FOUR-TIME 500cc GRAND PRIX CHAMPION EDDIE LAWSON
P100
INTERVIEW
and then there's a fast
chicane before you go
onto the back straight-
away. So, we go under
the bridge and we go
through this first left.
I'm staring through the
bubble looking at him
and I'm right on his back
wheel, and he just disap-
pears, straight through
the gravel trap. He's
going end over end, ass
over teakettle.
Here I am leaned over
on brand new, shiny,
cold slicks and he's
gone. It took me forever
to get up to speed after
that. I go, "Yeah, you showed
me, Kenny. You showed me how
fast you could get going." That
was one of Kenny's lessons.
There were a few things. It was
pretty fun.
I did hear one story of you
and Schwantz in a rental car
in Austria. Care to elaborate?
We were celebrating his win
at Salzburg and we went out and
didn't get back to the paddock
until about two in the morning. I
guess you can probably imagine
the condition we were in. I'm
driving back and Kevin is play-
ing rally. I was the driver but he
was the navigator. He was trying
to tell me how fast I could go
through this hairpin. We were
pulling into the paddock. He
said, "Go into first and just flick
it through here and hold it wide
open." Okay. I do it.
We dropped two wheels off
and we go down a cliff—literally
a cliff. The car was on its side.
He's staring up at me and I'm
looking down at him. We're both
hung in the belts. He looks at
me and the headlights are star-
ing off into these trees, because
Lawson (left)
and his old
adversary,
Freddie
Spencer.
Between them,
they took six
500cc Grand
Prix titles in
the 1980s.
Lawson came
out for a one-
off ride at the
Daytona 200
in 1993 and
won it.
they're pointing straight up. He
looks up at me and he goes,
"Try reverse." I just turned the
key off.
We had to try to get out. We
had to open the door, which was
hard to do, and undo our belts.
The next day we had to get a
tow truck to get the thing out of
there. It was one of Porsche's
loaned cars. It was pretty fun.
We had a good time.
