T
he 11th of July 2022 may
have come and passed in-
nocuously enough unless
you were a grade A student of
MotoGP. The date is significant
because it marked 30 years to
the day the great Eddie Lawson
stood on the top step of the
podium for the 31st and final time
at the 1992 Hungarian 500cc
Grand Prix.
The date also marked the first
500cc win for perennial class
strugglers Cagiva, owned by Ital-
ian Castiglioni brothers Gianfran-
co and Claudio, after 12 years of
trying, and the first Italian machine
to win in the premier class since
the Giacomo Agostini won the
1976 German Grand Prix for MV
Agusta on the 14-mile Nurburgring
Nordschleife circuit.
Lawson had all but retired at the
end of a torrid 1990 season with
Marlboro Team Roberts on the
factory Yamaha YZR500 but as so
often happens, an offer came up
that was simply too good to resist.
"I had done basically eight,
nine years of Grand Prix and I
was tired of it. I didn't want to
travel anymore," Lawson says.
"But Cagiva just made an offer I
couldn't refuse," he says with a
financial wink in his eye. "They
promised to make the bike bet-
ter. Eventually after I left, it did
get better, and the two years I
was there, I think we made a lot
of progress.
"Then they kept going with
[John] Kocinski. He won some
CN
III ARCHIVES
P118
EDDIE'S
FIRST
AND LAST
GRAND
PRIX
WIN
BY RENNIE SCAYSBROOK
Eddie Lawson with
his cut slick Dunlops
romped home to a
famous last 500cc win
for Cagiva 30 years
ago this month.
PHOTOS: GOLD & GOOSE
