Cycle News

VOL. 50 ISSUE 43 OCTOBER 29, 2013 hospital with a broken collarbone. For 1983 Spencer was back and ready to make a run for the championship. A year of getting acclimated to the travel and the tracks gave him newfound confidence. Honda was ready too. More than ready. They'd first been in the premier class in the 1960s and twice lost close, hard-fought championship battles with Hailwood as their rider against Giacomo Agostini and MV Agusta. Big H then went away for a decade and when they returned it was with the infamous NR500 – a fourstroke technological marvel that rarely lasted more than a few laps. By '83 Honda was in its second season with the NS500. The three-cylinder lacked a bit of power to the Yamaha four-banger, but it was lighter allowing Spencer to brake later and carry more mid-corner speed. Observers who saw Spencer race that year said that compared to the other Honda riders Spencer slid the NS harder and longer, stood it up quicker coming off the turns, as if it were hitting a hidden berm. Spencer got off to a rocket start to the '83 season, winning the first three rounds and opening up a solid lead on Roberts. Along the way Spencer was part of some historically significant races. At Le Mans he led Honda's first sweep of the podium (joined on the podium by Marco Lucchinelli and Ron Haslam). The next week at Monza Spencer led another unprecedented sweep when Americans went 1-2-3 (with Randy Mamola and Eddie Lawson) for the first time in history. Roberts rallied to win at Hockenheim, while Spencer's Honda cracked an expansion chamber, burning through his fairing. He was lucky to finish fourth as he was about to be caught by a group of four riders when the clouds opened up late in the race bringing out the red flag. For once Spencer liked the rain. Even though they were battling atop the standings Spencer and Roberts hadn't yet had a great battle on the track. That showdown finally came in the Spanish Grand Prix at Jarama, where the two P107 put on one of the greatest displays of racing ever. Lap after lap Spencer and Roberts went at it, probing, drafting, passing one another well after their tires were shot. On the greasy tires Spencer nearly pitched it right in front of Roberts, sliding for what seemed like forever on his knee before scrubbing off enough speed that the bike came back to him. Spencer looked over to Roberts as if to say, "Did you see that!?" On the final lap Roberts got held up for just an instant by traffic, giving Spencer just enough of a gap to win by a half-a-second. Afterwards Roberts complimented Spencer in his own way saying, "That was the hardest I've seen someone ride on the last lap to beat me." That classic race was overshadowed of course by the penultimate round in Sweden where the two rivals made contact on the final corner as Spencer ran up the inside and forced his way through. Roberts ended up running off the track and had to settle for second. He had words with Spencer on the podium and even though Spencer apologized, he later told the press, "Losing on the last lap is part of racing." The championship came down to Imola. Spencer had to finish second to win the championship. It was thought that Roberts' teammate Eddie Lawson might have been able to come up and put himself between Roberts and Spencer, but in that final race Spencer was full in control. He likely could have won, but decided instead to ride a tactical race shadowing Roberts the whole way. Only once did Spencer let his pride get in the way when he made a move around the outside of Roberts at Curva Tosa. Roberts could have returned the Swedish favor, but didn't. "I don't want to win that way," he said. And so it was. Spencer had finally given Honda the championship coveted so much since Soichiro Honda declared it as a goal nearly 30 years before. CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives

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