U·s·g·p·!
U·S·G·P·!
With 10 laps to go in the United States Grand Prix, Eddie Lawson began talking to himself. "Ed, don't screw up," he thought. Ed didn't.
EDDIE LAWSON SAT IN HIS motorhome, one day before the running of the first United States motorcycle Grand Prix in 23 years. Minutes before, he had been practicing aboard his Yamaha YZR500, and he still wore the sweat and exhaustion that comes from trying to persuade 150 horsepower that it really doesn't want to send 280 pounds of works GP racebike skittering off a tight, bumpy race course. A reporter knocked at the door and stepped inside, explaining that he wanted to gather material for a personality piece.
“Oh, you must not read the magazines,” replied Lawson. “I don’t have a personality.”
The words came with a smile, but it quickly faded. Despite his world championships in 1984 and 1986, Lawson hasn’t exactly been the dar-
ling of the European enthusiast press, which views him as an taciturn loner. “Some people see him as shy and reserved,” related an English journalist, “and some see him as downright rude.” Still, on the eve of the USGP, Lawson had more immediate things on his mind than his lack of good PR.
“I'd really like to do well here; I’ve got my friends and family watching, and I’d like to win. When you get down to it, this race is no more important than any other GP this year—20 points is 20 points,” Lawson said, referring to the points awarded for a first-place finish. “Even so, it would mean a lot to me personally to win the USGP.”
To do that, Lawson would have to tame Laguna Seca’s demanding track. Increased from 1.9 to 2.2 miles in length by the addition of a fourturn infield section, the new course
has no long straightaway on which a rider can rest, and it still incorporates much of the old track surface that is marred with bumps and ripples. So, even as late as the last Saturday practice session, the track was giving the riders of the explosive, quick-handling GP bikes fits.
“Riding a 500 around here is hard, physical work,” Lawson said. “It's a tight track; it seems like you're always turning. Riding here is a good way to get dizzy. Most European tracks are high-speed and require more finesse. Here, you’re braking real hard and flicking the bike hard into corners. It’s more sensational here.That’ll be good for the spectators, because no one can get away from anyone. It should be a hell of a race.”
Lawson was counting on getting a lot of help from his motorcycle, which had undergone a frame redesign before the start of the season af-
ter he complained of a slight steering heaviness last year. “The bike is good enough to win on. It handles better than the Honda and as good as the Suzuki; it’s as fast as the Suzuki but not quite as quick as the Honda.”
LAGUNA SECA GRAND PRIX 1988
But at the start of the USGP, the Yamaha’s most serious deficiency made itself known. Two weeks before, at the Japanese Grand Prix, Lawson had been handicapped by his bike’s refusal to pull cleanly off the start line. He couldn’t overcome the resultant slow start and was only able to work up to third place by race’s end. Now, as the USGP grid was given the green light to the cheers of around 80,000 fans, the same thing happened. “We’d had carburetion problems all week,” Lawson would say later. “Kei (Carruthers, Team Marlboro crew chief) said to keep it cleaned out, so I had it pinned at 13,000 rpm—and it only revs to
12,000.”
Even with such drastic measures, Lawson was ninth into the firstcorner, although to him,“It looked like I was about 50th. I thought, ‘This is going to be a long day.’ ”
But by the end of the second lap, Lawson was on the move and had already scarfed up four positions. He then blitzed by Kevin Schwantz, and on lap eight he squeezed past Wayne Rainey in Turn Two. That left only current world champ Wayne Gardner and lightning-starter Niall MacKenzie to deal with. At one point, Lawson closed so dramatically on Gardner that he almost rammed him. “He doesn’t know how close he came to falling down,” Lawson said after the race. Two laps later, he again used his inside line in Turn Two to dive ahead of Gardner; and he had such a head of steam that two laps later, before the race’s midway point,
he was knocking on MacKenzie’s door. Using his now-patented TurnTwo move, Lawson was soon alone in front and pulling away, an American leading the first U.S. Grand Prix in modern times.
After that, Lawson seemingly cruised to the checkered flag as the partisan fans cheered him on. And by the time he was on his victory lap, chants of “Ed-dee, Ed-dee” and “USA, USA” were coursing through the crowd. The supposedly reserved Lawson, the man without personality, then stopped at the Corkscrew, got off his bike and sent his helmet sailing into the enthusiastic throng, followed by his gloves. “This is the greatest win of my life,” he said of his 20th GP victory. “I really didn't know how many people were into this, but now I know that there are a lot of enthusiasts out there. It was a spectacular show.” —David Edwards
