Lawrence goes "green"

From Frank Wood

MISSISSAUGA, ON -- Craig Steyn of Edge Performance has announced that his Bradford, ON-based shop will be sponsor for national number 73 Doug Lawrence of Mississauga, ON in the AMA Grand National Singles Flat Track Championship. Lawrence will ride the 2009 Edge Kawasaki KX450F and will also compete in selected CMA events.

“We met Doug through an employee of mine, Drew Robison,” Steyn explained. “Doug comes highly recommended so when the opportunity came up that we could help him he came up and we worked out a deal.

"He’s a good young man who comes from a good family and although I have yet to see him ride, his standings are impressive and hopefully we can help with that.”

Lawrence will start his season with entries in the Florida flat track series, which opens Feb. 28 before moving on to the Daytona Short Track doubleheader on March 4-5.

This is Lawrence’s second career appearance for the green guys as he won the CMA 250 Junior class championship on a Kawasaki in 1998.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited for the start of the season,” an enthusiastic Lawrence commented. "It’s great to be hooked up with Edge Performance. Craig has got race savvy but they’ve never been involved with dirt track before so I really want to do well for them.

"And it’s cool to be back on a Kawasaki. I won with one before, my buddy Bryan Smith rides one now and he really likes it and Henry Wiles won a GNC race on one so we know we’ve got a good basis.”

With the new AMA rules the workload and cost to get ready for '09 is much lighter than in past years.

“We’ll get a little headwork done and put an exhaust on it and a cam and that’s it for the motor,” Lawrence explained shortly after receiving the bike from Edge. “We’ll change the front and rear suspension and mount dirt track wheels and tires and we’re good to go.”

Lawrence will continue to ride for the American Harley-Davidson team on the George Evans-tuned XR750 in the AMA GNC Twins championship chase.

“George consistently goes the extra mile for us," Lawrence said. "He does way more stuff than we ask or expect. I’m especially happy to have him wrenching for us again this year. Mike Boughner is going to be dialing in our suspension and I’m really excited to be working with him.”