Eddie Lawson
EDDIE LAWSON
RACE WATCH
DAVID DEWHURST
RON LAWSON
Talking with racing’s most unmysterious mystery man
YOU MIGHT SAY THAT EDDIE Lawson is a victim of his own skill. That’s what happens when you take an ordinary, perhaps slightly introverted man and thrust him into an extraordinary situation —for example, the 500cc world roadracing championship. Lawson is a typical, motorcycleriding Californian who just happens to be capable of going faster than almost any other man on Earth. And because of whatever bizarre imbalance in his personal chemistry allows him to do this, Lawson suddenly finds himself in the spotlight. And he’s not quite sure what to do there.
"It was just time to go, a fresh start and a fresh challenge'
The European motoring press, in particular, demands much of its heroes. But Lawson isn’t eccentric, vocal, egotistical or obnoxious. He has become the mystery man of motorcycling because there's nothing mysterious about him. The press is baffled by Lawson because Lawson is baffled by the press.
The situation was never more clear than it was this fall, when Lawson made the switch from Yamaha to Honda. To Lawson, it was nothing unusual, the type of camp-changing that goes on before every season. “It was just time to go. It was a fresh start and a fresh challenge. It was maybe something I needed,” he says now. But the cycle press jumped all over the move, running photos of fans wearing T-shirts saying “Lawson is the anti-Christ.” Lawson didn’t understand the way the press treated him.
“There are a lot of fruitcakes out there. I think it’s the press’ responsibility to weed those people out. For them to go in and put that type of thing in print was in pretty poor taste. It (his team change) was just a career move. There are a lot of diehard Yamaha fans out there, and what I lose there, I maybe make up on the other side with diehard Honda fans. Maybe it evens out. And hopefully there are people that’ll follow me, still, no matter what I’m riding.
“I don’t remember ever saying I don’t like press-relation duties. But the press has played on that and hyped it up—every rider has something that the press likes to play on. But I probably did more press than anyone last year with Marlboro. I do what I need to do for the sport.”
So Lawson enters this season on a new motorcycle and with a new team. He’s a racer, first and utmost, and so his mind is now on racing more than anything else, including the European press. “I'm riding for Irv Kanemoto and we’re sponsored by Rothmans, and basically, that’s the bottom line. I’m just going to ride what I get and ride as best I can. Already I've seen changes in the way the two teams operate. I’m not used to seeing people running around doing things for me; picking me up at the airport. Just what little they’ve done has been really helpful. It’s really different, really foreign to me, because I’ve never had that before. But they say that’s just what they do. And it's the same thing with the bikes. You tell them something’s wrong and they try to change it. Yamaha didn’t have a whole load of people, and they built so many bikes. The bikes were handed out and that was the end of it. Things are a little different at Honda. They definitely put effort into it.”
What makes Lawson’s new situation odd, though, is that Honda and Rothmans will also be sponsoring his closest rival, Australian Wayne Gardner. Lawson; “I didn’t go to Honda to prove I was faster than Wayne. It will be tough. You know Wayne would be tough regardless of what he’s riding or what I'm riding. We’ll both be right there and who knows who’s going to win. Who knows?
“I'd like to be champion, though. That’s my goal. After that, it will probably be Wayne Gardner and then Wayne Rainey, and Kevin Schwantz, or Schwantz then Rainey. That’s just speculation, though. You can see Rainey learning a lot already. Kevin has to keep it on two wheels, but he's really fast. And once he learns consistency he'll be there for a long time. Both those guys will be winning world championships for a long time.”
Conspicuously absent from Lawson’s forecast was his replacement at Marlboro Yamaha: the recently unretired Freddie Spencer. Lawson today offers little hint about his feelings, one way or the other, about Spencer, even though their rivalry once was played up by the press. Spencer, in fact, recently was quoted as saying that all the other racers have finally figured out how he rode so fast in 1985 and have now adopted his riding style.
Lawson seems emotionless on the subject. “Freddie could win, you know. He hasn’t raced in a couple of years, so he’s a question mark. But he can win. And what Freddie said might be true. Somewhat. I think we’ve certainly all gotten faster. But my riding style hasn’t changed since I started riding 500s. I mean. I’ve learned to go faster but my style hasn’t changed.”
Lawson obviously has gotten a little tired of reading about his opinion of this rider or that team in the newspapers. So he has learned to be noncommittal about some things. But when the conversation turns away from the gossip of personalities, rivalries and alliances, and the subject is racing itself, Lawson lights up. He believes in the sport and wants nothing more than to see it grow.
"For me, I don't care. I don't need to be known But I'd really like to see the sport get bigger."
“Bikes are a good show. For instance, in France there was a Formula One car race and us on TV at the same time. They were splitting the screen, cutting back between the cars and bikes. People were calling in, saying, ‘Get the car stuff off.’ TV is what we’ve been needing and hopefully it will get bigger and better. What we’re striving for is motorcycle racing shown live in every country. I think it’s pretty close to that now. Not every country, but close. In the U.S., things are getting better. I’d just like to see the sport become what it is in Europe. For me, I don’t care. I don’t need to be known. But I’d really like to see the sport get bigger.” Lawson gets adamant when he talks about track safety. “Safety still needs to be worked on. There’s still a long way to go. Facilities still have to be improved. The promoters and teams have a long way to go to catch up to Formula One car racing—there everything is very organized. We have people walking through the pits. You can’t even bump start your bike because there are so many people> walking through the paddock. You know, we’ve got a long way to go. And a lot of that stuff will happen long after I’ve retired. It’ll happen, though. As long as the television comes in, the sport will get bigger and better.”
"We've got a long way to go~ And a lot of that stuff will happen long after I've reti red."
As for track design itself, Lawson has some very clear and specific ideas on how to design a safe, fun track.
“I’d have Paul Ricard and Silverstone mixed in. And I’d have no chicken-shit chicanes. I’ll tell you that. There would be no stop-and-go stuff in it. The only reason chicanes exist is because the promoters don’t want to spend the money making the racetrack right. It’s easy just to throw a chicane in the middle of a straight somewhere. Those are causing more problems than anything else. They say that it’s safer to slow down the race, and that people don’t get hurt when they crash there. But the problem is that everyone goes down there. Everyone's rear-ending everyone else when they’re braking for this stuff. It’s stupid.”
Those are awfully strong words from a man who allegedly doesn’t have opinions, a racer who has been called aloof and without personality. The truth of the matter is that Lawson is an honest man making a living at what he does best. He has his opinions, which he offers if asked, and keeps to himself if not. He doesn’t put on a show for the press, he doesn't wear outlandish costumes in the pits and he keeps his off-track exploits to himself. In a word, Lawson is ordinary. And the truth is, he never claimed to be anything else.
