Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

would still like to really contest the title at some point. However, right now road racing looks like a solid future. There were so many options that I could have taken this year that I wanted to make the right decision on my future. I think I have." Anyone who has seen Spencer in a press conference or being interviewed must notice the style with, which he 00 handles the questions. It isn't an 0') inborn trait, but one that has been worked on. "I took speech in school and it has helped a tremendous amount. I still get butterflies occasionally, but I believe that my Christian education has helped me to cope with the pressures and the problems that arise." To funher his education, he has been attending night classes in business at the Shrevepon campus of Louisiana State University. "I feel that they will come in handy. Actually, I'd really like to get a college degree, but right now there isn't time for that." You would think that when schooling and racing clash for someone who was "racing JUSt about every weekend there was an event" that schooling would come out on the shon end. Wrong. Spencer was in the top group of his high school class. "Not quite a straight A student, but pretty close," he says. Not only did he beat the books, but found time to play wide receiver on the fGGtbal! team and guard on the basketball team at Grawood Christian School. "He would have probably played baseball also if there had been time," says his dad Fred. 'Tm Freddie and he's Fred. That way you can tell us apan," jokes young Spencer. Over the wimer Spencer played basketball in a church league. "I find that it is a great way to stay in -shape because you run and get plenty of exercise which builds up stamina." The Spencer household is a sprawling ranch style home set in the suburbs of Shrevepon. The house is surrounded by a fence· mainly to keep the dogs in. Fritz, the male of the pair, is practicing for a singing dog pan on a television show. Sirens - police, ambulance or fire engine - set off his anguished wail at all times of the day and night. Vehicles abound in the driveway. Besides Freddie's Pontiac Trans-Am there is his mother June's Ford LTD, his father's Camaro Z-28, a Dodge van with a trailer hitch and a new motorhome. "I guess you could say that we have this thing about cars," notes Spencer. "My grandad is 82. HI: ran a garage for about 60 years. He still is spry and works on cars to this day. My dad likes to drag race at the local strip. He works on his Z-28 all the time. I haven't done too much to the Trans-Am other than a little suspension work and fme tuning the engine. Dad and I went heads-up on the street out in front of the house a while back and I beat him. Boy, he didn't like that one bit." If you get the impression that the family is tightknit you are absolutely right. They are friendly, comfonable people to be with and it is easy to see that they clearly want whatever is best for Freddie. ETV Kanemoto, who tuned for Spencer last year and will continue to do. so this season on ·the Yamaha TZ750 that he will race in the U.S. and in selected international meetings like the 'Transatlantic Trophy Easter Match Races, has spent time at the house and 'has apparently foUnd a second home. "E[\' is such a nice fellow," says Mrs. Spencer. "He's enjoyable to have around and he and Freddie seem to get along so well." Rumon abound on the amount of money Honda paid to sign Spencer and that it was paid by Honda Japan o - 26 since American Honda had reponedly used up its budget when Spencer became available. Mention of 'a reponed $40,000 for 1980 from Honda only brings a smile [0 Spencer's youthful features. "I don't talk about money," he says, "but you could say that is a·ballpark figure. The contract is for two years with an option to re-negotiate it at the end of this season. There is a clause about riding the World the NR500 in Championships next year. I feel it is a pretty complete package. Gary Howard, who sponsored me the past three seasons worked out the terms and such. He knows a lot about those things. I bought the motorhome with a pan of the money so my parents could have a home away from home at the track as well as a place where I can relax." Spencer will fly to the races. "Before Honda, I had offers from Yamaha and Kawasaki. The Yamaha deal escalated from a 250cc bike for the GP's or the World Series without factory backing to. a full scale 500cc GP ride. It was tempting, but I had decided by then to do the World Series. There just wasn't the right kind of deal at Kawasaki so that one went away. What would have happened if Spencer had decided to run the full Winston Pro Series circuit? "I would have had a full program backed by Howard Racing. Probably two (Harley-Davidson) XR750s, a shon tracker and a TT bike plus the road racers prepared by ETV. I know we would have had a good program because we talked about it a lot." Had that scenario come about, some insiders predict that he would have made life very hard at the top of the point standings. Unfonunately, din track fans, that isn't the way it was meant to be. The name Gary Howard or, more precisely, Howard Racing crops up in talks with Spencer. Howard is "I was ready to do the World Series (250cc class) whenever 'it came about with my own Yamaha backed by Gary Howard and tuned by ETV. We had the whole package ready to go, but the World Series kept being on again, off again. "I wanted to ride in the first two Winston Pro Series Nationals at Houston so I called Dennis McKay at Honda and asked for a TT engine. We talked and then he said I could have the 'engine only if I rode their Superbike: They got back to me and things went back and fonh. Eventually we signed the deal." As to whether Japan ordered American Honda to sign Spencer, he shrugs his shoulders nonc.ommitally. One of the biggest plUses of his contract unlike that of teammates Steve McLaughlin and Ron Pierce is that it does not bind him to exclusively riding for Honda in road races. Therefore he can ride his Yamaha TZ750 at Daytona and perhaps the rest of the Winston Pro Series Formula One events. However: should Honda come up with a second Formula One bike . Ron Pier~ will ride the fint . then he will ride that. Spencer's mentor. A gentleman who is a true racing enthusiast and has chosen to help a select few in the spon he loves. "My dad and I met Gary three years ago at a race. He was distributing' Amsoil and as one thing led to another he became my sponsor. He is a really great guy who loves the spon. He has been very good to me and has helped my career a great deaL I consider myself lucky to have him for a friend." Howard, according to Spencer, is a Texas businessman. He has his home in College Station. which is close to Texas International Speedway. "I don't think that you could pin him down to just one business. He does a lot of thingS. " Like some riden who have talent beyond thei~ yean, Spencer ran afoul of the. AMA. He laughs at the memory. "I guess it is rather funny when .you look back on it. I got' suspended for a year from AMA competition because we fudged my binhday to make me a year oldet on my license applicati!>O. The AMA caught it and suspended me-for a year. Luckily, it didn't bun me since there. weren't that mat:ly races for me to ride, The Houston Nationals provided Honda with a very real assessment of Spencer's talent, His fifth place in the TT National surprised quite a few. Had it not been for a balky transmission in his shon track qualifying heat, he might have been in a second National. "I really enjoyed Houston," he said. "I would like [0 ride other din Nationals, but that is up to Honda. The way it looks now I probably won't." "One of the funniest things about that was each year we would go to Daytona and $Omehow I would end up with Roxy Rockwood interviewing me and he would say that I was 16. This went on for three or four years and even I forgot how old I was when I was around him." 1974 marked the first time Spencer rode at Daytona. He competed in the Amateut division road races and was doing pretty good. He remembers, "I was 12 at the time and Daytona was a really big thing. I was leading my class three or four laps from the finish when the bike seized. I can tell you that it was a big disappointment. "It may appear strange to some people, but even with all the racing I've already done, I am not tired of doing it. In fact I look forward to getting on the track. It's always a thrill. Each time you race you learn something or refine a pan of your trade. There's always something new. "You know what I look forward to? Going to Europe and Japan. I've never been outside the U.S. It seems that you read about the faraway places, but really few people ever seem to get the chance to go and see them.. Most of the riders I talk to say that racing in Europe is neat. Of course some don't like it, but they do like the money. I plan to make my own decisions. I also plan to be ready when I go. I'm studying French in my spare time." Despite his physical conditioning, Spencer does have what might be considered by some a weak point. He' wears glasses or, to be more precise, coman lense5. ','I used to wear my glasses when I raced, but last year I got a pair of soft contact lenses and they really work well. Wearing them doesn't bother me and never really has. I don't feel it is any drawback at all. " That he was chosen as most likely to succeed by his graduating class at Grawood Christian School seems to be an uncanny insight into Freddie Spencer. Success seems to be at the bottom of everything he does. Is Spencer then to be labeled an achiever? Perhaps, but he is more a go-getter and someone who enjoys a short term challenge while setting things in perspective, for his future goals. "I want to put back into racing wh.at the spon has given me," he says with sincerity. "I have gotten tremendous opponunities from racing, some that most racers don't even get a chance for in their career. I haven't really staned and yet things are going on around me like I've been in big time racing for years. I try my best not to let all the importance get to me and I hope it is working. You have to stay calm and not let things overwhelm you, which is a very easy thing to happen." Christi Williams also asserts a calming influence on Spencer. She is a vivacious Southern belle and a "close" friend for the past three yean. I'll tell you how Christi thinks," Spencer said, "She is taking pre-law courses at the LSU campus because, as she says, I might need a lawyer someday to figure out my business deals. "There is no doubt in my mind that without my parents being behind me literally every inch of the way' that I wouldn't be in the position I am today. They love racing just as much as I do. You want to know something? My father has been h~lping me or my brother for 2g .years and now that he gets a chance to sit ba.ck, relax and take it easy he still wants to keep a h~d in things. He wouldn't be happy otherwUe" . . This is 'only the' first chapter in the second .book of Freddie Spencer. The first book closed ,when he turned 18. Now all we have to do is sit back and watch history u~old. •

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