PERHAPS NO SPORTSMAN in the history of motorcycle racing ever achieved as much, as quickly, and at such a tender age as the young man who, in the mid 1970's, rocketed to the attention of the American public as Fast Freddie Spencer.
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, when most young boys are thrilled just to hear the sound of playing cards in the spokes of a bicycle, Freddie Spencer had already won ten state motorcycle racing championships in Short Track and Dirt Track events.
In 1972, with those ten championships under his belt, he made his first foray into roadracing, fielding a 100cc Yamaha twin at Green Valley Raceway in Dallas, Texas in the 0-250cc stock production class. The dirt track experience paid off for Freddie: by 1977, he had won twelve national roadracing championships competing in both AMA- and WERA-sanctioned race events.
| 1978-1982 | |
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In 1978, Spencer began his professional roadracing career at the age of 18. That year, Freddie 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, Freddie won the AMA 250cc Grand Prix Road Race "Expert" division National Championship, finishing first place in every race except for 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. He also began racing overseas that year. In his first taste of European competition, Freddie won the first two legs of the Trans-Atlantic Match Races on a production based Yamaha TZ750. Incredibly, Freddie bested two former Grand Prix World Champions, Kenny Roberts and Barry Sheene, both of whom were supported by factory teams. He also signed with Yamaha Racing Europe to compete in selected Grand Prix World Championship Events. In his first European Grand Prix, Freddie qualified 6th. 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 to race selected Grand Prix World Championship events, and most importantly, to assist in the research and development of the new Honda NR500 four-stroke machine. The following year, at the age of 20, Freddie finished third overall in his first full year of Grand Prix World Championship racing. He further stunned the racing world at the Belgian Grand Prix on July 4, 1982. Mounted on a Honda NS500, he become the youngest Grand Prix race winner in history. This was the beginning of the long-running domination of Grand Prix racing by the Americans, with Spencer and Yamaha-mounted Kenny Roberts setting the stage for the infamous 1983 racing season, which is considered by many as greatest World Championship Grand Prix contest of all time. |
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