If Alan Carter hadn’t crashed I’d have finished fifth, but I ended up fourth because of that and won the World Championship – but didn’t feel I deserved to. He was a racing prodigy who began racing at the age of four, competing in dirt track events near his hometown of Shreveport. was in testing. The race started and they were all flying, but I was struggling to keep up. The 250 British GP was the worst planned race I had ever done – period. [1], By 1982, he had been promoted full-time to Honda's Grand Prix team, who by then had given up on the NR500 and developed the NS500 three cylinder, two-stroke. Back in 2015, Freddie talked us through the trials behind the triumph E ven though I was a pretty fit guy, doing two big races the same day was really tough,” begins Freddie. “The first GP at Kyalami was the worst chatter I had ever experienced – absolutely awful. [1] After winning the 1978 250cc U.S. National Road Racing Championship, Spencer was contracted to ride for the American Honda racing team in the AMA Superbike Championship. [7] After it closed, Ienatsch founded a successor-program, the Yamaha Champions Riding School. Without question the hardest I ever rode (besides when I was battling with Kenny in 1983!) I knew that once the first four or five races were up, if I didn’t have this 500 thing figured out, we probably weren’t going to continue with the 250. He rode really well and the Yamaha went good, so I realised, hey, this is going to be tough! “Not a good idea! Make no mistake, ‘The King’ brought his A-game to the table in ’83. When Freddie Spencer points to a particular day as the highpoint of an extraordinary career that brought about three world championships, and a near constant rewriting of the record books of the time, you’d certainly be expectant of something special. Defending champion Eddie Lawson finished in second with former 250 world champion, Christian Sarron coming in third. With perennial champion Angel Nieto moving to the 80cc class, the 125 class was left open for his Garelli teammate, Fausto Gresini to clinch the title, giving the Italian team its fourth consecutive championship. We had two tyres to test, and I put on one and straight away it was chattering. By the tender age of 21 and 258 days (another new record), Spencer had already earned a place among the pantheon of the greats. In 1985 many of the problems found in the first year of competition were ironed out, offering rider Freddie Spencer a dominant season, taking seven victories. Desnotneus. Frederick Burdette Spencer (born December 20, 1961), sometimes known by the nickname Fast Freddie, is an American former world champion motorcycle racer. “I would wake up in the morning, look in the mirror at the age of 23 and think: who in the world ever thought about doing this? The year, unsurprisingly, was 1985. I peeled the bike in on the brakes and got halfway in on my lean angle – and then it just went booof! “Well, let me tell you that when that 500cc race started, I thought: I’m going to do the complete opposite, I mean I’m going to just GO! Spencer was a record setter. It was succeeded by the RC211V. Spencer also won the Formula 1 and 250cc classes, making him the only rider to win all three divisions in a single year. But Freddie took his reputation to the stars as their ferocious year-long battle culminated in Honda’s first 500cc championship. Defending champion Eddie Lawson finished in second with former 250 world champion, Christian Sarron coming in third. We had another wet race that year at Silverstone, and it was especially memorable because that day I had both races turn out completely opposite for me. By the mid-80s it all came so easily to him he likened manhandling a 180bhp 500cc two-stroke to “getting out of bed.”. Even alongside these feats, Spencer’s greatest day in the sun doesn’t disappoint: a 250cc and 500cc double at Mugello, one of motorsport’s mythical venues, in a year which saw him operating at the absolute peak of his powers. [4] Roberts ran off the track leaving Spencer to sprint to the finish line and victory. Freddie Spencer – the only man to clinch the 250 and 500 GP title in the same year (1985) Tell us about your Aussie memories? Angel Nieto won his 90th and final Grand Prix victory in the 80cc round in France, at the time second only to Giacomo Agostini, but since surpassed by Valentino Rossi. After winning the 1978 250cc U.S. National Road Racing Championship, Spencer was contracted to ride for the American Honda racing team in the AMA Superbike Championship. Australia is one of my favourite places: it’s where I first rode the (HRC) 250 and 500 together at the old Surfers Paradise racetrack. Browse more videos. But I knew we were finally headed in the right direction – it was discovering that tyre magic formula that fixed it. Spencer was the first to win a World Championship on a Honda NSR500, but he certainly wasn’t the last. 1985 Honda NSR500 as ridden by Freddie Spencer to win the Championship in 1985. [1] In 1981, he split his time between the AMA Superbike series, and the European Grand Prix circuit, helping Honda develop the exotic, oval-cylindered NR500 four-stroke Grand Prix bike. In 1995 he raced a Fast By Ferracci Ducati to ninth, and at the end of the year took over the works Ducati from Mauro Lucchiari in Superbike World Championship. That set me on course to win the 500 title and I duly clinched it in the next race in the Swedish GP at Anderstorp, as planned. Anyway, Erv [Kanemoto, Freddie’s race engineer] and the guys got the bike back together again, and I ended up winning the 500 race with my hands broke up after leading every lap. Report. Teething problems and injuries from crashes hindered Spencer's defense of his crown and he was relegated to fourth place in the championship. It was a privilege for me to be involved with people who have gone on to do so much in our sport, and I am just a small part of that achievement of winning two world titles in the same year with two completely new bikes. [14], (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap), Freddie Spencer at the Motorcycle Hall of Fame, Daytona 200 winners at www.motorsportsetc.com, "Spencer appointed Chairman of the FIM MotoGP™ Stewards Panel", Freddie Spencer at the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, Freddie Spencer career discussion - details of the injury that affected his GP success, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Freddie_Spencer&oldid=983962690, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, "Freddie Spencer Day", declared in 1984 by, This page was last edited on 17 October 2020, at 09:25. [1][2], The 1983 season would be remembered as one of the most dramatic title chases in the history of Grand Prix racing; Honda's Spencer and Yamaha's Kenny Roberts fought back and forth for the points lead with each of them earning six victories. “We showed up at Surfers Paradise [in 1985] and we had the NSR250, we had this NSR500 which was the 1984 model with weight strapped to it in different places, and I had to somehow test around 300 different radial tyres for Michelin doing 200 laps a day! Before then, the enigmatic Louisianan had made a mockery of most operating at the pinnacle of the sport, amassing achievements and records at a dizzying rate during his teens and early twenties. Plus I was under pressure due to the fact that I had to do this in a short amount of time, otherwise they wouldn’t let me ride the 250. This page was last edited on 6 June 2020, at 19:57. “The second GP was at Jarama, and on Sunday morning in warm-up I was still trying to figure out the front radial. Follow. He was eighth in 1991, riding a Honda for Two Brothers Racing, and went one better in 1992. [3] The season culminated at the penultimate round in Sweden when the two riders collided on the last lap. This is the 1985 NSR500 as ridden by Freddie Spencer, a 90-degree V4 two-stroke with 140hp at 11,500rpm and a weight of just 119kg.

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