Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126761
Don't think for a moment that Eddie Lawson is simple to understand. And don't for a single second take at face value whatever it is you see when you look at Eddie Lawson. Eddie Lawson may be the most complex person involved in motorcycle racing today. I first met him at Daytona, in 1976, when he was so uncertain and shy with his helmet off that he didn't know where to look when I took his photograph; he fidgeted and glanced around with wide eyes as if looking for help, wanting somebody to tell him what to do, finally turning to stand with his face toward a chain link fence, away from the camera. But when free of the camera and the pits, when safely inside his helmet, on his motorcycle, on the racetrack, Eddie Lawson won the 250cc Novice race, leaving the competition far behind. I'd never seen him on a road racer before, and he lives in the same area of California that I lived in. In the meantime, Lawson has become a Grand Prix Slar, on the way winning U.S. Championships twoat a time and leaving a trail of confusion everywhere he goes: Eddie Lawson is often misunderstood. So I've known him eight years now; been to his house; invited him to my house; ridden street bikes with him; raced against (and lost to) him on the track; arranged rides for him early in his career (with Moriwaki); traveled with him; argued with him; pissed him of[; laughed with him. I don't understand him, probably never will. I've misinterpreted things he's said and done, and you have, too, if you've ever seen him in person. But one thing I've never done is underestimate him, or doubt the depth of his talent. Eddie Lawson reaches his abilities one step 'Ita time, methodically, smoothly, controllably, with the same reserve and self-council he shows in his private life. I am certain of one thing: Eddie Lawson has within himself what it takes to be the greatest motorcycle racer of all time; greater than Kenny Roberts; greater than Freddie Spencer; greater than anyone. All he has to do is find it, and use it. And he will. Believe me, he will. Call him Steady Eddie The Eddie Lawson story ••• By John Ulrich Photos by Henny Ray Abrams 20 Eddie Lawson and Freddie Spencer are both immensely talented riders, two young Americans headed for a collision course on the race tracks of the Grand Prix circuit. But beyond that, they are very different. Freddie Spencer is the World Champion, hauing raced and beaten Kenny Roberts to take the title in 1983. That's an overwhelming achievement, yet Spencer seems distinctly underwhelmed. When 1 ran into him in Atlanta a few months after he took the title 1 asked him"Do you ever wake up in the morning, look in the mirror and say to yourself 'I'm World Champion!' and just wonder about it a1l1" "No," Spencer told me. "When you've worked so long to get somewhere, once you reach it, it's like you were supposed to reach it all along."; £ddie, on ihe other hand, seems to me to carry an intense fire, a single-minded desire just below his calm surface. Lawson is, beneath appearances, mad as hell and biding his time to make his move. Deliberate, determined, capable, Lawson works his way forward,. one step at a time, • learning all the way. He's still bitter, he admits, about things that happened four years ago, when Wes Cooley won the Superbike Championship in the courtroom, so to speak, instead of on the race track. And Lawson hasn't forgotten the indignities he suffered at the hands of mighty Honda, when Specner's 1981 PR machine almost overrode the fact that Lawson was Superbike Champion. At dinner one night with two journalist friends, Lawson recounted what he considered foul play by Honda-or at least arrogant play-in areas ranging from Honda mechanics cutting the electrical supply cords leading to other teams' motorhomes in one European paddock to their harassment of any writer who doesn't follow the Honda party line, ,to the sheer quantity of their resources. Lawson, like most everyone in racing who isn't part of the Honda machine, views Honda as the enemy, the freespending intruder. But Lawson, unlike most everyone else, is in a position to do something about it: to beat Honda. That rallying cry, that feeling 'of a crusade, may playa big part in the 1984 season. Make no mistake, Freddie Spencer is a gentleman, a nice guy, a World Champion. . But Eddie Lawson seems to me to be driven. Add that force to his steady, reliable riding and Eddie will-my opinion here-either simply beat Freddie or else be ready when and if the Honda falters, with the same result. And if I've called it wrong, 1 can live with that. That's why they have races. To see who will win. . Let me tell you a story about Eddie Lawson. In July of 1982 he went to Laguna Seca Raceway, a famous but dangerous track lined with sheer cliffs and armco barriers. Law on won the Superbike race there. Then he entered the Formula One event on the noncompetitive KR500, racing against Roberts on a works Yamaha and Spencer on a works Honda, as well as Mamola on a works Suzuki. What the KR500 lacked in capability, Lawson auempted to make up in rider ability and audacity. A year before, in winning the Formula Two (250cc) race and setting a new lap record, he had become the first man to get a 250 through Laguna's treacherous Turn Two without backing off the throule one bit. So it was no large surprise when my friend and fellow ,racer Lee Fleming looked up from his stopwatches during the Formula One event, shook his head and said, "Lawson is geuing through Turn Two faster than anybody, by a couple of tenths of a second. He's faster than Roberts through there, and has been every lap I've timed them." Even as Fleming spoke a wisp of smoke rose from the KR500's front tire, and it slid out. Lawson went down and hit the hay bales piled in front of the wall of dirt bordering that part of the track. When the dust cleared, worried spectators saw Lawson move one arm in a feeble gesture, the arm rising a few inches and then ~_ .... ;