Lawrence gears up for Flat Track season

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Category: CSBK News

Published on Friday, April 29, 2016 07:21 EDT

Written by Administrator

With the Flat Track Canada schedule starting soon, reigning FT National Champ Doug Lawrence of Mississauga, ON. is certainly ready for action.  The 31-year-old did his AMA Pro tour pre-season testing in Georgia, raced for two nights at the March Daytona opener Short Track, and then headed west to the Circuit of the Americas for the next U.S. round earlier this month.

The C.O.T.A. round is especially important, since this is the track manufactured for the debut of Flat Track at the “Austin X Games” last year.
“I struggled throughout Qualifying at COTA,” admits Lawrence, who hadn’t ridden his Town Moto Harley-Davidson XR750 750cc Twin since last September.  “I really wasn’t that happy with my riding at the beginning of the program, and I was thinking that we should have tested with the twins in Savannah.”

“I had worked out hard over the winter, I feel really fit, but the confidence wasn’t there.  But then the National anthem plays, and 30 years of racing experience comes into play.  You don’t have a lot of time to worry during a Flat Track program!”

“The track was better than last year,” continued Lawrence on the venue built specifically for the X Games.  “But there were some holes.  It was broken up clay, and then it had these holes.”

As the program progressed, Lawrence picked up the pace, making the crucial direct transfer from his Heat Race to the Main Event.
“In the Main, we were competitive, somewhere between eighth and tenth most of the time,” confirms Lawrence, who earned seventh at the inaugural X Games Flat Track last June. “Then there was a DQ, and we wound up seventh – that is a solid result, something to build on.”

Interestingly, Lawrence was sandwiched between two Kawasaki 650 twin powered racers, sixth placed Bryan Smith on the Crosley Brands entry and eighth overall Henry Wiles on the USC Racing Ninja.  In the near future, Lawrence plans to join the vertical twin Kawasaki brigade.

“I really think this bike is going to be sick,” started Lawrence of his in-construction, new-era Kawasaki.  “We have a lot of little things planned, ways to save weight and make the bike easier to work on.”

“We now have the engine, and next we have to put together a couple of exhausts, do some testing on the Dynojet Dyno with Rob at Brooklin Cycle Racing.  Then we will get Trevor (Daley, Pro Superbike racer, Lawrence buddy and ace fabricator) to build us a race exhaust system.”

“The most concrete plan right now is to test the Kawasaki at the Welland Practice Day, if things are ready,” Explains the reigning National FT number one.  “If things are working OK, the Kawasaki will go to the X Games Practice day, June 1 in Texas.”

Currently, Lawrence has a trio of Honda singles for Short Track use, as well as his two classic Harley-Davidson XR750s, one on loan from a U.S. sponsor and the other a soon-to-be-retired family heirloom.  The Lawrence Racing bike is set up for shorter, tighter tracks such as COTA and Flat Track Canada venues, while the other XR gets more use in the U.S.A.

Meanwhile Lawrence, the surprise novice victor at the Pro-dominated Kawasaki Ninja 300 spec Series debut at the Mopar CSBK event at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park last August, has actually started to hone his roadracing skills.

Following the COTA AMA Pro round, Lawrence stayed on in Texas to try a little road racing with his buddies from Colin Edwards’ Texas Tornado Boot Camp. 

“We went to this little track thirty miles from Austin, Harris Hill in San Marcos, Texas,” confirms Lawrence of the 11 turn, 1.82-mile-long, hilly venue.  “I did a ton of laps, Michael Sanchez was showing me around, giving me pointers.  It was all part of their regular Monday Motorcycle Day.”

“The track was pretty rough, it had some pot holes and sealer and seams all over the place,” continued Lawrence of his second road racing experience.  “The bike was good, I was learning how to G.P. shift (reverse from a street bike), that definitely took some getting use to, to wrap my head around.”

“I started off working on my apex and exit speed, and then started to work on the turn entrance.  I’m still a bit uncomfortable under braking, but there was no drama, overall it was a really good day, it couldn’t have gone better.”    

Sponsors for the 2016 Lawrence Racing campaign include Parts Canada, Town Moto, American Harley-Davidson, OneSpeed, Klotz Canada, Alpinestars, HJC, Thor, Saddlemen, Motion Pro, K&N, Dynojet Research and Brooklin Cycle Racing.