“It hasn’t really been a long off season, but it feels like it at times,” explains Doug Lawrence, who will make the move to the Pro road race ranks this season.
The Flat Track star announced his new Mopar CSBK National road racing program with Suzuki Canada at the Toronto Motorcycle Show last weekend. “Lots of stuff going on, on the phone lots, a few things that have fallen through.”
“I’m excited to get a program to ride the new Suzuki GSX-R1000 in 2017,” confirms “Fresh.” “I’m excited to go road racing, that’s what it comes down to. I’ve had some offers, with different bikes, from great people, and really I’ve just been trying to figure out what could work the best for me.”
“I appreciate all the help from everyone, and I think the Suzuki program is right for me. My aim is to build with that, to get the ball rolling with Suzuki and their return.”
“I’ll get a bike, hopefully, by mid-March, and get it track ready. For me, with my level of road racing experience, it’s essential to just get on the track, and get riding. I need bodywork and suspension, but that’s really all I will need to get out and start riding. Then I can get going from there, get the feed back for the people who are working with me.
“I think that usually, with Suzuki, things are pretty close to perfect, and this bike has been in development for some time. I’m confident that the new GSX-R1000 will be good.”
“People tell me it doesn’t make sense to test on old tires, things like that, and I do understand the advice,” starts Lawrence on perhaps the most interesting story of the 2017 CSBK Series. “But I have only ridden a road race bike for seven or eight days in total. I really just need to get some laps in before we really start development, doing race laps, race distance testing.”
“I just need to get the bike underneath me, really fell it, and go from there. I’d like to ride Grand Bend, Mosport, Shannonville, before those National rounds. I would like to go down south, I have some good connections in Ohio and Michigan, we’ll see what happens.”
“I have to manage my plan, not get too overwhelmed with stuff – I have been so excited over the past few months. I need to get one motorcycle ready, and go from there.”
As far as Flat Track Racing goes in 2017, the former National Champ is depending on his mechanic father, Doug Sr., to lead the charge.
“My Dad is excited for me, and wants to see where I’m going. He’s not a huge road racing fan! He knows what I have going on, and he wants me to do it. He’s building another Flat Track bike for me, to ride in the new Twins class in the States.”
“My riding in the Flat Track Canada National series will be restricted. I raced 26 weekends last year, and I got a bit overwhelmed in the last half of the 2016 season. My mind was focused on the CSBK round at Mosport (Canadian Tire Motorsport Park) after I started my first National at St-Eustache, and I know my Flat Track program suffered for that.”
“I’m not committed to too, too much in the States, and fortunately my Dad says ‘Hey, we’ve got this bike ready for you whenever you want to for it and ride.’
“Right now, I have a plan for doing the first two American Half Miles before the CSBK Nationals start, but I have to dedicated my time and mind to the Suzuki program for the CSBK National Series. After the final CSBK round at CTMP, there are still four or five American Flat Track races I can get to in the United States. Those eight or so AMA 2017 races are at race tracks I want to ride at as well.”
“I have some goals in Flat Track that I want to achieve, and I fell like I can turn up at those races and be right up to speed.”
As far as support is concerned, “there is lots of talking going on, and I have been waiting to get the Suzuki deal confirmed. I have supporters and friends who have helped, and I know they are there for me, and now I have to get out there and work on it. I know that we can’t have the big factory deals of ten or twenty years ago, but I really wanted to do it, to race the CSBK Series.”
Lawrence will be visiting several tracks for the first time, including the home of the famed east coast Roller Coaster.
“I’m excited to go places like Shubenacadie! During the off season, I have told people I actually had more fun racing at St-Eustache then I did at Mosport (his two, successful Amateur road racing weekends to date). I’ve been watching videos, and it seems like you have to be really accurate at Atlantic Motorsport Park. You have to minimize mistakes.”
“It’s another track with a lot of character, lots of uphill and downhill. It’s all new to me.”
“I think the Shannonville opener will be really tough, lots of the guys in the series grew up riding there. Grand Bend will be more of a level playing field, not too many of the National guys have a lot of laps around there.”
“Mosport is at the end of the year; I like that place. The speed is a little higher than flat track, but it’s really flowing, but the track is in some ways forgiving. By that time, I aim to be up to speed with the faster group, and I’m comfortable with the drafting.
“I don’t have any specific goals in terms of finishing positions, I’m more concerned with getting comfortable on the bike, be able to adapt to riding in the Pro ranks on a big bike.”
“The Brooklin Cycle Racing Pro Rookie of the Year is a goal, but that isn’t my only target. I want to do better in every race. I have to wipe the slate clean after every race, good or bad, it’s a rebuilding process and there is a new race track at the next round. I can’t’ get too high, can’t get too low.”
“I’ve been through all of these things in my Flat Track career. It’s a different discipline, but it’s still racing a motorcycle.”