Cycle News

VOL. 50 ISSUE 48 DECEMBER 3, 2013 two-stroke a wider powerband. They even made a backup bike to keep Lawson from being stranded, as he was the year before when his only machine had mechanical problems. Many riders wisely figured Lawson would be one of the riders to beat, so a few tried to latch on in practice, but Lawson had a defense for that. "I practiced the same way I did in Europe," Lawson explained. "I ran sections of the track very hard and backed off on other sections. This way no one could get a meaningful lap behind me." Lawson quickly figured out the flat track/TT section would be the key to victory. "There were far more lines to use there than on the pavement," Lawson said. "I concentrated on the fast dirt sweepers and by the end of Saturday's practice I'd set the fastest practice time. I surprised everyone who thought the air-cooled Yamaha didn't stand a chance – including myself!" Lawson asked a favor of his GP racing manager Kel Carruthers to come and help out and it turned out to be a good thing. "Kel saved the day," Lawson explained. "He was the only one who knew how to eliminate the air bubbles from my steering damper. Without that fix the handlebars would have flailed uselessly. Kel also knew the brake-pad compounds and numbers, master cylinder ratios and dozens of other details." Ironically, Lawson said the scariest part of the track for him was on the paved section. "The artificial chicane on the front straight was made up by hay bales," he said. "I didn't want to collect one with my knee on the way by. People said I was touching them every lap." Jeff Ward won the motorcrossers heat over Kent Howerton and Eric Geboers. Bubba Shobert beat Ricky Graham and Mike Baker in the flat tracker's heat and Lawson got by Wayne Rainey on the final lap of the road racer's group. Kevin Schwantz led early, but couldn't hold the pace in the dirt section and finished third. All the riders raced with Carlisle tires. The tires P87 took a few laps to come in and most riders decided to run used scrubbed tires in the main. Lawson went with brand new tires figuring the tradeoff of being a little slippery in the opening laps would be offset by having them last longer in the race. The strategy almost backfired on Lawson when the weather turned cold just before the main. "After my warm-up lap I spun a few donuts on the straight to get my tire warmed up." At the start Kawasaki motorcross racers Ward and Howerton got the jump on Lawson. "I ran behind Kent and I think he was about the only other rider to run new tires and he was taking it easy," Lawson said. "He held me up and Wayne slipped by both of us for second place. I knew I had to get on the gas or Ward was going to leave without me." Lawson finally got around Howerton and then set his sights on Rainey. "Wayne showed me a new line around the uphill sweeper," Lawson said. "He'd gone right around me with both feet on the pegs and the throttle wide open. I immediately started using his line." Lawson moved by Rainey and then passed Ward for the lead in the left-hand dirt track corner. "I stuck it in there real hot," Lawson said. "I slipped underneath him and got on the gas hard." With a clear track Lawson dropped into the 1:47s and at the checkered flag opened a sixsecond lead on second-placed Howerton, who'd made his way past Ward then Rainey. Like Lawson, Howerton took advantage of his fresher tires late in the race. Flat trackers Graham and Shobert finished fifth and sixth. For Lawson the thing that made him happiest was seeing the look on the faces of his Yamaha crew after the victory. "I wanted to win to reward them for the incredible effort they put in," Lawson said. CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives

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