AT THE DOUBLE!
By 1985 Frederick Burdette Spencer was already a veteran racer and champion. When he turned 23 on December 20, 1984, he had been racing for 17 years. Aged 10 he held dirt-track titles in five US states and three years later he was competing in 100 dirt-track races a year and was winning the majority of them.
Turning pro aged 16, he met Californian tuner (and fellow legend) Erv Kanemoto. He spent a couple of years road-racing Yamaha TZ machines, when he turned 18 he was signed to the Honda factory and had a blistering debut in Europe in the Trans-Atlantic races of 1980 at Brands Hatch.
His path to Grand Prix greatness began with a few tentative races before he was matched with the nimble Honda NS500 triple. He would win his first Grand Prix aged just 20 at Spa Francorchamps in 1982, before taking Honda’s first 500cc Grand Prix championship a year later in brilliant style against the retiring ‘king’, Kenny Roberts.
But now, in the winter of 1984, he and his brilliant Honda team were about to embark on a journey that would make ‘Fast Freddie’ a true racing legend. Looking back, does Freddie Spencer think it was all a bit too much, to try and win two world championship titles in a single year?
“Yeah, maybe,” admits Freddie.
