and former teammate for a brief time there) Eddie Lawson.

Wayne Gardner and his then girlfriend, now ex-wife, Donna Kahlbetzer nee Forbes in Monaco during the 1980s. The pair look back over Gardner's motorcycle grand prix career in the documentary film Wayne. Transmission Films