Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

.~ INTERVIEW Master tuner Erv Kanemoto .~ work br iefl y for a food mach inery business, then to a Yamaha sh op. Racing was still j us t a hobby, but h e was gett ing increa singl y involved . Before long h e wa s building a threecy li nde r Kawasaki dirt track engine for Scott Brelsford a nd things got seri ous fast. From th er e ,it was on to Walt Fu lton Jr., Jun ior class road racer J erry G reen e, Nixon, Marnola, Spen cer, th e list goes on . His father claims he lost touch with what Er v was doing when he moved to th e p ro s, a move he made wi thout the co m p lete a pp ro val of hi s paren ts. " We sure wanted him to go to co llege," h is fa ther says. " ' Later on, la ter on," he'd say. H e never d id go. Wha t h e kn ows h e lea rned from reading a ll the books he ca n ge t hi s hands on . H e learned from experience . If he went to co llege, it sure wo u ld ha ve been easier. ' I wa nt to make th e m istakes and I wa n t to learn ,' he sa id . I' m sure g lad tha t he tu rned out okay. H e's done fa irl y good, I g uess," H arry says with ' paternal p ride a nd more understat ement th an he realizes. Erv re mains close to hi s family a n d every cha nce he ge ts he goes h ome. " It's worth a wee k's res t to co me h ome for a day or so, " he says. Home is a modest ra nch h ouse o n the o utskirts of Sa n Jose tha t he's lived in for close to 15 years. Beh ind th e house is th e workshop h e used to build any number of motorcycles a nd a number of ske letons still haunt its environs. Ther e's a set .of Kawa sa ki crankcases o n the floor , a co up le of p ipes a nd fa irings h anging from th e ceili ng, a wooden mock-up for a lower end th at n ever 'go t built, parts of a flow ben ch , and enough dusty exe rcise equi p me nt to fill a small hea lt h cl ub. All th is is arranged in a fash io n that a llows Erv to ride h is exercise bike wh ile listening to co un try and western tapes o n the stereo. T hat any th i ng co u ld ever ge t do ne here is qu ite ha rd to beli eve. A visitor asks abou t a case of beer a t the botto m of a stack. " O h, th at 's root beer." "How long' s it been there?" Erv's asked, a hea lth y co ver in g of d ust agi ng it so mew hat. " Abou t 10 years." long before that case of root beer was was introduced to Nout ngbought, Erv -Shreveport, Louia yo man from 24 siana , a t a WER A race a t Mid -O hio. It was 1978 a nd the young man 's fa th er, Frederick Burdette Spencer Sr., who'd n oticed Er v working with Nixon, approached h im and to ld hi m he'd taken hi s precocious so n as far as he cou ld. H e wanted to give h im th e cha nce to do wel l. So th e yo u ng Spencer rode Erv 's TZ250 tha t da y a nd wo n by 30 seco nds, in the rain. " Erv sti ll says we had the wrong tires," Spencer says. T hey wo u ld run five races tha t year a nd win four. In 1979, Spen cer 's first full yea r o n the si lver a nd blue Yamaha 250, they won every Lightweig ht Ex pert cham. pionship race except Daytona . In 1980 h e we n t with American H onda because h e still wa nted to dirt tra ck , though h e ro de a Kawasaki superbike a t Sears Point a nd La gu na Seca . H e a lso rode Erv 's T Z750 at Daytona , only to blow up while well in th e lead. Kn owing th a t their future was in Europe, Er v spent a year' working for Barry Shee ne in 1981 whi le Freddie raced for Amer ican H onda in the U.S . In 1982 th ei r teamwork was immedi at ely recogn ized at th e first Grand Prix of th e yea r in Ar gen tina. Ridi n g th e three- cylind e r H on d a N S500, Spencer raced wi th Rob erts and Shee ne before sett ling fo r th ird . By m id -season he'd won his first Grand Prix, th e Belgian, an d in doing so beca me th e yo un gest rid er to ever win a 500 GP. H e would end th e season in third pl ace, despite being kn ocked down in th e G erman Grand Prix, th e last race of the year, by Franco Uncini. The 500cc GP Litle chase of 1983 is th e one by which all since h ave been measured. Two riders, one a t his peak, ' th e other asce nd in g, turning th e World how ever, an d do what none h ad done befor e, n or will likel y, do aga in. On 'a more con ven tion al fo ur-cyli nder a n d a brand n ew V-twin 250, Spencer won every th in g in sigh t including a ll th ree classes at Daytona to start th e year. T h e grind was ta king its to ll and to ward th e en d o f th e season Erv practica ll y had to lift .Fredd ie fro m the 250 o nto th e 500 knowi ng fu ll ,well what it was drai ning fro m him . Th ough they would ta ke two titles, Spen cer was menta lly a nd p hysically ex ha us ted a nd never the sa me . H e missed Da ytona th e nex t year af ter spending a few week s in a Shreveport hospital with rapid weight loss due to ex ha us tio n. What exactly tra nspired th at winter will , never be known - neither Freddie n or Erv will tal k abo u t it. But Erv n ever ga ve u p on his friend and a fter a few trips to Sh reveport had h im rea dy for th e fir st race of th e seas on in Spain. Freddie sprinted a way with his signa ture fast start onl y to be , stopped by tendinitis in his wrist. It was , basically, the end of his career. H e, ra ced infrequently in 1986 and his 1987 began d isastrously with a crash at Da ytona. H e retired at th e start of '88. Spen cer was once asked if h e could for o the r p eople's feelings. " H e ca n too easily be taken advantage of, " Spencer says . But more than th at , Erv isn't o u ts po ken, n ev er was , a n d wh en th ings aren't go ing well he' s loathe to ra nt a nd rave. That 's not his way . He never ge ts visibly a ngry because h e reacts ' differently to p roblem s th an m ost people. When a crisis arises th e most co m mon immedi at e response is fru stration , anger, resentmen t, a ll o f wh ich im pede a solution. With Erv th e immedi at e response is, " H ow did th is p roblem occ u r? H ow ca n we p revent it from h appening again? An d what ca n we do to fix i t?" H e does this, not o n ly with hi s motorcycles, but with life in gen eral. It is, however , th ose times when th e solu tio n s don't so lve th e problems th at Er v finds most frustrating, The years 1987 a nd 1988 fall into th is ca tegory. He'd seen a young rider make th e most of a n underpowered Suzuki and was so impressed that he arranged a tryout for him with HRC a t their Suzuka circuit. The rider was Scotsman Niall Mackenzie, fresh off a season of 250s and part-time on th e n ew Suzuki 500 an d when he arrived at Suzuka he was a sked how h e would like th e bike set have wo n th e World Championships wi thou t Erv ..H e answered : "I wouldn ' t have wanted to. " But th e fact remains that he p rob abl y co u ld n' t h ave. Great is th e evidence of enormous ly ta lented riders with no di recti on or su p port , a n d Erv pro vided both . H e w as Spencer 's eyes a nd ears on the world, shield ing him from the factory, who wanted q u ick so lu tions to co m p lex problems, an d giv ing him as little to worry abo u t as possib le. T o this day, Spencer has no idea what Erv di d for h im , nor would Erv wa n t h im to. Yet . Sp encer understands the dynamics of th e frie ndsh ip an d why it worked . " 1£ it doesn't cl ick bet weenthe rider and Erv , th er e 's n o adj ust me nt, " Spencer says . " H e h as to h ave good co m m u n ica tion. H e th inks a lot o f th in gs, bu t nev er says them. H e 's extreme ly com petitive . More so tha n a ny body I kn o w. H is desi re, how it , a ffects him . H e li ves for tha t. " , "It 's th e o n ly th in g h e d oes, " b e li ev es Geo rge Vukm an ovi ch. There's nothi ng else he cou ld do ," , As harsh a n assess me nt as th at is, Er v agrees wit h it. " I'm limi ted in what I th in k abo u t. All m y energy is in wha t I'm doing an d I do n' t loo k at a nyt h ing else. I think d ifferentl y than most people a nd I sti ll lik e wh at I' m doi n g. It ' s th e co m p e titio n . J us t b ein g invo lved with people." 1£ Erv has a wea kn ess, it 's a weakness up , the sea ting posit ions, th e handlebars , th e sus pe ns io n . H e to ld the m it was fine just the wa y it wa s a n d, on a track he'd never seen , p ro ceeded to ge t dangerousl y cl ose to th e tr ack record. H e would be Erv' s seco n d rider in 1987 and hi s only ride r in 1988, bu t in th e en d th ings didn ' t work ou t a nd for 1989 he went on to th e Marlboro Ag o st ini tea m. The p roblem was co m m u nicatio n ; Er v wasn 't getting th rough, but th er e wa s n othing he co u ld do abou t it. H e'd tell Mackenzie , someth ing a nd it would be almost ins ta ntly forgo tten . The work et h ic that Erv li ves by just wa sn't th ere a nd he gre w frus trat ed. H e tried as h ard as he co u ld , knowing th at th ere was no perce n tage in it. Mackenz ie recog. n ize d, too late , tha t t he r e was a problem. " I' m the sort o f person th a t need s to know what sorneone's thinking. 1£ he co u ld ha ve shouted a t me, let me kn ow what h e' s feeling. H e's such a ni ce guy. A lot o f tim es we we re th i n k i ng d iffe ren t : thin g s. H e shou ld've g ive n me a good bullocks. Maybe if we co u ld've go ne on for a coup le of years . It ta kes q ui te a long ti me to get to know him. It would've gotte n better if we staye d together ," Mackenzie says in h is th ick Sco tti sh accent. "Erv a nd I have to be ha p p y with the people we work wit h." More th an that , Erv expects as much of th e people he works with as is Kanemoto began working with Freddie Spencer in 1978. Together they won th e 500cc World Championship in 1983 and both the 250 and 500cc titles in 1985. Asked if h e could have won the titles without Erv Kanemoto, Spencer said, " I wouldn 't have wanted to." Cham pions hi p into a persona l feud. The truth is , they o n ly reall y raced head- to-head in a few of th e I I races, bu t th o se wer e a mo ng th e m o st mem orable of a ll tim e. After finish ing a close secon d to Spencer in th e Spanish G ra n d Prix , Rob erts ad mitted tha t was th e hardest he' d ever ridden to fini sh seco n d. It was a br ii liant di spl ay o f tactics wi th Spencer at o ne p o int feigning mech anica l trouble to let Rob ert s past a nd in th e en d Spencer made th e luck th at won h im th e race . Towa rds th e end o f yea r in Swed en , R oberts u nderest im at ed his yo u n g r iva l, n eve r think in g that Spencer wo ul d try h im o n th e insi de of the fin al 90-degree bend, bu t he d id, drivin g Robert s off th e track to win the race a nd virtua lly cl in ch the championship . O n ly the formal ity of running the Sa n Ma rin o G ra nd Prix a t Imol a remaine d and, a lth o u g h it loo ked close, it was a p ro cessio n , Rob erts trying to slow Spen cer down eno ug h to ma ke G P rookie Lawson a factor, to n o ava il. Rob er ts won, Spencer was seco nd and th e ti tle was h is. It was n't th e firs t tim e that Erv had cr ied at a race tra ck a nd it wo u ldn't be the la st. T he pai r struggled in 1984 when H o nda o utwitted itself on its first a ttem pt to build a fou r-cylinde r twostroke, eve ntua lly fini shing fo urth while La wson wo n h is first title. T hey wou ld co me ba ck in 1985,

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