Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Spencer. For six years no one has admitted being in that group of foolish Californians who predicted Spencer's defeat, and I'm not about to admit it now. Spencer went on in 1978 to win two more Novice races on a TZ250 and to lead a third - for the first time riding for Erv Kanemoto - until the springs securing an exhaust head pipe broke. After pulling into the pits, Spencer walked slowly to the motor home his parents had driven 2000 miles from Louisiana. When a reporter asked him what happened, Spencer paused, shrugged his shoulders and explained the prob!.em, said he hoped-things went better next time, and politely waited for the reporter to ask more questions. When the reporter was finished, Freddie excused himself and went in to see his parents. "It's a terrible shame," his father told one reporter later. "He tries so hard and he feels so bad when he doesn't win, like he let everybody down. But that's racing." Any doubts that Freddie's results would be different when he graduaied to the Expert class were put to rest at Daytona in 1979. Skip Aksland won the race, which was decided by a chance encounter with six slower, lapped riders on the last lap. Second? Freddie Spencer on his TZ250. And behind him? Just some other 250cc guys ... Randy Mamola, Anton Mang, Eddie Lawson. "It was just one of those things," said Spencer. "By the time I was past (the last lapped rider) and in Skip's draft, it was too late." Freddie was 17. Late in the year, Kawasaki hired Freddie to ride a Superbike in the hopes he could head orr the drive by Wes Cooley and Suzuki, who were poised to take the championship out of Kawasaki's hands. Spencer had never ridden the Kawasaki Superbike before the race at Sears Point, which he won easily, beating Ron Pierce, Cooley, Rich Schlachter, Roberto Pietri... Kawasaki was pleased, and gave 17year-old Freddie a $5000 bonus. Freddie was pleased, and responded by winning the next Superbike race, at Laguna Seca. ((He tries so hard and he feels so bad when he doesn't win, like he let everybody down." Kawasaki was pleased, and gave Freddie a $10,000 honus. One of the riders Freddie beat in those two races was Steve McLaughlin, a rider of known ability, with Superbike wins to his credit, but more than that, a hustler. McLaughlin was always showing up at races with the best privateer equipment sponsored by some jean manufacturer or chemical company, and, at the time, that was unheard of in U.S. racing. Between the end of the 1979 racing season and the start of the 1980 racing season, McLaughlin put together his greatest deal ever. Honda was goi'ng Superbike racing, and McLaughlin landed the job of road racing team manager - as well as rider. He quickly hired Ron Pierce to help develop motorcycles capable of winning, an'd convinced Freddie to join the team. Freddie was, at first, undecided, considering an offer from Kawasaki. McLaughlin says he sat down at a table with Freddie and said "Look. I've been with Kawasaki, and I can introduce you to one guy who's crazy in Idaho, and another guy who could have been a great baseball player but whose fingers are all ground 0[[ (from riding and crashing Kawasakis). Riding for Kawasaki can be hazardous to your heath, and Honda has all this money." McLaughlin and Honda brought the biggest budget in history to U.S. racing, and Freddie signed. With a large salary and liberal bonuses, sources say 18-year-old Freddie brought home more than $125,000 frorp Honda in 1980, without winning the championship. Freddie's contract allowed him to ride a streamlined TZ750 built by Erv Kanemoto in Formula One races, since Honda didn't have a bike for that class. Freddie was leading the Daytona 200 by more than a minute on the 38th' of 52 laps. He had qualified second fastest, behind Kenny Roberts, and had taken the lead on the second lap when Roberts retired with the ~ 00 mechanical problems. Spencer attacked the course, sliding through the corners, the rear end of his TZ750 hanging out like a speedway bike, the rear tire spinning, flashing past the finish line lap after lap, each time collecting $30 for leading the lap. Then the bike broke. Freddie walked away from the side of the track, disappointed, but politely answering questions all the same. The words were different, but the meaning the same - that's racing, and it's a shame. At Least Freddie had finished second in the Superbike race on his Honda, and "that fellow Graeme Crosby sure rode hard to win that one.') Freddie believes that a guardian angel rides on his shoulder and protects him from harm. Freddie and his father were widely quoted in the press, bravely dealing with the terrible disappointment. It was, one rider remarked later, as if Freddie and his father had gone to some kind of school and taken some sort of course on how to behave in front of the press, what to say, and how to win the hearts of reporters, how to make sure that everything written about you made you out to be a good, kind, sweet, sincere young Christian man from Louisiana. McLaughlin's dual-purpose career as Honda rider and race manager ended early in 1980. Freddie's bike threw a connecting rod through the engine cases on the banking at Char- loue Motor 'Speedway, and it was instantly apparent what kind of reflexes young Freddie had. When Freddie's bike's rear tire hit the debris arid oil at top speed, it slid sideways and there Freddie was, fulllock with the rear wheel about to pass the front. The normal thing to happen in such an instance is for the motorcycle to highside the rider into the pavement with horrifying results. Ask Barry Sheene about his 1975 Daytona crash at 170 mph for details. But Freddie was already an abnormal rider, and that's not what happened. Instead, young Freddie sized up the situation and in the blink of an eye decided to bailout. He released the handlebars and kicked back orr the bike a mill i-second before the motorcycle began tumbling and exploding into bits and pieces. The crash was so awful-looking that McLaughlin, running about fourth at the time, stopped to assist Freddie, who su££ered nothing worse than bruised and scr.aped knees. It was never in the press, but it's interesting to note an incident that preceeded Frecfdie's Charlotte crash. It seems that the Honda riders were under strict orders never to exceed 10,000 rpm for any reason. Ron Pierce was on the banking at Charlotte in practice, running 10,400 rpm and rolling off the throttle to keep from gaining any more engine speed. Freddie blasted past at what Pierce later estimated tobea speed 15 mph faster than his own, throttle wide open, engine howling. Pierce pitted, and walked over to Freddie's bike, only to find tliat Freddie's machine had lower gearing than his own. "You must have been making that bike scream!" Pierce said to Freddie. "Oh, no," said Freddie. "I was at 10,000 rpm, just like they told us." • (Continued next wuk) 23

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