On July 12, 1992, a modern two-wheeled fairytale came true. In a brave and tactically brilliant display of wet-weather riding on a drying track, four-time World Champion Eddie Lawson won the 500cc Hungarian GP on a Cagiva, giving the Italian marque its first road racing Grand Prix victory in 12 years of trying.
A little over a year later, John Kocinski – Lawson’s successor in the team owned by the two Castiglioni brothers, Gianfranco and Claudio – dismissed the doubters who’d put that win down to a lucky choice of tires, by romping to a dry track victory in the U.S. GP at Laguna Seca. And when the following season, in 1994, Kocinski went to Japan Inc.’s home ground at Suzuka leading the World Championship on the blood-red Italian bike after the first two GP races of the year (he won in Australia and was second in Malaysia), the tide had finally turned. And Kocinski and Cagiva ended up third in the championship at season’s end.
After a decade of making up the numbers, the backmarker of GP racing had become a genuine contender in the premier class.
For the compete story on Lawson’s bike, click on the following link:
http://cyclenews.coverleaf.com/cyclenews/20120324#pg71
