Spencer On Parade
SPENCER ON PARADE
Due to circumstances beyond even Honda’s control, the Superbike race was more like a comparison test: how much faster Freddie Spencer’s factory VF750F was than the support and private Hondas, and the Hondas in turn compared with everything else.
Not that there was much everything else. Honda was expected to win the 1983 Superbike series, but thanks to Wayne Rainey, the Kawasaki team and some bad breaks, didn’t. Then economic pressure forced Kawasaki to quit winners, leaving Honda with nobody to race against. So they trimmed back their own team, while selling machines and engines to all.
Fast Freddie didn’t even work up a sweat in winning by more than half a lap, which translates to 1 minute 19.912 seconds on the 3.84-mile Daytona course.
He qualified almost four seconds a lap faster than Fred Merkel, turning a lap in 2:05.892 vs. Merkel’s 2:09.162.
Spencer and Merkel rode Hondabacked, works VF750F Interceptor superbikes. Behind the factory-backed pilots came the privateers with support team bikes purchased from Honda at the end of last year: John Bettencourt at 2:1 1.856, Roberto Pietri at 2:12.728, Sam McDonald at 2:12.816. Behind them came privateers with engines purchased from Honda, installed in their own racebikes, all qualifying at 2:15s. The fastest guy without a Honda racebike or engine was Dale Quarterly on a Kawasaki, at 2:16.134, in ninth spot, ahead of Jimmy Adamo’s Cagiva at 2:16.232.
What all that means is a nine-secondsa-lap spread in the top 10 qualifiers. Move back another 10 places and the spread was an astounding 15 sec. a lap. By 30th place it was 18 sec. a lap. The last qualifier was 39 sec. a lap slower than Spencer.
Not listed among the qualifiers were Wes Cooley and Graeme Crosby, who entered on Yoshimura Suzukis built under the direction of Fujio Yoshimura. The bikes broke in qualifying, and they were so far off the pace—five seconds a lap that Fujio decided to withdraw.
No wonder, then, that there was no race for the win. The gap between Spencer and the rest grew every lap; for awhile Merkel ran second and steadily pulled away from third and fourth as he lost ground to Spencer. Then Merkel’s bike dropped valves and the only thing following Spencer was a large empty space.
Even though there was no race, there was racing. John Bettencourt looked secure in second after Merkel’s bike broke, but wasn’t. His Honda developed a small head gasket leak and wouldn’t pull peak rpm, and Sam McDonald caught up. The pair traded the position two or three times a lap for 10 or 15 laps, and McDonald crossed the finish line a bike length ahead. Pietri was fourth, Adamo a lap down in fifth (and the only rider not to make a pit stop), Rueben McMurter sixth, Quarterly seventh.
“It was one of those races where everything went perfectly,” said Spencer afterwards, his hair dry and neat. “You couldn’t ask for a better race.”
Perfectly true. But you could have asked for better racing.
