Superbike Production

Superbike Production

Eddie Lawson's Kawasaki Crusade Takes No Prisoners

John Ulrich

Look at Eddie Lawson before a race and it's easy to imagine him buckling into armor and riding off to fight the Arabs for pos-

session of the Holy Land. He carries this attitude, sends out this stare, has this manner that says this isn't sporting competition. This is a holy war.

Eddie Lawson doesn't talk about winning races, or mention afterward how well his competitors rode. He plots beforehand to "get" whoever has the audacity to have more championship points at the moment. And he talks later about how he showed them all.

In part, Lawson’s intensity is understandable. He still feels he won the Superbike Championship last year and was cheated out of the title by politics. (A view simplistic at best, dead wrong at worst, and vehemently objected to by reigning champion Wes Cooley.) Eddie hates being second, hates losing, emphasis on hates.

Laguna Seca, then, was not simply a round of the Superbike Championship Series. It was a battleground, a theater of war complete with grandstands packed with people who, if Lawson had his way, would watch him and his big, green Kawasaki blow white Suzukis and silver Hondas into tiny pieces.

Eddie had his way.

He led immediately, with Cooley second on the Yoshimura Suzuki and Freddie Spencer third on the factory Honda.

Spencer passed into second on the second lap. On the third, Lawson turned a 1:08.79 lap in his bid to leave Spencer; Cooley a record 1:08.64 in his bid to repass Spencer.

Almost immediately Spencer ground through his bike’s left-side crankcase cover and struck oil, dribbling onto the Honda’s rear tire and hosing down Cooley’s helmet faceshield and fairing windscreen. Cooley, meanwhile, discovered oil leaking onto his right boot from his bike’s clutch cover, the discovery startling him and breaking his concentration.

Several laps later Cooley realized that the oil, if reaching his bike’s rear tire, wasn’t doing so in great quantities. Nothing bad was happening. He sped up, Spencer slowed down, and Cooley was back in second place.

At the head of the pack Lawson charged along in a two-wheeled re-enactment of Sherman’s march to the sea, cutting through traffic in a way that gave new meaning to the expression.

“I try to look past lapped riders and not think about traffic,” said Lawson later. In other words, he pretends they aren’t there, the result being incredibly consistent— and fast—lap times throughout the race, and several near-collisions.

Lawson turned four laps in the 1:08 range, the quickest being 1:08.70, the rest being mostly 1:09s. Cooley managed two laps at 1:08, the rest mostly 1:1 Os.

Behind the front three came another bunch of factory-sponsored pilots, Mike Spencer (Honda, no relation to Freddie), Roberto Pietri (Honda) and Gennady Luibimsky (Suzuki). Spencer and Pietri had their own battle for fourth before Pietri’s bike suffered ignition problems.

Harry Klinzmann finished first privateer on the Racecrafters Kawasaki, and Lawson lapped him. Lawson also lapped Luibimsky, who beat Klinzmann to the finish line for sixth place by six inches.

At the end, Lawson had 16 sec. on Cooley, who had 10 sec. on Freddie Spencer, who had 24 sec. on Mike Spencer, who led Pietri by 9 sec.

The victory was Lawson’s third straight, coming on the heels of wins at Loudon and Elkhart Lake, and moved him within two points of Cooley in the title

chase.

“Pocono is where I get Wes,” said Lawson, a half-smile splitting his fierce gaze.

If Eddie Lawson doesn’t win the Superbike Championship, next year he’ll be biting off people’s handlebars.