Larry Lawrence | June 15, 2016
It was classic Eddie Lawson vs Freddie Spencer and Kawasaki vs Honda in the ’81 AMA Superbike Championship.
It was the rematch. Honda vs. Kawasaki, Spencer vs. Lawson. 1981 was the year Honda was finally going to earn the AMA Superbike Championship, a title they’d hoped to secure when Big H famously entered the championship with great fanfare the year before. But the Honda’s CB750F-based Superbike was in its first year, and proved to be highly stressed to match the power of the 1000cc-based Superbike machines of Suzuki and Kawasaki. Honda left a bit embarrassed when its wunderkind Freddie Spencer only managed to finish third in the 1980 championship, behind Suzuki’s Wes Cooley and Kawasaki’s Eddie Lawson.
So in 1981 Honda was back with a scowl, ready to do the business.
The season battle was epic. Cooley was still in the picture, but by mid-season it was obvious the ‘81 Superbike championship was coming down to Spencer and Lawson. While the ’81 series had many ups and downs and various storylines, it could be argued there was no bigger race than the penultimate round of that year’s series, the AMA Pro-Am at Seattle International Raceway in Kent, Washington. Spencer was on a roll coming into the race and was gaining on Lawson. If Spencer were to win in Seattle the championship would almost be a tossup at the year-end finale in the Fall race at Daytona International Speedway.
Ultimately the Seattle showdown proved microcosm of the ’81 season and the classic Kawasaki vs Honda, David vs. Goliath battle.
First a bit of background. In 1980 Big H entered the burgeoning world of the AMA Superbike Championship with its highly touted CB750F, punched out to legal limit of 1023cc. Honda’s secret weapon was teenage racing sensation Freddie Spencer, who’d won the AMA 250 Grand Prix title in 1979 and was already the youngest AMA Superbike winner ever when he won at Sears Point in ’79 when he was just 17-years-old. After his performance at the U.S. versus Britain Transatlantic Trophy Match Races in 1980, Europe was already calling. So it’s easy to see why the combination of Spencer and Honda seemed to be unbeatable in Superbike before the combo ever took to the track. But something unexpected happened. The Honda CB750F in stock form was underpowered compared to Suzuki’s GS1000 and Kawasaki’s KZ1000and Honda was finding it difficult to bridge the horsepower gap. American Honda was having to improvise and make the CB spin to astronomical RPM figures to make power. And in spite of being based on a 750, the Honda was not as nimble handling as starting with a smaller stock bike would imply.
“Those big inline bikes revved to 10,500 rpm,” Spencer remembers. “They were a real handful to ride.”
Honda fought reliability issues all season in 1980, and in the end, in spite of three wins for Spencer and Honda, it was Cooley and Lawson who ran atop the series, with Cooley and the more establish Yoshimura Suzuki squad taking the championship in the end.
So everything was on the line for Honda in ’81. Spencer was heading to the World Championship Grand Prix in ’82, so this was the last shot for the Honda/Spencer combo. Honda reconfigured it’s racing team, with Udo Gietl taking over from rider/team manager Steve McLaughlin. They now had a season of experience and a full winter of development under their belt.
Things didn’t start out great for Honda. In the ’81 season opener at Daytona, a fueling mishap during a pit stop caused a fire with Spencer dropping the bike and getting away. The crew quickly extinguished the flames, but Spencer could only manage third behind the Suzuki’s of Cooley and Graeme Crosby. Lawson was leading the race, but his factory Kawasaki sprang an oil leak and he was out with five laps to go.
Spencer then took victory at Talladega ahead of Lawson and left Alabama sharing the Superbike points lead with Cooley.
At Road America Spencer might have built a substantial lead in the championship, but his Honda’s throttle stuck with two laps to go, while Spencer had a large lead and slid off the track and into a barrier. He was lucky to escape with minor injuries. Lawson was the benefactor, taking over the lead after Spencer’s crash and the victory.
In the rain at Loudon, Spencer again had a good lead, but a lapped rider came down on him mid-corner and Spencer crashed his Honda with Lawson going by for the win. This time Spencer was able to remount and finish third. He nearly caught Cooley for second on the last lap. Spencer was now 10 points back from Lawson in the championship chase with Cooley still leading.
Lawson won Laguna going away and more bad luck for Spencer as he dragged through the engine case on his Honda and battled an oil leak and had to settle for third. Lawson was still second in the standings at that point, but now just two behind Cooley. Spencer was 17 points behind Lawson in third.
Spencer rebounded and was unstoppable at Pocono and won going away. Lawson was second and took over the points lead after a Cooley DNF.
Just 13 points separated Lawson and Spencer coming into Seattle and Spencer seemed to be on a roll after his dominant Pocono victory. Another victory at Seattle and Spencer would be well within striking distance of Lawson in the Daytona finale.
Seattle proved to not only be pivotal on the championship fight, it was also finally the head-to-head race between Lawson and Spencer everyone had been hoping for.
Spencer won the pole by virtue of his heat race win, which was faster than the heat Lawson won. Cooley tapped into the power of the Yoshimura Suzuki and led the early laps on the horsepower hungry SIR. But Lawson took over the lead on the third lap and Spencer got by Cooley a lap later. In the middle stages Lawson led with Spencer in his draft the entire way. With eight laps to go Spencer took over the lead, but couldn’t shake Lawson. The rest of the race the two battled it out side-by-side or nose to tail, much to the delight of the crowd. Both knew what was on line.
On the last lap, last turn Lawson made his move. He’d had better drive onto the front straight all race and Spencer knew it. Lawson picked up the throttle early and went around the outside. Spencer guessed correctly on Lawson’s move and intentionally ran wide coming onto the front straight. If Spencer were a dirty rider he could have forced the issue, possibly securing the title, but afterwards he said. “I knew he was coming, probably around the outside. I moved over, but not enough, plus I didn’t want to run him off the racetrack.”
And with the Seattle triumph the championship for Lawson was pretty much won. He left with a 17-point lead and needed only an 11th-place finish at Daytona to clinch the championship. Predictably Spencer won Daytona, Lawson taking a conservative third to secure the ’81 AMA Superbike Championship.