Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128335
Honda and Spencer Corne Due 3U YEARS AGU•.. Augu!it G. 1974 Superb ikers invad- ijJm , ed LagunaSeca in . 1974. Kenny -:~..:"'::..... Roberts too k the win ahead of a talented field of riders,.. Moto rcycles do minated the SCORE Baja race , with the motor- ..-_"' _...;.....;.."-.... . cycle team of Mitch Mayes and AC. Bakken taking the overall w in ahead of all the cars and motorcycles ... The re was a BMX race held in Van Nuys, Califomi a. e It was completely diff rent from today's BMX racing. On e obstacle forced riders to jump over a wat er hole on their bikes". There was a short blurb about Larry Roe se le r in the front of the issue. He had competed in the SCORE Baja race and finished third 12S. Then he turn ed around and raced a District 37 desert race the next day - winn ing the trail bike class. i!U YEARS AGU. . . Augu!it 8. 1984 Husqvarna's endu ro 125W R appeared on the cover. Inside w as a test on the little bike. We found it to handle we ll, but the e ngine was too slow to make the bike fun to ride ". Honda 's David Bailey won round 12 of the Wrangler Supercross Series in Foxboro, Massachusetts - Ricky joh nson took second, and je lf Ward came in third" . There was a feature done about young up-and-co ming dirt track stars Chris Carr and Don Estep. At the time they we re both youngste rs racing for the ju nior National Championship. Now Ch ris Carr has gone on to beco me a multitime Champion in the Pro class. T o decades removed from its first Grand Prix victory on April 23 , 196 1, Honda had already e njoyed a tremendous GP herit age , w inn ing seve ral World C hampionship titles in the lowe r I 25ce, 250cc and 350cc GP ranks aboard the trickest , mos t exotic four-strokes of the e ra. But despite such a stellar record , the Hammama tsu , Japan-based world motorcycle market leader could not even claim a win - let alone a championship - at the pinnacle 01 the GP mo unta in, the 500ce World Championsh ip, as the decade of t he '80s loomed. Part of t he reason for th is was that Honda had not been trying ; the company had anno unced a total pullout from Grand Prix racing in 1968 . During Honda 's absence, the rift between the glory of win ning the 500cc title versus that of the same accolade in a lower-disp lacement class had grown significantly, Put another w ay, 125ce and 250cc World Cham pions were respected as good riders who might someday become 500ce World C ham pions . And 500ce World Champions were gods. It w ou ld be 12 years before Honda returned to ta ke a crack at the 500ce wars, pinning its hopes on t he incredibly adva nce d NRSOO, a 21 ,000 rpm fourstro ke V4 that ne ver did live up to its promise dur ing the 1980 and '8 I seasons, Faced w ith the rea lity that GP racing had become domi nated by two -strok e powe r, Ho nda sma rtly e lected to fight fire wit h fire in 1982 with the introduction of t he NR's success o r, t he NSSoo . But a lthou gh it was a two- stro ke, the NS500 was a departu re fro m engine designs being run by Suzuki and Y amaha. Ho nda es chewed the competition's rotary valve-inducted square four and vee four configurations , replete with their twin cranks hafts , in favor of a more compact, reed-valved inline triple that used just a single cran kshaft . Now armed with a lightw eight beauty that prio ritized hand ling over ho rsepow e r, Honda found more than a competent pilot in young American star Freddie Spencer of Shreveport, Louisiana. Nthough the pairing of Honda and Spencer didn't bring success right from the outset of the '82 season, it wasn't long before the bugs were worked out of the NS500 and th ings started to click. At the Belgian GP in Spa-Francorchamps on July 4, 1982, the 21year-old Spencer cele brated America's Inde pen de nce Day by becoming the youngest rider ever to win a SOOcc Grand Prix. It was the first on the road to his 27 GP wins and, more importantly for Honda, the first 500cc GP win for the company. Spencer finished third in the 1982 SOOcc standings, behind the Suzuki of Champion Franco Uncini of Italy and the Yamaha of runne r-up Graeme Crosby of New Zealand. Even with Un cini succeeding 198 I champion Marco Lucchinelli for a two-y ea r Italian run at the to p of t he standings, there was on ly a slight lull in America's GP ro ad ra ce dominance afte r Kenny Roberts earned his three consecutive SOOcc Wo rld titles in 1978, '79 and '80. W hen Spe ncer and Ho nda finally were ready for prime time in 1983 , it was Roberts, fittingly enough, wh o was standing in their way. Spence r was ho t right from the start, winning the first three races of th e season at Kyalami, South Africa ; Le Mans> France; and Monza, Italy, before Roberts, aboard a works 0W70 Yamaha that was unfortunately brutal in both the power and han dling departments at the same t ime , could answer bac k with a w in at round four at Hockenheim, Germany. Spencer rebound ed in Jarama, Spain, with Roberts w inning at Salzburg, Austria, and then coming in a disappointing fourth at the Yugoslavian ro und wh ile Spencer won again. But then Roberts reeled off three straight wins of his own, com ing in first in Assen , Holland ; Spa-Francorchamps; and Silverston e, England, cutting his champi onsh ip deficit on Spencer to just two points. The momentum would swing back to Spencer in a telling race at Anderstorp, Sweden, the penultimate round of the series. The two broke away from the field early, Roberts leading most of the way until the last lap when - depending on w hose side you want to believe - Roberts was nearly ridden off the track by Spencer or he nearly rode himself off the tra ck. Either way, Spencer came ho me the w inner, meaning Roberts would need to win th e final rou nd in San Marino and get some he lp in order to rega in the champ ionship. Roberts did a ll he could , winning the last race to tie Spencer on six w ins. Spencer finished seco nd to secure t he title ove r Roberts 144-1 42, giving Hond a its first sooee World C hamp ions hip, Two years late r, Spe nce r w ould be riding Hon das w hen he be came the only man eve r to win both the 250cc a nd SOOcc World C hamp ionship c rowns in th e same season . Fast Freddie indeed. S cott Rousse a u 10 YEARS AGU... Augu!it 3 . 1994 "Iron" Mike La Rocco showed up on the cover for his win at round eight of the National Mot ocrossseries in Troy, Oh io. It mar ked his filth win of the season". Michael Doohan got his sixth consecutive win 01 the 1994 season at round nine 01 the World Championship Road Race se ries in LeMans, France... jordi Tarres was able to secure his sixth consecu tive Worl d Tri- als Champ ionship in Caredine, Italy. He didn't win the event; he got second , which was good enough lor the championship... Motocrosser Casey Lytle sho wed up at a local mo toc ross race at LACR. in the 250 Intermediate class. Today Lytle still races, but in the beginning of the 2004 seas on, he got injured and was forced to sit out the rest of the year. www.cycienEWs.com CYCLE NEWS • AUGUST 4,2004 125