(Top) Kenny Roberts willattemptto recapture his throne on his square four.
(Left) Freddie Spencer dazzled D'!Ytona. but his NS500 for the GPs is
unproven. Randy Mamola will head the Suzuki factory effort.
.......-I"!'!""
Preview: 1982 World Road Racing Championships
Can Ki 9 Kenny clim
back to the top?
By Alan Cathcart
Photos by Dale Brown. Lou Martin and Cathcart
With the first G rand Prix of th e 1982 seaso n
only a few weeks away (Argen tin a o n March
28), the battle lines have been drawn for
what has a ll the makings o f the m os t excitin th e o the r capaci ti es. to o. th ere's a
battle royale brew in g in every cat egory, Even if th e w raps don 't come
off so m e o f th e new machinery till
Ma y 2 a nd th e sta rt of th e European
major J apan ese manu factur ers will
G Ps in Au stri a. it's h ard to a vo id gettin g excited at th e superb prosp ects
contest th e bl ue ribbo n 500cc cla ss
in store already for wh at should p rove
with co m pe ti tive two- st roke rna chinerv- on "3' s~s on·long- ban s.-a nd - : -ro b e rhe niosi bitterly fought series-of-
ing and competitive World
Championship road racing series ever staged.
For the first time, all four
' 20
races in Grand Prix history.
Consider the line-up in th e 500cc
c1asss a lone. Defending champion
Marco L ucch inell i split with his
mentor Robert o Gallina soon after
clinching the 1982 crown to accept a
big money offer from Honda to ride
th e m uch-ru mored V3 two-stroke
successor to the m uc h-maligned
N R500 four-stroke. It seems Honda
wi ll have to pay Gallina handsomely
for the privilege. sin ce th e Italian
Su zu ki team manager c1aim s to h ave
Mar co 's sign a ture on a n '82 co n tract.
Will th is be th e start o f football-style
tra ns fer deals between teams on a
cas h basis?
T wo bi g questions ,remain to be
- o'a n- \,:ered: H ow co mi>eiiti,'e wi ll-the' : '
s
new Honda prove to be. and how
good is Lucchi nelliwirhout G a llina.
the ma n generally credited with rescuing him from the doldrums a nd
setting him on the path to the titl e?
Has he the compos ure to fight back if
th e Honda 's early resu lts should be
disappointing? H a s the explosive
tem peram ent really given way toa
new maturity? Can he take the ro ugh
wit h the smooth? We shall see.
There 's no questions a bo u t the
maturity of Lu cky's Honda teammate,
for Freddi e Spen cer 's com posure belies hi s tender yea rs. But the 20-yearo ld Ame rican from Sh reveport , LA .
mus t h ave question s of h is own a bo u t
tile Ho nda 's com peti tiveness as pre• season test ing showed problems 'with
