Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

I ~ INTERVIEW Eddie Lawson By Dean Adams Photos by Henny Ray Abrams d die Lawson is regarded by many as the greatest rider of the modem era; four World Championship s and 31 Grand Prix v ictories attest to that. Devout fans flood ed th e gates at Da ytona and 5uzuka this season to watch the ma ster rid e aga in, half a year after retiring from the GP circuit. He said before steppi ng out that he was th rough racing mot orcycl es and wan ted to move on to the ne xt step in his plan, racing cars. Nobody seriously qu estioned his m otivati on s w hen he ap peared on a Vance & Hines Yamaha a t Da ytona, th ey w e re all jus t ve ry ha p py to see the old boy racing stateside again. His win at Daytona was of epic proportions, and solidified the se ntime n t that two seasons developing the Cagiva ha d not slowed Laws on d own a minu scule amount. He found h im se lf bombarded wi th qu estions after D a yto n a . When will you r ace aga in ? H is answe rs w ere in te n ti o n a lly vag ue because he himself wasn't sure that he wo u ld ag ain r ac e a m otorcycle . He planned an idy llic su m me r on his ultraexpens ive carbon fiber racin g b oat on th e Colorado River with a bikini clad compa nio n w hen not learning the insides of the cockpit of an Ind y Ligh ts racing car he had purchased . Then Erv Kanemoto stepped in with the p rop osa l to"d o some GP racing on a factory H ond a if the sponsorship could be foun d. Law son, always a grea t .a d m i r e r of Kanemoto from th eir da ys together winning the World Championship in 1989, wa s game. But finances kept the pair fr o m teaming up aga in ; the potential sponsor was reportedly Japanese and with _ their economy very fragil e, money was tight. As a n alternative , Kanemo to co nvinced Lawson to race the prestigious 5uzuka 8-Hour with him. Convinced is prob ably too strong a word , fo r if Kan em oto called wa nti ng him to race ga rden tra ctors, La wson would corn e runnin g, no p e rsuasion need ed . Th e bond between them is that stro ng and the mutual res pect runs very deep. A crash kept them from w inni ng the event and in the post-race"photog rap hs one can see that Lawson was very unhappy about finis hing second. Typical. I interviewed Lawson while he was tes ting the Leadin g Edg e Indy Lig hts race car a t Mid-Ohio, With Lawson there is no flowery d ialogu e or obvious public rela tions-type q uo tes , he is a ra cer throu gh a n d through, and his answers are concise and succinct. He do esn't suffer idio ts very w e ll a n d th is h as g o t te n hi m removed from several GP corresp on dents ' Christma s ca rd lis ts . I asked wh at his opinion of the pr ess was and he informed me that he doesn't believe an ythin g he rea d s in th e en th usiast papers. E 30 A friend r e la tes a s to ry ab o u t Lawson that is fairly characteristic of him and perhaps gi ves some ins ig h t into Eddie Lawson, the man. . The two raced a Japanese end urance race in the early ' 80s . H e fi nished a res pec ta b le se co nd in the ra ce a ft er crashing, scene s of the fut ure. Preparing to fly ou t of Ja pan, th e pair ca rr ied the ir bags of clo thes and gea r th rou gh th e Ja p a n ese airpor t, Lawson very bogged d own no t only w ith bags but with his second·place trophy that was almost as ta ll as he is. The y stopp ed a num be r o f ti mes , . Lawson switching the gear and trophy around to ease his burden. Fina lly, w ith th e board in g gate in si g h t, Lawson stopped, said, To hell with this," and abando ned the trophy, leaving it on the floor of the crowded 'airport. Law son s trode to the plane, never looking back at the majest ic reward for his ride. You see , it was slowing him down. And that cannot be tolerated. The y're two different motorcycles, the w eight is much lighter in the Honda and it's a lot smaller motorcycle. It's a GP bike wi th a four -stroke motor in it. Really, you can't compare the two, you could say they're four-strokes, but that is about as far as it goes. I really enjoyed rid ing the Honda because it was really very easy to flick a round. Th e V-four engine is a bit nicer to ride, tractable ... Desc ribe the crash that cost your team the w in . I hit som e oil and lost the front end and that pu t me straigh t and I ran onto the gravel trap . As soon as I hit the gravel the bike did a big swa p and stuck me in the hay ba le s or th e fo am barri er . I smacked my head real har d , sna p pe d my ne ck and gave me a litt le bit of a concussion. 50 I had to ride for the next three hour s with a rea l bad migraine, it w as very ha rd to see, I had to keep blink ing on the strai gh taway to focu s. I w as a little bit sick to my sto mac h so those three hours wer e p re tty miser- How did the Suzuka ride corne about? It was a littl e easier this year than ever before, just becau se of my not doing the GP series there really was no sche d ule to worry abou t. In the pas t, the 8-Ho ur kind of conflicted and I was in the ru nnin g for the championship . Of course, wh en I rode for Cagiva I d idn 't compete in the 8-Hour. This year the 8-Hour was jus t much easier to do and of co u rse with Honda being involved I was very in teres ted . I kn ew th e bi ke wou ld be very compet itive, it's rea lly the best bike ou t there. The Erv conn ection, too, was vel}" important. Oh yeah, wit h Erv th e communication was much better and getting the bike se t up the way I wan ted it w as pretty ea sy, I knew it would be goi ng in. It worked out rea l well for us. Qu alifying went very well, too, we were th ird quickes t and then in , the rain we were the fastest. Tsujirnoto was fas test in the rain, too. We were a stro ng team and as far as the equipmen t we certa inly had the quickest bike. For su re even ou t of the factory Hondas I felt like our bike was the quickest. Compare the Yamaha y ou rode at Daytona and the Honda RVF you rode at Suzuka, ab le. Up to tha t point the bike was really working well. There were a lot of teams that wen t rea l fast in qua lifying, obvious ly they were usin g (sp ecial qualifying ) tires a n d ma ybe ev en a (sho rt fuse) motor, but corne to the race . we would just blow by all the guys that were so fast in qualifyin g. You we n t there intent on winning, you must have be en very disappointed. I was very ·d isappointed . We los t fou r minutes in the pits and in th e end we were two minutes behind , finish ing second. Finish ing that wa y is always very fru strating. Have you been following the Grand Prix series thi s season? I've been so busy wi th my car I haven't really followed it too close, only what I hear fro m fr iends. I hear it is pre tty exciting for sure. H ow mu ch motorcycle racing do you . th in k you're going to do in the future? It' s really hard to say. I'm s till open for a few races he r e and th e r e.. .it a ll depends on the situation, the team , the equipmen t. Riding fo r H onda was ... man, it w as fa n tas tic! I rea lly en joyed it, it was so profession al, the equipmen t was so first class, so it was U just real nice being back to that. If that presented itself again, I'd ha ve to look at it. Hypothetically, could someone talk . you into doing an entire GP season again? I guess if it was on a Honda and had the right kind of backing, the right people, probabl y Erv , and we had a sponso r. But that is a lot of ifs. The chan ces of that ar e pretty slim, I d on 't rea lly get my hopes up. How about an enti re season of AMA Superb ike racing? No, thank you. You seem very enthusiastic about car racing. Th e Ind y Ligh ts thing is a whole new th ing to me. It' s racing as I know it but w ha t I feel is so opposite of anything that I've d on e. It' s got a totally d ifferent · feel than I thought it wou ld be...actually cars...I thou ght it woul d be a pretty easy thing bu t it is pretty d ifficult. The fee l is very d ifferen t, th e sea t of the p a n ts feeli ngs yo u gei on a motorcycle are not there in a car. I can ' t see m to relate a wh ole lot of things fr om bike racing to ca r raci ng . Eve n th e li nes are d iff e r en t, the high/low lines . I keep wanting to take th e lo w lines a n d th at doesn ' t see m to be wo r king ve ry we ll, so I have to try s o m e ne w st uff. We' re progress ing though, we're eighth fas tes t toda y in a field of 30. Wh ere d o I w a n t to go w ith car racing? Well, first I'd like to learn h ow to dri ve the car before I made a de cision like tha t, but if things went my way, Indy cars. But, hey, I'm real istic a bo u t it. And th e numb er o ne thing that is d ifferent about car and bike racing is a driver cannot carry a car like a motorcycle rider can carry an under-horsepowered m otorcycle. The sense of acce leration is d ifferent, it's slower than a motorcycle but the cornering s peed and bra kin g a re much grea ter . My neck get s real so re driv ing. Th e money is a big factor in car racing, the more money you ha ve, the quicker you go. The parts on an Indy Lights car are in tensely expe ns ive . Th e nose sec tion on the ca r is $12,000. I knocked a rea r win g off a nd th at was 10 g rand, I go t two w heels off the track and carne right back on at Willow one day and ban ged up the undertray of the car, ano ther 10 g ra nd . That ' s a diffe ren ce. I need a spo nsor. It's a big chan ge for me to go fro m being pa id to race, to paying to ra ce, it's d iff e rent. If I d on 't ha ve a sponsor by ne xt year th en probably I won't be doing it. Did you find yourself with a very large hole in your life once you stopped racing motorcycles? No. Didn 't mi ss it a bit. I ta ke th at back.. .I rea lly en joy ri d ing the bike. I love tha t pa r t o f it , th at p art hasn 't gone beca use the 8-Ho u r...rid ing that bike was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it, but si tting on airplanes and d oing the sa me old thing.t.I've been doing it for 10 years and boy it was quite a grind. I thi n k what made it w orse was ... the

• Cover