1985 NSR500 in Racing ｜ RACERS All About Honda Motorcycle Racing Machines

Honda concluded its mission by winning both the 500cc and 250cc championships.

The battle for the top spot in the 500cc class final race of the Austrian GP. From the front, Spencer, Lawson, Sarron, and Mamola. The race was interrupted by rain and was divided into two heats. It was Spencer who grabbed the overall win in the shortest combined time. (Photo/Shigeo Kibiki)

From the second race onwards, Spencer + NV0B continued their winning streak. They were overwhelmingly strong, winning seven out of the ten races from the Spanish GP. They continued to win, adapting to each race with only minor improvements to the settings.

Among the improvements, it was a relatively big deal that they introduced a mass-up crankshaft early in the season to slow down the engine's speed increase and make it easier to get traction. NV0B fought through the season without a single retirement due to mechanical trouble and recaptured the championship as they had aimed.

Spencer's crew chief, Erv Kanemoto, a Japanese-American with a wealth of experience and an insatiable desire to improve, continued to support Spencer during his time at Honda. (Photo/Shigeo Kibiki)

They failed to win the three races, not because of the rider or the machine. In the West German GP, Spencer's rear tire was too soft in the wet race, and it wore down too much, making it impossible to gain grip, so he finished second. In the Yugoslavian GP, he hit his knee on a straw barrier (protective material made from wheat straw) placed inside a corner at over 200km/h. Even though he was in such a physical condition that it would not have been surprising if he had to give up the race, he still finished second. He had his only DNF of the season in the Dutch TT, but that was because another rider caught him up in a fall.

Spencer's 1985 season lingers on many people's minds, not only for the 500cc crown but also for taking on the 250cc class. Riding an RS250RW [NV1A], he competed in 10 races and won 7, ruling the 500cc and 250cc races in the exact round four times. Then, with two races remaining, he clinched the 250cc class title in the 10th round, the British GP.

In 1985, Spencer competed in the 500cc and 250cc classes in 10 of the 12 World Grand Prix rounds. After finishing the 250 race, he would take a short break and then race in the 500, repeating this cycle almost all season. Spencer was determined to achieve his goal of dominating both classes, something that Kenny Roberts still needed to do. With the NV1A's outstanding high performance, he brilliantly achieved his goal. (Photo/Shigeo Kibiki)

The climax of the 500cc class came in the 11th round, the Swedish GP, where Spencer and the NV0B took their 10th pole position and ran alone in the race. As they came out of the final turn, they raised their front wheel high and crossed the finish line. At that moment, Spencer completed the history-making process of winning the double title in the 500cc and 250cc classes.

Since then, no other rider as top as Spencer has competed in two classes in the FIM Road Racing World Championship Grand Prix. Spencer, who accomplished such a difficult feat, has become a person who remains remembered in the history of motorsports. And when this rider from Shreveport, Louisiana, USA, is mentioned, legend has it that his outstanding achievement in 1985 with NV0B and NV1A.

At that time, the Swedish GP was held at the end of the season, where the title of the World Grand Prix was often decided. When it was decided there, it was customary to celebrate by jumping into the pool on the grounds of the Anderstorp Raceway. Spencer also won his second 500cc class world championship at this Scandinavian circuit and experienced diving into the pool. (Photo/Shigeo Kibiki)

On-Site Technical Support Work as a Valuable Experience

Honda has been sending engineers involved in developing works machines to the race site since it first began participating in the World Grand Prix Road Race. Then, in 1985, when they introduced the NV0B, the new name "technical support" was given to clarify the job. The primary role is to understand the operation of works machines in actual races and to absorb requests from the field.

Yoshikazu Miyajima and Kaoru Yamamoto were in charge of technical support at the 1985 World Grand Prix. Both were engineers involved in chassis design for GP road racers since joining HRC. Miyajima was in his fifth year with the company and Yamamoto in his fourth, so both were in their mid-twenties. It is believed that HRC's aim in appointing them to technical support in the first year of its operations was to have these young designers learn firsthand what it was like in a Grand Prix race, where the bikes they made were used.

"Miyajima was in charge of the first half of the season, and I was in charge of the second half," Yamamoto recalls. "Seeing Freddie ride the machine we had drawn up at incredible speed, I understood what was happening in the race and why problems would occur. It's not easy because it's a job, but Freddie's speed was overwhelming, and the machines, NV0B and NV1A, didn't have many problems, so I had more leeway than I thought. I was not used to the European and World Grand Prix races, but it was an excellent experience, and although it was hard, it was fun."

The following year, in 1986, HRC began an activity called SWS, Special Works Support, where they loaned out works machines to leading independent racing teams for a fee and let them run. The function of supporting this would also be fulfilled as technical support work.

This is a photo from the 1985 Italian GP. From the left, Yoshikazu Miyajima, HRC chassis designer; Eiichi Minowa, an engineer from Showa, the suspension supplier; and Erv Kanemoto, Spencer's crew chief. Miyajima later served as the chassis design leader for the NSR500 from the 1987 to 1991 models. (Photo/Jiro Ishida)

HRC staff took a breather after Spencer clinched his double title at the 1985 Swedish GP. From the left, Ichiro Haneda, who was the leader of HRC's on-site engineering team; Showa's Eiichi Minowa; Kaoru Yamamoto, chassis designer; Yukiharu Kiyota, the mechanic in charge of the NSR500, and Hideo Nakano of HRC's prototype department, who was dispatched to the site of the championship race in case of an emergency requiring the production of emergency parts. Yamamoto later served as a chassis design leader for the NSR500 from the 1992 to 1995 models. (Photo/Jiro Ishida)