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/128363
_S_u.:....p_e_rs_to_r_s_o_f_S_u.:....p_e_rk_o_r_ts E ven though he retired at the end of the 1992 season, Eddie Lawson is the fastest motorcycle racer to lap Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. The four-time 500ce World Champion has the record of I:23.857. Troy Bayliss, then with Ducati, came closest to Lawson's record with a 1:24.833 during the 2002 World Superbike race. The difference is that Lawson had the benefit of two more wheels than Bayliss. Driving a Yamaha TZ-25Occ powered shifter kart, Lawson set the mark, and it's not one he's eager to attack. "I scared myself in the kart doing that," Lawson said. "I don't know if I want to do it again:' During the 2005 Red Bull USGP weekend, he'll get his chance. Lawson and fellow 500cc World Champions Wayne Rainey and Kevin Schwantz, along with former 500cc factory rider and AMA Superbike Champion Doug Chandler, and possibly serial 500cc runner-up Randy Mamola, will face off for the first time since the end of the 1992 season in the Superstars of Superkarts support race dUring the USGP. Rainey won his third 500cc World Championship at the end of the 1992 campaign; Schwantz came fourth on the Lucky Strike Suzuki, one spot in front of teammate Chandler. Lawson ended up ninth on the factory Cagiva. Given Lawson's proficiency in a go-kart, the order will likely be reversed in July. "With a bike, I remember going down into tum one and you'd stop at the 300 marker," Lawson began, "and these things you go to the 50 [meter marker], and your brain's telling you there's no way we're going to stop for this comer, and you do." Lawson believes Laguna Seca is "just awesome in karts. Of all the circuits we go to we've been all over the place - it's smooth and it's fast, and it's just awesome for these 2505. I think corner, speed and everything... it has a little bit of everything. It's just perfect for 250s." The World and Superbike champions were back at Laguna Seca for a preview of the July 10 race. Lawson and Rainey both have extensive experience, but both had new _ challenges. Lawson ran into teething problems with his kart, which featured a new aero package, and Rainey's kart was sidelined by shifter problems after two laps. He expects to have a new kart for the race. "Bikes, they're real difficult to ride here because of the power they produce and the short gearing that you have to run," Rainey, who won the USGP in 1989, '90 and '91, said. "On a motorcycle, you're constantly wheelie-ing, spinning, or stopping and tuming. Physically, it's a lot of work. But in this kart, you go through the comers two or three gears higher than you do on a bike. And the thing that really gets you tired in the kart is your neck, just because of the g-forces through the turns. It's quite a bit different sensation than it was on a bike, from what I remember." Schwantz had a brief career driving a Busch Grand National car, but the kart was all new. "It's a lot more fun on a kart than it was on motorcycle," Schwantz said of the 2.2mile, I I-tum road course. "I never really liked this place much on a bike. I have to say there was quite the grin under my helmet when I was driving that kart around. It's as fun. It's so nice to get in something that somebody's driven and it's really close to being set up exactly right. There's a few little things that I can find, but up to now, the kart's so much better than I am, it's just not even funny." As an advisor to the Yoshimura Suzuki tearn, Schwantz has long been an interested spectator at the AMA/World Superbike races. He's also done some photo modeling aboard a Suzuki GSX-R 1000, neither of which prepared him for the kart. "It's amazing what a different perspective you have on the track," Schwantz said. "Your butt's that close to the ground; it's amazing how different it looks. It almost looks like a completely different racetrack from a kart." And there's little in common with the Busch car. "I guess hitting your marks and doing things like that, but a nice responsive, fast accelerating kart like this compared to a however many thousand-pound Busch Grand National car - there's not really any comparison," Schwantz said. "You can