VOLUME 58 ISSUE 1 JANUARY 5, 2021 P107
to run in the low 30s en route to
a huge win, his margin of victory
a clearly superior 6.447 seconds
by the end of the 40-lap race.
Not one to display a lot of emo-
tion, Lawson elected to stop his
bike on the side of the track,
jump the hay bales and throw his
helmet into the crowd.
"I got a real bad start again,
and I thought, 'This was it, those
guys are gone,''' Lawson said
afterward. "It was a little bit tough
to pass, but I was getting a good
drive out of there [turn two], so
I slipped it up the inside and it
worked. I thought I'd worn the
tires catching up, but they hung
in there.
"This is the most demanding
track we race on, without a doubt,"
Lawson continued. "But I really like
it now. This [an American Grand
Prix] is what the sport needed to
get it going in the right direction.
Winning here to me is like winning
the World Championship."
While Lawson's win was
spectacular, pre-race speculation
was that it would not be all that
unexpected if the 1984 and 1986
500cc World Champion were to
pull it off. The same cannot be
said for the 250cc result turned
in by Filice, who didn't even have
a ride leading up to the event.
Filice was tabbed by Honda to
replace injured Japanese rider
Masahiro Shimizu, who had suf-
fered a broken wrist while testing
for the Japanese GP. Even with
such top-notch equipment as a
factory Honda NSR250, no one
held out much hope for a Filice
victory in what was to be his first
GP start.
After a botched start, the field
re-gridded for a restart, with
France's Dominique Sarron pull-
ing the holeshot, only to yield to
another young American, reign-
ing AMA Dirt Track Champion
Bubba Shobert—the Texan also
making his GP debut—who came
from row three to lead the first lap
of the race.
Filice, however, cut through
the field like a wedge after run-
ning fourth early, jetting past
another fellow American, John
Kocinski, and then Sarron and
Shobert to take the lead. Filice
ran in the 1:33s for most of the
race, leaving the field in his
wake, finishing 9.843 seconds
ahead of Spain's Sito Pons. Sar-
ron was third, followed by Kocin-
ski and Shobert.
"Do you think I'm on my way?"
Filice asked on the podium.
"Someone employ me, please.
I'm unemployed... The only
problem I had was when I started
day-dreaming about winning and
getting a job."
That's easily understandable.
Laguna Seca '88 was the stuff
that dreams were made of. CN
This Archives edition is reprinted
from issue #35, September 8,
2004. CN has hundreds of past
Archives editions in our files, too
many destined to be archives
themselves. So, to prevent that
from happening, in the future, we
will be revisiting past Archives
articles while still planning to
keep fresh ones coming down
the road. -Editor
LAGUNA
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