NOSTALGIA: Eddie Lawson mind games

VJMC’s Steve Cooper looks back to the racing of 1989…

There’s probably nothing quite like internecine race team politics to destabilise a rider and when that rider just so happens to be your very own World Champion things can rapidly slide sideways. Lawson found himself in precisely this situation despite being the world’s Number One. It’s reported Lawson told the media “Giacomo Agostini, the Marlboro Yamaha team manager, started playing games, saying stuff like, ‘I don’t know if we can pay you the same as we did in 1988.’ I’d just won my third title, so that was tough to hear. Also, I found out Ago was talking to Kevin Schwantz. I met with Erv (Kanemoto of Honda) and told him that I needed a change. When Marlboro discovered I was talking with Honda, they doubled their offer, but it was too late. I actually took a pay cut to ride the Honda.”  Whether Ago was playing mind games and trying to claw back some of his budget to use elsewhere is anyone’s guess but the end result was an own goal – the star rider had left the building. So Yamaha’s 1989 season was going to be a little different to that envisaged back at base in Iwata, Japan.

Team Lucky Strike Roberts would field Wayne Rainey and Kevin Magee, Team Marlboro Agostini would look after Niall Mackenzie and Freddie Spencer with two Italian riders (Cadalora and Rota) doing one round each as stand-ins. Also added into the mix were Norihiko Fujiwara, Michael Dowson and John Kocinski along with Christian Sarron riding for Team Gauloises Blondes Mobil 1.

There had been some serious tech-stuff going on over the closed season with larger radiators and flat topped pistons fitted to some of the bikes. The twin thoughts were than running cooler would facilitate better higher incoming fuel charge density with the revised pistons facilitating exhaust scavenging. There was also the now annual minor revisions of port geometries. Handling issues from the previous season had been addressed to fair degree by adopting the new 17 inch wheels Roberts and Rainey had discovered improved handling.

It would be a season of mixed fortunes. The new wheels facilitated better turn-in than Lawson was experiencing on the Honda but Yamaha’s Dunlop tyres had side wall issues. Rainey and Lawson fought it out with the Honda rider taking the title 228 to 210.5.  Christian Sarron would be third in the championship on 165.5 with Suzuki mounted Schwantz close behind on 162.5. Kevin Magee managed fifth for on 138.5.  Yamaha had also lost the Constructor’s Title with 227.5 points to Honda’s 257. It wasn’t the season they’d been hoping for!

There’s probably nothing quite like internecine race team politics to destabilise a rider, and when that rider just so happens to be your very own World Champion things can rapidly slide sideways. Lawson found himself in precisely this situation despite being the world’s Number One. It’s reported Lawson told the media: “Giacomo Agostini, the Marlboro Yamaha team manager, started playing games, saying stuff like, ‘I don’t know if we can pay you the same as we did in 1988.’ I’d just won my third title, so that was tough to hear. Also, I found out Ago was talking to Kevin Schwantz. I met with Erv (Kanemoto of Honda) and told him that I needed a change. When Marlboro discovered I was talking with Honda, they doubled their offer, but it was too late. I actually took a pay cut to ride the Honda.” Whether Ago was playing mind games and trying to claw back some of his budget to use elsewhere is anyone’s guess but the end result was an own goal – the star rider had left the building. So Yamaha’s 1989 season was going to be a little different to that envisaged back at base in Iwata, Japan.

Team Lucky Strike Roberts would field Wayne Rainey and Kevin Magee; Team Marlboro Agostini would look after Niall Mackenzie and Freddie Spencer with two Italian riders (Cadalora and Rota) doing one round each as stand-ins. Also added into the mix were Norihiko Fujiwara, Michael Dowson and John Kocinski along with Christian Sarron riding for Team Gauloises Blondes Mobil 1.

There had been some serious tech stuff going on over the closed season with larger radiators and flat-topped pistons fitted to some of the bikes. The twin thoughts were that running cooler would facilitate better, higher incoming fuel charge density with the revised pistons facilitating exhaust scavenging. There was also the now annual minor revisions of port geometries. Handling issues from the previous season had been addressed to a fair degree by adopting the new 17-inch wheels Roberts and Rainey had discovered improved handling.

It would be a season of mixed fortunes. The new wheels facilitated better turn-in than Lawson was experiencing on the Honda, but Yamaha’s Dunlop tyres had side wall issues. Rainey and Lawson fought it out with the Honda rider taking the title 228 to 210.5. Christian Sarron would be third in the championship on 165.5, with Suzuki-mounted Schwantz close behind on 162.5. Kevin Magee managed fifth on 138.5. Yamaha had also lost the Constructor’s Title with 227.5 points to Honda’s 257. It wasn’t the season they’d been hoping for!