Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Freddie Spencer and Paul Newman. a successful SCCA sports car racer. discuss the finer points of racing, A few word s from Fast Freddie... By Dale Brown He can't legally buy a beer in many states because of his age, yet 20-year-old Freddie Spencer will spearhead the attempt of the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer to win th e coveted 500cc World Road Racing Championship. . hd f d . Spen cer , a IDOg W!t e en mg World Champion Marco Lu cchinelli, will debu t th e new three-cylinder two -stroke NS500 GP bik es a t th e Mar. 28 opening round o f th e series in Argentina. Before he does that, however, Spencer will lead the Honda contingent a t th e Daytona Cycle Week , riding both the Bell Superbike 100 a nd the 200-mile Formula One ra ce. In th e latter, he and teammate Mike Baldwin will debut the 10000c V-4 FWS . 1982 will mark the third year of the association between Honda and the Shreveport, LA, rider. Freddie has won a raft of races for the red, white a nd blue team, but a seri es title ha s eluded them. In his two years on th e Honda Superbike, Spencer has a seco nd a nd a th ird in series standin gs. One of th e favorites for th e two Da ytona even ts, Spencer is a very promising question mark as far a s th e World Championship Series goes. He took the NR500 to La guna Seca and beat Kenny Robert s in a heat rac e, a n d then followed that up with an appearance at th e Brit ish GP in Sil verstone, where he ran fifth until mechanical problem s set in. We talked to Fast Freddie short ly afte r he returned from testing th e r , • • com pe~ i t ive 2:03 lap tim es on th e 3.87-ml.le Daytona road ra~e co urse... How dId the Daytona tesung go? It went really good . We tested th e FWS Formula One bike and I'm very pleased with it. I think tha t this will be the fir st time I've felt reall y co m peritive since 1980 in th e 200 mil e. The key is to last 200 mil es, a nd th e new bike's really reliable and it handIes really well . We understand you were getting down in the 2:02-2:03 range. We had some really fast laps, faster than we've ever gone before. I always feel pretty good about that because I know about how much I'm good for , you know under racing conditions. I really feel that we'll be right in there with just about anybody. This is pretty much of a new design. Do you think there'll be much more develop m en t work before Daytona? Not really. I think that the bik e is at it s potential. What th ey'r e stri vin g for is reliability. The race wo n ' t be run in the 2:02-2:03 range for 200 miles. At least it's n ever been run that fast before. There's always a first time, but I feel tha t th e main thing is that th e bik e ha s to be rel iable. How does the V-4 perform compared toan inlinefour? Is the engine layout much of an advantage? There's no difference whatsoever as far as h ow it makes th e bike handle. The main thing is th e power ch arac • • r evenly and that 's th e big advantage over the inlin e four. You were testing the NS500 at Laguna Seca, How did that go? I wa s reall y pl eased. The first time I rode the bike, just lik e th e first time o n the Formula One bike, th e initial reaction was good. It didn 't n eed much to make it fit m e, it handled good right orr, an d th e p ower was th ere. I reall y ca n ' t co m pa re it t o a factory Yamaha or a factory Su zuki because I've n ever ridden o ne. But, th e bike . felt good and we'll be testing it a co u ple more tim es before th e Arg entina season opener. Marco will be testing the bike as well, so it'll be good to get co mpariso ns. Are you reaJly anticipating going to Europe, really psyched up? I'm really lookin' forward to it . It's something that I really want to do. Th is is the first time in the last couple of years that I've been really excited about a season. After so many years of racing you get to the point where it's just another season. Of course I al ways want to do well , and I always want to win , but I'm really looking forward to this season. I feel that th e bike's gonna be rea lly good and like you say, I've psyched myse lf up to work hard and get prepared. We understand Erv Kanemoto is going to be working with you. Yes, that ) another thing that makes the season so good. Irv is really good. We work really well together and we're good friends. It 'll be fun - I enjoy racing a lot, and when it's fun, it makes it that much better. How are you preparing yourself to go up in battle against guys who are, (A) outstanding riders, and (B), who have a lo t of European experience, such as ~ That mak es it a cha lle n ge, because of co urse th ey reall y are good riders , th e best , a n d th ey are experien ced Kenn y ha s four seaso ns and Randy three seaso ns. That's why I'm testing th e bike so much. The best thing for me to do before the start of the seas on is to ride th e 500s a s much as I possibly ca n so I kn ow th e bik e in sid e a n d out. That way wh en I go to th e ra ce tra ck, I'm not learning the m otorcycle , I'm learn ing th e rac e tra ck . T he best think I ca n do to prepare m yself is to get to know the motorcycl e. If you ride the Match Races, do you think you would go with the NS500? Probabl y so. That's a good weekend to get used to the bike, with six races. That's th e bik e I want to ride, but I'm really not sure yet. We have heard rumors that Honda is also developing a square four. That I reall y can't comm -int on 'cause I really don't know . 1'.11 not reall y at liberty to... But you do like the triple? It really surprised me how much power it had. I've n ever ridden a tripl e before so I ca n 't compare, but it felt good and it definitel y had more power than th e NR. We ran a t Lagun a , and we ran faster th ere th an I ran o n th e NR th e first time. Does the bike suit your riding style, getting sideways every once in a while through corners? That's not exac tly my riding st yle, th at co mes from riding the Honda Superbike. U n fort una tely th e power curve o n th at bike mak es it hard to ride. Mik e Spencer went down to Daytona a nd turned in laps of 2:08 or so o n a Suzuki, then he went o n a Honda a nd he went 2:09. The bik e's power chara cteristics mean if you 'r e going to go fast you almost have to slide it. It doesn 't reall y excite me that much, bu t I'm out there to win. You hav e to ada p t your riding styl e to wh ere the motorcycle is. What I'm used to riding is GP ma chines, and you don 't ride th em like that. Wh at I lik e about o ur new V-4 is that it's just like riding a John Deere tractor; the power delivery is really smoo th. That's what we were trying for wh en we devel oped the Honda motors. I kept saying that it 's going to be very hard for riders to rid e thi s bike unless they have dirt tra ck experience or somethi ng like th a t. That Superbike motor, wh en it co mes on, it ju m ps 15 horsepower within 500 rpm. It's got sudden power, and it break s loos e. It sounds like you're riding with a ligh t switch instead of a throttle. Exa ctly, it 's a light switch. From wh at th ey tell me an d what I've learned, that's a , unfortunately it 's a characteristic of a four-valve head and the way the head is designed. That's why they 've come out with this new V motor, to smooth the power out. Hopefully, next year they'll come out with it forthe Superbike, and it will really make it nice. Looking at Daytona, as far as the 200 miler, who do you think an: going to be the top guys to beat? Well, of course, Kenny Roberts is very fast down there and then Dale Singleton is always there at the end of the race . You never know about Da ytona. Kenny 's the toughest and then like I said Dale, and of course my teammate Mike Baldwin, who 'll be on the other bike. There will probably be six or seven top riders and it's a long race. Two hundred miles is a long way to go. It 's a long wa y, so it's not like I want to go my fastest . I always want to win. I've led every lap of the race that I've been in th e last two years but I haven 't won yet, so hopefully three's a ch arm .

• Cover