Motor Racing : Lawson Seeks Grand Prix Victory Before Home Fans

The first motorcycle race Eddie Lawson rode at Laguna Seca Raceway near Monterey, he won. It was in the American Motorcyclist Assn.’s Superbike series in 1980. The next two years he won the Superbike championship and in 1983 he took on the world’s finest road racers in the Federation Internationale Motorcyliste’s 500cc circuit.

Sunday, for the first time since 1965, a world Grand Prix road race will be held in the United States--at Laguna Seca.

“I’d like nothing more than winning a Grand Prix in front of my home crowd,” Lawson said. “This will be my first opportunity and I hope to make the most of it.”

Lawson, a graduate of Ontario’s Chaffey High School, class of 1976, has won two world championships and 19 individual GPs since leaving Upland six years ago to spend six months a year traveling around the world in quest of motorcycling glory--and money. Actually, Lawson hasn’t left the Inland Empire. He lives in Upland, in an old stone house that he refurbished, but he doesn’t get home very often.

“I’d like to see the Grand Prix at Laguna Seca become a happening, like Daytona or Indianapolis,” Lawson said. “Having a race in California is really great. It’ll be the first time all of my buddies will get a chance to see me in a world championship race. I think all of Upland will be at Monterey on Sunday.”

Race officials are predicting a crowd of more than 75,000 for the race, No. 2 on the world circuit this year. The opening race, two weeks ago in Japan, was won by Kevin Schwantz of Houston, riding a Suzuki. It was his first GP win. World champion Wayne Gardner of Australia was second on a Honda and Lawson third on a Yamaha.

“One of the same three will win Sunday,” Lawson said. “Another five will be right there because Laguna Seca will probably be the shortest and slowest course of the 16 that we will ride this year. For the riders, it will be tough physically because of all the traffic, but for the spectators it should be the best racing anywhere in the world.”

Even though Lawson has won three races at Laguna Seca, he knows it won’t help him Sunday. For one thing, a Superbike is not the same as a Grand Prix bike.

“The best way I can compare them is a Superbike is like NASCAR Chevy and a GP bike is like a Formula One Ferrari,” he said.

For another, the course has been changed from its former 9-turn, 1.9-mile distance to 11 turns in 2.196 miles to conform with international rules.

“I rode around it on a street bike and the new section is real smooth and flat, but it’s not designed for horsepower. It’s more a rider’s course.”

Lawson is also excited about the race being in California because it may generate more interest in his sport, which attracts crowds between 100,000 and 250,000 in Europe. Few people outside Upland would recognize the 5-foot 10-inch, 135-pound rider in the United States, but elsewhere in the world his face is as recognizable as A.J. Foyt’s or John McEnroe’s.

Gardner, the 1987 world champion, was named Australia’s sportsman of the year, beating out Wimbledon tennis champion and Davis Cup hero Pat Cash for the honor. No American rider has ever been as much as mentioned in similar balloting, not even the legendary three-time world champion Kenny Roberts.

Now 30, Lawson has been riding a motorcycle since he was 7 when his father took him to Phelan, in the high desert near Victorville, where he thrashed through the sagebrush and gullies on his dad’s Yamaha 80. By the time he was 12, little Eddie had become a racer, going handlebar to handlebar on a Kawasaki 90 at dirt tracks in Elsinore, Perris, Corona and Riverside.

“I’ve been racing ever since,” he said. “I think I have a few more years left, although I really don’t know what ‘a few’ means. As long as I’m capable of riding up front I’ll probably keep going.”

Last season was a disappointing one for Lawson, who finished 21 points behind Gardner and one behind Randy Mamola of Santa Clara, Calif., to finish third.

“Three races we didn’t finish--once when I spilled in the rain and twice for mechanical reasons--cost us the championship,” he said. “In the other 12 races, I won 5, finished second 6 times and third once. Gardner and Mamola finished every race in the points, which is what you have to do.” Lawson’s wins came in Germany, Holland, Great Britain, Portugal and Argentina.

“When I won (the world championship) in 1984 and 1986 I finished every race both years. That also says a lot for the machinery. The bikes we ride are so bulletproof that we usually have more than 30 finishers (out of 36 starters) in every race.”

The bikes should be bulletproof. It costs $250,000 for Lawson’s Marlboro team, managed by Italy’s 15-time world champion Giacomo Agostini, to lease one for six months from the Yamaha factory in Japan. And the team has four of them, two for Lawson and two for new teammate Didier de Radigues of Belgium.

“Each team pays the same price and gets the same bike from the factory,” Lawson said. “That goes for Kenny Roberts’ team, too.” Roberts’ Yamaha riders include rookie Wayne Rainey of Norwalk, who finished sixth in Japan in his first 500cc Grand Prix.

Roberts, who started the American invasion of world road racing when he won the first of his three championships in 1978, is credited with helping to bring the GP to Laguna Seca. A native of Modesto, he interested Lee Moselle, executive director of the facility, in bidding for the race, and after nine years of stumping by Moselle and the lengthening of the course, it was awarded to the Monterey Peninsula circuit.

Only two other 500cc Grand Prixs have been held in this country, in 1964 and 1965, and both were won by Mike Hailwood of England, both times at Daytona.

INDY CARS--The Checker 200, opening race of the PPG Indy Car World Series will be held Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway with defending champion Bobby Rahal starting his bid for a third straight championship with a new engine in the Truesport Lola. Rahal and team manager Steve Horne switched to a new John Judd-designed engine originally built for Honda despite two winning seasons with Cosworth. . . . Scott Pruett, a winner of three support races at Long Beach, will make his Indy car debut April 17 in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. Pruett won pro go-kart races in 1982 and 1983 and last year won a Trans-Am. He will drive a Lola-Cosworth for veteran driver Dick Simon.

STOCK CARS--Roman Calczynski of Sepulveda, winner of the NASCAR Southwest Tour opener two weeks ago at Saugus, heads an entry of 40 drivers in Saturday night’s Budweiser 100 at Cajon Speedway in El Cajon, second event in the All-American Challenge series. Former tour champion Ron Esau, who missed the opener because of chicken pox, is a former Cajon Speedway track champion. . . . The United States Auto Club’s Western States supermodified series will open Sunday at Madera Speedway with defending champion Bill Vukovich III an overwhelming favorite. Vukovich won 12 main events last year as well as the Copper World Classic last month at Phoenix. . . . Former American Auto Racing Writers and Broadcasters Assn. president Ross Olney will make his driving debut Friday night at Ventura Raceway during the Coors Light Silver Bullet series. Olney will drive a Pinto in the mini stock class. . . . Train racing, in which three cars are locked together nose to bumper, will return to Saugus Speedway on Saturday night as part of the weekly program. . . . The Curb Motorsports NASCAR Winston Racing Series will continue Sunday night at Ascot Park.

SPEEDWAY BIKES--Two tracks, South Bay Stadium at Ascot Park and Speedway USA in Victorville, will open their 1988 seasons this week. Bobby Schwartz, winner of a record 56 races last season, and Brad Oxley, defending U.S. champion, will be at South Bay Stadium tonight and Speedway USA Sunday afternoon, as well as the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa on Friday night. Victorville promoters Jay and Victoria Wright will hold races on Sundays through the month of May, then switch to the traditional Saturday night summer schedule. Dave DeTemple will come out of retirement to ride in the Speedway USA opener.

POWER BOATS--More than 170 drag boats are expected for the International Hot Boat Assn. Springnationals this weekend at Puddingstone Lake, near San Dimas. Classes will range from top fuel hydro, boats capable of more than 220 m.p.h., to the eliminators--the stock cars of boat racing. Entries include IHBA favorites Tim Capaldi, Gary Kincaid, Steve Varner and Ron Braaksma. . . . The Rum Run, an annual offshore race of 140 miles from Long Beach to Catalina Island to Palos Verdes and back, is scheduled to be held Sunday. Last year, only two boats finished due to swells on the back side of Catalina so this year the boats will not circle the island, but will turn around before reaching it. The race will start at 10:30 a.m. from the Queen’s Gate near the Queen Mary.

SPRINT CARS--Midget driver Robby Flock will make his debut Saturday night at Ascot Park in the Parnelli Jones Firestone/California Racing Assn. series. Flock will be in Larry Bright’s car. Former CRA champion Eddie Wirth’s win last week was his 30th, sixth on the all-time CRA drivers list.

VINTAGE CARS--The Vintage Auto Racing Assn. will hold a Farewell to Riverside event this weekend at Riverside International Raceway with racing for novice drivers Saturday and club championship events Sunday. An East-West Challenge for Formula Juniors and a two-hour enduro will highlight the Sunday program. . . . Also Sunday, at Willow Springs Raceway, the Western Racing Assn. will hold its final race of the winter season on the banked dirt oval. Among the drivers will be 72-year-old Roy Prosser, Dickie Ferguson and two 65-year-olds, Rosie Roussel and Walt James. . . . Still another group, Vintage Racing, headed by Art Evans and former Indianapolis 500 winner Rodger Ward, plans to put on the “absolutely final race” on Riverside’s road course July 23-24.

MOTOCROSS--The oldest night motocross series in the country, the Continental Motosport Club’s weekly program at Ascot Park, will begin its 20th season Friday with racing for 500cc, 250cc and 125cc bikes. The CMC will also conduct a motocross Sunday at Carlsbad Raceway.