Freddie Spencer will be forever synonymous with the beginning of the wave of phenomenal American racing talent that dominated the podiums of the premier class through the 1980s and into the 1990s. Spencer’s historic 250cc and 500cc double title winning season in 1985 has also never been repeated and marks his place in the annals of the sport.
Born in 1961 in Shreveport, Louisiana, Freddie Spencer began riding motorcycles as a toddler at the age of four. At five, he was competing in TT Scramble dirt track events in Dallas, Texas. By the age of eleven, Spencer had already won ten state motorcycle racing championships in Short Track and Dirt Track events.
In 1972, Spencer made his first foray into roadracing, competing at Green Valley Raceway in Dallas, Texas. The youngster's dirt track experience paid off. By 1977, he had won twelve national roadracing championships competing in both AMA (American Motorcyclist Association) and WERA sanctioned race events.
In 1978, Spencer began his professional roadracing career at the age of 18. That year, he won every race in the AMA 250cc Grand Prix Road Race "Novice" Division while en route to winning the AMA National Championship. The following year, 1979, Spencer won the AMA 250cc Grand Prix Road Race "Expert" division National Championship, finishing first place in every race except one, where he took second.
Spencer's achievements did not go unnoticed. In 1980, at nineteen years of age, he signed with American Honda Motor Company to race in the AMA Superbike National Championship Series.
Spencer also began racing overseas that year. In his first taste of European competition, Spencer won the first two legs of the Trans-Atlantic Match Races. Incredibly, Spencer bested two former Grand Prix World Champions, Kenny Roberts and Barry Sheene, both of whom were supported by factory teams.
Spencer qualified 6th in his first European Grand Prix. This was just a single spot behind reigning 500cc World Champion Kenny Roberts, a man who, at the time, was considered the greatest motorcycle racer in the world.
In 1981, Spencer inked an agreement with Honda Racing Corporation to race selected Grand Prix World Championship events, and most importantly, to assist in the research and development of the Honda NR500 four-stroke machine.
The following year, at the age of 20, Spencer stunned the racing world at the Belgian Grand Prix on July 4, 1982, becoming the youngest Grand Prix race winner in history. He went on to finish third overall in his first full year of 500cc Grand Prix World Championship riding Honda's three-cylinder two-stroke NS500.
This set the stage for the celebrated 1983 racing season, which is considered by many as greatest World Championship Grand Prix contest of all time. Spencer won the 500cc World Championship in the toughest competition on record. He and Kenny Roberts split 12 wins and 12 pole positions between them, with Spencer taking the championship by scant 2 points in the final race of the season. At 21, Spencer had become the youngest World Grand Prix Champion in history.
1984 was a transition year for Spencer. He played a major role in the research and development of a new V-4 two-stroke Grand Prix machine for Honda, considered the most radically designed bike in post-war Grand Prix racing. Due to various teething problems, Spencer finished fourth in the World Championship point standings.
In 1985, Spencer was back with a vengeance. The young man who had taken the championship from King Kenny Roberts in 1983 was soon to become the first person in history to win both the 250cc and 500cc World Championships in the same season. In the 250cc classification, Spencer competed in ten events, qualified on the pole six times, and won seven races. In the eleven 500cc races, Spencer qualified first nine times and won seven.
The double championship stands alone in the history of modern Grand Prix racing. No competitor today would even attempt such a feat, yet Spencer accomplished it while setting nine new track records. Even more incredibly, in the same year, he won all three major divisions (250cc, 500cc and Superbike) at the AMA National at Daytona International Speedway. He is the first and only competitor ever to do so.
In 1988, with three World Championships under his belt, Spencer retired from Grand Prix racing. In the years that followed, he raced in selected events in the AMA Superbike Series. In 1996, over thirty years from the day a small boy entered his first dirt track race on an obscure Texas racecourse, Fast Freddie Spencer officially retired from professional motorcycle racing.
Today Spencer owns and operates the very successful Freddie Spencer's High Performance Riding School, situated at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Spencer's school, designed for riders of all abilities, reaches out to novice riders - who wish to improve their street riding -- as well as racers who dream of winning world championships. Spencer and a select group of highly skilled instructors - who are renowned for their personal touch - coach students using specially equipped Honda CBR600 motorcycles. For more information, go to: http://www.fastfreddie.com.
source:www.en.wikipedia.org
www.motorsports-network.com
No comments:
Post a Comment