IMO and I say this as a Doohan tragic in so many ways, but for me, he was and remains the best rider/racer I have seen, although as hypocritical as it may sound, I would not describe him as the most talented/gifted on a motorcycle.
I immediately realised how good MD was at the World Superbike Championship held at Oran Park in Sydney in 1988, where he rode the Australian Factory Marlboro Yamaha to a double victory, lapping the reigning world champion not once, but twice in one of the races (that year he competed in 4 WSBK races, won 3). Whilst yes this was on a somewhat home track (Mick was not a NSW native) the way he demolished and demoralised the international field was a sight to behold and I recall that there was a lot of chatter around the time about doors opening.
He then moved to the HRC team and was somewhat third fiddle to Gardner and Lawson but did not produce to much in terms of what was to come as he first had to learn the 500cc machines, having only ridden the RZ500 for team camo, but one could see hunger, desire and drive.
Whilst his career and results is well known, I do feel that he is often overlooked when people mention the likes of Schwantz and Rainey as from my admittedly biased side, he more than had their measure up until the fateful day in Assen which was followed more by the Dutch butcher posing as a doctor.
To try to put this to perspective, I rate Rainey as the second best, but I say that in terms of him being superior to so many others, but I rate Doohan some distance in front (please do allow me my bias) and to watch these two go at it hammer and tongs was something that people who think that we have racing today would drop their jaws when these two went at it (and that does not include the side players).
He asked no quarter, and gave no quarter on the track. He simply did not care who you were as to him, you were not a racer but the enemy for the duration of the race and we would race you hard and by today's standards he would likely be considered somewhat dirty as the infamous post-race video from Eastern Creek would attest.
He was an angry competitor, to him 2nd was not just first loser but may as well have been last placed as he was not here for second.
His manner at times was abrasive, abrupt even such was his drive and he played games well before they became part of the modern legend.
He decided to ride the screamer motor that others could not ride and he dominated once again only to see others then try to ride it, and fail miserably.
He was not perfect by any means as I have been told stories from the track that make the modern day abrasive accusations pale. He was a prick at the track, hated the world and hated the other riders, hated publicity needs of the teams as he was there to ride and that is all he wanted to do, and man could he ride.
He still had the competitiveness post retirement as he ran an exhibition lap one year at the island that was said to be with 10 seconds of pole, and he did it with helmet off on a production bike on road tyres.
Sorry for the ramble but to me, he was Australia's greatest road racer in the last 50 years and I always find discussion interesting surrounding him and riders of that era who I firmly believe would teach the modern racers a lesson, but would not be as media savvy as the modern guys need to be. God I miss those old days.
EDIT.
I forgot to add that an indication of his mentality was at Jerez one year where Criville led the race on the last lap and the crowd started to invade the circuit. Criville slowed, MD did not and simply raced through the crowd for the win dodging spectators as he went. That day, he wanted a win and took it, some call it lucky, some called it dirty but I call it a winners mentality.
https://vimeo.com/29255001
This includes Mick's take on the issue but covers more than just the race itself
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHgrMXLdV4Q
There is also the one lap dash one year at Assen one year where the session was dry but became wet and Simon Crafar had seemingly secured pole (in dry) but somewhat forgot to tell Mick (will try to find the video). On a drying track he produced a a ferocious lap of unbridled drive and he beat Crafar, the conditions making the lap so brutal with Crafar seen to comment '....... awesome man' such was the enormity of the one lap.
This is the only video I can find -
https://www.gaskrank.tv/tv/racing/legendaerer-kampf-zwischen-mic-7059.htm
Another video - from official Motogp site -
http://www.motogp.com/e0e580b9-75c4-4ead-8a96-e1d9fccf31b1
