One former motorcycling deity won two championships in the 1980s. Freddie Spencer achieved what many thought was impossible, taking both the 500cc and 250cc titles in the same year - 1985. In doing so he shone briefly like a supernova before fizzling out.
And fizzle out is what many feel he did. Freddie's Herculean effort to lift two titles in one season perhaps led to the premature burn-out of a career that could have been even greater. He had a few comebacks, but Fast Fred was never so scintillating again. In hindsight, did he take on too much?
"Yeah, maybe," says Freddie in his clipped, neat and very polite southern drawl. "Taking those two titles took all the effort I ever had. It took its toll. After that I had neck injuries, back injuries, so if I hadn't taken the double, who knows? But I pulled it off for Honda and the team and I wouldn't trade more world titles for what I did that year. But I couldn't have done it without some great people."
It's worth noting these people who helped Freddie. They are none other than Stuart Shenton, ex Kawasaki and current Suzuki GP team chief to John Hopkins, who helped guide Kevin Schwantz to his 1993 500 title; George Vukmanovich - a tuning legend who's lack of stature was inverse to his skill as a mechanic and more; Jeremy Burgess, the ex Randy Mamola, Wayne Gardner, Eddie Lawson and Mick Doohan spanner-man and chief technician, who's been masterminding Valentino Rossi's pit for the last five years.
And Erv Kanemoto.
Kanemoto met up with Freddie in 1979. Freddie has remarked that this third-generation Japanese-American had an uncanny knack to translate what Spencer was saying the bike did, into changes on the bike itself. It all added up to a helluva team.
By 1985 Frederick Burdette Spencer was already a legend. Aged 10 he held titles in five US states; by 13 he was competing in 100 dirt-track races a year, winning the lion's share and learning the art of drifting the rear and going fast and loose. He turned pro at 16 and soon had Kanemoto by his side. After a year or two on two-stroke TZs, a Kawasaki superbike and even a Ducati 900SS, in 1980, aged 18, he was signed to the Honda factory.
Freddie made a few tentative races in GPs before his debut season in 1982, aboard the light and nimble NS500 triple. Thus began his path to GP greatness. He'd win his first 500cc GP race aged 20 at Spa that year on his way to claiming two race wins and third overall. The following year he'd take Honda's first 500cc championship, making Spencer the youngest ever winner in the process. Making it all the more special was beating Kenny Roberts in his last ever season. Now, in 1985, he'd try and do what no-one had done since Giacomo Agostini in 1972 when the Italian took the 350 and 500 titles.
Freddie says: "At Assen in June '84 Youichi Oguma, Erv and me started thinking about doing the double. We had some success with the upside-down NSR, but we knew it had to be changed and that gave us hope. One thing we didn't have was a 250. At the time Honda was running an RS250. From there we had the genius of Satoru Horiike who did much of the work, with Oguma-san backing him up with commitment from the factory. Horiike developed that 250 from pretty much zero."
Continue Freddie Spencer's 1985 championship double
