June 1, 1980, was a big day for Road America, American Honda, the American Motorcyclist Association, and motorcycle road racing fans in the Midwest.
In fact, all of 1980 was a big year for Honda since it was their first official year as a competing manufacturer in the AMA Superbike Championship. Also, they signed 18-year-old Frederick Burdette Spencer, the motorcycle racing phenom from Shreveport, Louisiana, who had already earned the nickname “Fast Freddie.”
Superbike racing is a uniquely American invention, and it made perfect sense that Honda’s very first Superbike was the quintessential handmade American hot rod.
Spencer’s 1980 Honda CB750F started out as a production three-quarter-liter streetbike with no illusions of being race-worthy.
After Honda’s Ray Plumb and his crew—a collection of masterminds and mad scientists—got done, Spencer’s 65-horsepower CB750F was transformed into a snarling, cantankerous, 130-horsepower, 1023cc Superbike. A CB1023F, as it were, and it was the motorcycle version of the classic Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde story if ever there was one.
Plumb and his crew absolutely plumbed the depths of that Japanese-designed, engineered, and manufactured Honda. They machined and built everything from the intake and exhaust valves to the crankshaft in order to double the stock CB750F streetbike’s power output. The frame was heavily gusseted. The steering geometry was altered and optimized. The hand-machined triple clamps held beefy, heavily modified Gold Wing forks. And extra bracing was added to the stock swingarm until it faintly resembled the Brooklyn Bridge. After all, Spencer was going to go fast on Honda America’s first Superbike. Everything needed to be bigger and better.
“Those big, inline-four-cylinder bikes revved to 10,500 rpm,” Spencer said. “They were a real handful to ride.”
It took Fast Freddie and his team a couple of rounds to get things sorted on the bike, even though, rather miraculously, he finished as runner-up at Daytona in the bike’s first race. Then came a 12th-place finish at Alabama International Motor Speedway and a 17th-place result at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Next up was Road America, and it would be the first time AMA motorcycle road racing took place at “America’s National Park of Speed.”
What a way to kick things off. Suzuki’s Wes Cooley was in the lead during the 16-lap Sunday feature event, and he was headed for the finish line with Honda’s Spencer and Kawasaki’s Eddie Lawson in hot pursuit. On the final lap and just a mile from the finish line, Cooley’s bike suddenly ran out of fuel (Road America is a four-mile circuit, after all). Spencer took the lead and the checkered flag over Lawson and third-place finisher David Aldana, who was also aboard a Kawasaki. Meanwhile Cooley managed to salvage an eighth-place result.
Spencer won again at Loudon (Bryar Motorsports Park) in the next round, and then, he notched win number three on the season at Laguna Seca.
Don’t feel too bad for Cooley, though, because he ended up also winning three races that year, and so did Lawson. The combined points from the 10-round, 10-race season resulted in Cooley winning the championship, Lawson finishing as runner-up, and Spencer completing the title podium in third. Incidentally, New Zealander Graeme Crosby was the only rider other than Cooley, Lawson, and Spencer to win a race in 1980, and Crosby’s lone victory occurred at Daytona in the first race of the season. Forty-five years later, we applaud Freddie Spencer’s first Superbike win, American Honda’s first victory in AMA Superbike, and Road America’s very first AMA-sanctioned motorcycle road racing weekend.
Road America
June 1, 1980
Elkhart Lake, WI
Pos. Name City, State Make
1 Freddie Spencer Shreveport, LA Honda
2 Eddie Lawson Ontario, CA Kawasaki
3 David Aldana Garden Grove, CA Kawasaki
4 Ron Pierce Bakersfield, CA Honda
5 James Adamo Glen Cove, NY Ducati
6 Chuck Parme La Jolla, CA Kawasaki
7 Rocky Phoenix Kingston, WA Kawasaki
8 Wes Cooley Mission Viejo, CA Suzuki
9 Roberto Pietri Los Angeles, CA Honda
10 George Morin Mississauga, ONT, CAN Suzuki
11 Richard Chambers Raphine, VA Honda
12 Doug Lantz Greenwich, CT Ducati
13 James Pidgeon Chippewa Falls, WI Suzuki
14 David Hoyle Wrentham, MA Kawasaki
15 Michael Casey N. Attleboro, MA Kawasaki
16 G. Steven Gilbert Santa Ana, CA Honda
17 David Kaler Greenwood, IN Kawasaki
18 Al Phillips Chicago, IL Laverda
19 Frank Mrazek Mississauga, ONT, CAN Kawasaki
20 Richard Schlachter Old Lyme, CT Ducati
