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Eddie Lawson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the Waterloo Road character of the same name, see Eddie Lawson (Waterloo Road).
Eddie Lawson
Lawson aboard the Yamaha YZR500, 1990.
NationalityUnited States American
Born (1958-03-11) March 11, 1958 (age 66)
Upland, California, U.S.
Motorcycle racing career statistics
Grand Prix motorcycle racing
Active years1983 – 1992
First race1983 500cc South African Grand Prix
Last race1992 500cc South African Grand Prix
First win1984 500cc South African Grand Prix
Last win1992 500cc Hungarian Grand Prix
Team(s)Yamaha, Honda, Cagiva
Championships500cc – 1984, 1986, 1988, 1989
Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points
127 31 78 18 21 1429

Eddie Ray Lawson[1] (born March 11, 1958) is an American former professional motorcycle racer.[2][3] He competed in the Grand Prix motorcycle racing world championships from 1983 to 1992.

A four-time FIM 500cc road racing world champion, Lawson is prominent for being the first MotoGP competitor to win back-to-back 500cc world championships on machines from two different manufacturers. His record of not crashing and consistently finishing in the points earned him the nickname "Steady Eddie".[4]

Lawson was inducted into the MotoGP Legends Hall of Fame in 2005.[5] After his motorcycle career, Lawson pursued a brief career in open-wheel single seater racing in the United States competing in the Indy Lights series and eventually to the CART racing series.

Biography

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Born in Upland, California, Lawson began his motorcycle racing career in the Southern California dirt track circuit.[3] When it became increasingly difficult to find machinery able to compete with the dominant Harley-Davidsons, he switched his attention to road racing.[3] In 1979, Lawson finished the season second behind Freddie Spencer in the AMA 250cc road racing National Championship.[3] Afterwards, he was offered a ride with the Kawasaki Superbike team and won the AMA Superbike Series in 1981 and 1982. He also won the AMA 250cc road racing National Championship in 1980 and 1981 for Kawasaki.[3]

Lawson in 1989 riding a Honda NSR500

Lawson accepted an offer from Yamaha to contest the 500cc World Championship as Kenny Roberts' teammate for the 1983 season. Lawson spent the 1983 season learning the ropes of the Grand Prix circuit. In 1984, Lawson began winning regularly and won the 1984 World Championship.[2] It would mark the first of four world titles Lawson would go on to win.[2]

In 1985, he won the prestigious Imola 200 pre-season race.[6] Lawson began the 1986 season by winning the Daytona 200 in a dominating manner to give Yamaha their first AMA Superbike victory.[7] He took an easy victory in his qualifying heat race and then won the pole position with a track record.[7] After he disposed of early challengers Wayne Rainey and Kevin Schwantz, Lawson won with a race time of one hour, 54 minutes, 49.656 seconds at an average of 106.030 mph, shattering the record for the Daytona 200 set the year before by Freddie Spencer by over three minutes.[7]

After winning two more 500cc world championships for Yamaha in 1986 and 1988, Lawson shocked the racing world by announcing he would be leaving Yamaha to sign with their arch-rivals Rothmans Honda as teammate to his own archrival, Australia's 1987 World Champion Wayne Gardner. By switching teams, Lawson also fulfilled his desire to work with Erv Kanemoto. After Gardner crashed and broke his leg during the third round at Laguna Seca, Lawson went on to win the 1989 title for Honda, becoming the first rider to win back-to-back championships on machines from different manufacturers before Valentino Rossi did so in 2004 (moved from Honda to Yamaha). Furthermore, he was the fourth satellite rider to win the premier class world title before Valentino Rossi did so in 2001, 12 years later.

Lawson then switched to Cagiva in 1991 and the following year he achieved his last victory (that was also the first win for Cagiva after 10 years of racing). In so doing, he joined a very restricted number of great riders who managed to win races in top class with three different manufacturers, the others being Mike Hailwood (British Norton, MV Agusta, Honda), Randy Mamola (Suzuki, Honda, Yamaha), Loris Capirossi (Yamaha, Honda, Ducati) and Maverick Viñales (Suzuki, Yamaha, Aprilia) and definitively silenced the critics who believed he would not be as successful away from the factory Marlboro Yamaha team.[3]

Lawson also won the ABC Superbikers event at Carlsbad Calif. in 1983 and 1985 which pitted the best riders from several disciplines against each other on a combined dirt and paved course. He was riding a specially equipped factory YZ 490 Yamaha.[8]

In 1990, Lawson won the Suzuka 8 Hours endurance race on a Yamaha FZR750R paired with teammate Tadahiko Taira.[9] When he retired from Grand Prix racing in the early 1990s, he ranked third on the all-time MotoGP class (then known as 500GP) Grand Prix wins list with 31.[3] Lawson came out of retirement to win his second Daytona 200 in 1993.[10]

After finishing his motorcycle career, Lawson pursued a career in open-wheel single seater racing in the United States competing in the Indy Lights series and eventually to CART.[11] In the 1996 IndyCar season, he competed in 11 races with his best results being two sixth-place finishes at U.S. 500 and the Detroit Indy Grand Prix. His passion for speed remains undiminished and the former World Champion now enjoys driving 250cc Superkarts often accompanied by his great friend and rival Wayne Rainey, who races in a specially modified Superkart to cope with his spinal injuries, and historic Formula One cars, with a Walter Wolf Racing WR4 at vintage events.[4]

Honors

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Racing career statistics

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[2]
Points system from 1969 to 1987:

Position 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Points 15 12 10 8 6 5 4 3 2 1

Points system from 1988 to 1992:

Position 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Points 20 17 15 13 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Class Team Machine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Points Rank Wins
1983 500cc Marlboro Agostini Yamaha YZR500 RSA
8 		FRA
NC 		NAT
3 		GER
9 		ESP
6 		AUT
2 		YUG
3 		NED
5 		BEL
5 		GBR
4 		SWE
5 		SMR
3 		78 4th 0
1984 500cc Marlboro Agostini Yamaha YZR500 RSA
1 		NAT
2 		ESP
1 		AUT
1 		GER
2 		FRA
2 		YUG
4 		NED
3 		BEL
4 		GBR
2 		SWE
1 		SMR
4 		142 1st 4
1985 500cc Marlboro Agostini Yamaha YZR500 RSA
1 		ESP
2 		GER
4 		NAT
2 		AUT
2 		YUG
1 		NED
NC 		BEL
2 		FRA
4 		GBR
2 		SWE
2 		SMR
1 		133 2nd 3
1986 500cc Marlboro Agostini Yamaha YZR500 ESP
2 		NAT
1 		GER
1 		AUT
1 		YUG
1 		NED
NC 		BEL
2 		FRA
1 		GBR
3 		SWE
1 		SMR
1 		139 1st 7
1987 500cc Marlboro Agostini Yamaha YZR500 JPN
NC 		ESP
2 		GER
1 		NAT
2 		AUT
NC 		YUG
3 		NED
1 		FRA
NC 		GBR
1 		SWE
2 		CZE
2 		SMR
2 		POR
1 		BRA
2 		ARG
1 		157 3rd 5
1988 500cc Marlboro Agostini Yamaha YZR500 JPN
3 		USA
1 		ESP
2 		EXP
1 		NAT
1 		GER
4 		AUT
1 		NED
2 		BEL
2 		YUG
10 		FRA
1 		GBR
6 		SWE
1 		CZE
2 		BRA
1 		252 1st 7
1989 500cc Rothmans Kanemoto Honda NSR500 JPN
3 		AUS
5 		USA
3 		ESP
1 		NAT
DNS 		GER
2 		AUT
2 		YUG
3 		NED
2 		BEL
1 		FRA
1 		GBR
2 		SWE
1 		CZE
2 		BRA
2 		228 1st 4
1990 500cc Marlboro Roberts Yamaha YZR500 JPN
DNF 		USA
DNS 		ESP
INJ 		NAT
INJ 		GER
INJ 		AUT
INJ 		YUG
INJ 		NED
3 		BEL
3 		FRA
5 		GBR
3 		SWE
2 		CZE
3 		HUN
2 		AUS
4 		118 7th 0
1991 500cc Cagiva Corse GP500 JPN
6 		AUS
6 		USA
5 		ESP
6 		ITA
3 		GER
4 		AUT
5 		EUR
DNF 		NED
4 		FRA
3 		GBR
6 		RSM
DNF 		CZE
8 		VDM
– 		MAL
– 		126 6th 0
1992 500cc Cagiva Corse GP500 JPN
14 		AUS
6 		MAL
DNF 		ESP
11 		ITA
11 		EUR
6 		GER
6 		NED
DNF 		HUN
1 		FRA
5 		GBR
4 		BRA
11 		RSA
DNF 		56 9th 1

American open-wheel racing results

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(key)

Indy Lights

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Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Rank Points
1992 Leading Edge Motorsport PHX LBH DET POR MIL NHA TOR CLE VAN MDO NAZ LS
18 		NC 0
1993 Leading Edge Motorsports PHX LBH MIL DET POR
8 		CLE
9 		TOR NHA
10 		VAN
3 		MDO
17 		NAZ LS
2 		12th 42
1994 Tasman Motorsports PHX
3 		LBH
18 		MIL
2 		DET
2 		POR
3 		CLE
1 		TOR
5 		MDO
2 		NHA
11 		VAN
7 		NAZ
5 		LS
3 		4th 139

CART

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Year Team Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Rank Points Ref
1996 Galles Racing Lola T96/00 Mercedes-Benz IC108C MIA
15 		RIO
21 		SRF
7 		LBH
9 		NZR
17 		500
6 		MIL
20 		DET
6 		POR
15 		CLE
24 		TOR
15 		MIS MDO ROA VAN LS 20th 26 [13]

References

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  1. ^ "Eddie Ray Lawson". kz1000r.com. Retrieved 2023-08-04.
  2. ^ a b c d "Rider Statistics - Eddie Lawson". MotoGP.com. Archived from the original on 2017-08-09. Retrieved 2015-12-16.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h "Eddie Lawson at the Motorcycle Hall of Fame". motorcyclemuseum.org. Retrieved 2015-12-16.
  4. ^ a b Eddie Lawson profile at crash.net Archived 2009-08-21 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ a b "Lawson enters MotoGP Hall of Fame". motogp.com. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
  6. ^ "Imola 200 race results". racingmemo.free.fr. Retrieved 1 January 2018.
  7. ^ a b c "Cycle News Archives: Lawson Gives Yamaha an Important First". cyclenews.com. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
  8. ^ Moto Cross Mag. Feb. 1986
  9. ^ "1990 Suzuka 8 Hours results at Moto Racing Japan". Archived from the original on 2011-03-15. Retrieved 2009-10-12.
  10. ^ Daytona 200 winners at www.motorsportsetc.com Archived March 8, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  11. ^ L.A. Times, March 10, 1994
  12. ^ Eddie Lawson at the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America
  13. ^ "Eddie Lawson – 1996 CART Results". Racing-Reference. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
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