Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

King went into the final round of the 500cc National Series at Carlsbad, California, hoping for a good showing - contract renewal time wasjust around the corner. The result was his first-ever National win, and enough points LO finish out the season third overall in the final 500cc standings behind Darrell Shultz and Chuck Sun. With the arrival of 1983 came a renegotiated contract with Suzuki. "Things were looking prelly good I was going LO be their only 500cc rider. But it turned out to be mostly a big disappointment, since Suzuki didn't seem LO have a real drive or commitment behind their racing effort. The works equipment was a good example: I had more DNFs and other problems with the bikes than I had in any other year, and I broke down seven times. I admit it was partly my fault, but Suzuki didn't .seem to want to put any effort into the 500cc bike; they were barely putting any effort into the 250cc Supercrossers. "I felt I had a good shot auhe 500cc title in '83, but you can't win titles with that many breakdowns. I finished beller overall in the numbers than I ever did (10th overall in the AMAlWrangler Super Series and 10th in the Wrangler Supercross Series) but I was very disappointed to finish fourth in the 500cc standings." Thmgs took a turn for the worse shortl y before the start of the 1984 season. Suzuki elected to trim back their racing programs worldwide both in motocross and road racing -with the U.S. factory MX team reduced to only two riders - Mark Barnell and SCOll Burnworth. "There I was without a ride, and there was really nowhere else to go since all the other teams were cutting back, lOO. I thought' deserved a factory ride, but eve.ryone was hurting for money. '" definitely didn't want to give up racing because I felt I was still one of the lOp riders. That's where Team Tamm came in. The day I called them was the same day they said they were going LO call me. It took us a while lO get something worked outthey didn't want LO bargain, so I prelly much had LO take what they offered. I didn't feel like silling home and I didn't want LO have to pay for everything myself, so I signed with them. "The deal comes down to basically a bonus/expense type of thing, and I don't get a salary. If I win a race, there's a $1,000 bonus. The purse money in motocross isn't that great - you could win every race of the season and not even make a LOtal of $50,000 in purse money. obody is good enough LO win like that. "I have a few small contracts with companies that also pay bonuses, and that's where Tamm and I had one of our main arguments. Tamm is basically a clothing company, so they wanted me LO wear their gear. I didn't want LO wear their clothing since they didn't want LO pay me a salary. We went around and around about that for a few weeks, and I finallv had no other choice but to wear' th"ir clothes. "The deal is not that bad - Tamm is a first rate operation. Everything has worked out well with them so far, and the Honda production bikes work well. I feel I have as good a chance to win on the stock Honda as , had on the works Suzuki last year. With the bonuses from Tamm and the other contracts I have for riding gear, I'm makin'g about half of what I made last year with Suzuki. The facLOries pay good bonuses-last year with Suzuki a win was worth $3,000, and if I placed in the top three in a heat race ata Supercross that was worth another $1.000. ~ "It was tough gelling used to Team Tamm after two years on a factory team. With thefactories, you fly to all of the races, get a rental car, and you don't have to worry about anything else. If you don't do well, you still have your monthly salary check to fall back on. With Tamm, if' don't do well at the race I don't make any money at all. If I break the top five, I make good money; if I finish in the top 10 I make OK money; if I'm any farther back than the top 10 I might as well stay home and work at a gas station. "I've made good money the last two year, and the thought crossed my mind LO just quit racing when the ride with Suzuki went away. I wanted LO invest the money in some SOrt of business and live that way, but [felt I could make more money if I kept racing. I'd also miss the sport if I gave it up, and I still have good years left since I'm a relatively young rider." Even with the move to a 250cc machine in outdoor Nationals [or '84, King has indeed continued LO show.he has what it takes LO give the competition a rough time on the track. "I was a bit nervous going into the first National (in Gainesville, Florida) this year, and I've never reaJly been nervous before a race until then. I had been riding the 500cc Nationals for the past four seasons and the 250cc class was a whole new ball game. I didn't know how well [ could do out there on a 250 with the 500 I could break the LOp five on any given day. "At Gainesville I had starts around 12th place in each moLO, and worked up to finish fourth in the first moLO. Barnell and I had a good ballle in the final mota, and I passed him LO finish second behind (Bob) Hannah. I was happy with my performance (second overall), and with a break [ could've won overall." King also found he was able to concentrate on his riding to a greater degree with the Team Tamm package. "With the factory teams, you always have 10 different things on the bike you're testing and you can't always devote 100 percent of your time to strictly racing. On the production bike, you maybe have a single thing to try - like an exhaust pipe - and it either works or it doesn·t. We do a lillie testing for Honda, bUI for the most part we're running slUck machinery. "With all the bad luck I had in '83, I'm hoping for a lot of good finishes this year. The production machinery should help me do well. Atthe Carlsbad GP last year, I came so close to winning, but there was no way I could make the rear shock last more than 10 minutes on the rough track. That's more of a "fun" race than anything else to most o[ the riders, but with all the television coverage it would have been nice to win. Since we have sLOck machinery' shouldn't have as many problems like that this year." King remains very optimistic about his chances of finishing 1984 near the LOp of the heap. '" definitely wantLO be the top privateer, and Tamm is basically a privateer operation. That's my main goal, and it's something I feel is well within reach." King also has another goal for the immediate future - to step back up LO the world of the fully sponsored factory rider. "One of the nice things about the contract with Team Tamm is that they are not trying to keep their riders from gelling a full factory ride. We sign on for one year, but if an offer comes along from a major manufacturer we can immediately break the contract. And that's exactly where [ would like to go - with another facLOry ride. It's the way to go and I want to go I?,!ck." _ • Cl z G ~ ...J W Cl 0 > ! 0 W ...J C Z « en ~ ~ « 0:: CD « > « 0:: 00 0") ....... ~ It'':l w :r > CD ..... - .0 I0 ~ > C'l z z .... 0.. en :r 0.. Close-up Hond"~8 V-4 GPbike Before the crash: Freddie Spencer's NSR500 Honda as seen in the pits at Daytona and the South African Grand Prix. The 499cc 90 0 V-4 has exhaust power valves and carburetors feeding into the crankcases through reed valves. The fuel tank is rubber-mounted and slung underneath the engine; a fiberglass cover fits over the exhaust pipes, which curve up and back over the engine. Air ducts from the fairing feed cool air under the pipe cover, . which still gets hot enough to attract Spencer's allention. The engine is suspended from the aluminum-alloy bridge frame and the rear shock is mounted vertically behind the engine. In these photos the bike has carbon fiber fork tubes and wheels. But Spencer crashed in practice for the South African GP because the sear wheel broke, and he later told television reporters that wheel parts were not suitable applications for carbon fiber. It's likely Honda will use magnesium wheel parts in the future. The tires are Michelin radials, 16inch front and 17-inch rear. Honda hasn't released detailed specifications on the machine. But a brief press release did say that the NSR500 has a 54-inch wheelbase and measures 78 inches in overall length. Overall height is 44 inches, overall width 22.4 inches. Ground clearance is 4.13 inches.

• Cover