Throwback Thursday: Freddie & Erv
Larry Lawrence | September 20, 2018
Throwback Thursday: Freddie & Erv
In this week’s Throwback we set the wayback machine 35 years in the past to the year 1983. Freddie Spencer was on his way to winning the first of his three world championships. At his side was the legendary tuner Erv Kanemoto. The duo would go on to become one of the best known and successful rider-tuner combos in the history of Motorcycle Grand Prix.
Kanemoto first saw Spencer race in 1977 at a WERA race at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Spencer’s father later asked Erv to build cylinders for Freddie’s racing bikes. He built the cylinders and came to the race to assemble the bikes. Freddie did well on them and the association between the two was off and running.
In 1978, Spencer won the AMA Novice 250 Road Racing Championship riding Kanemoto-built Yamahas. Spencer came to consider Kanemoto a good friend, as well as a tuner.
“Our personalities were very much alike,” Kanemoto explained. “Neither one of us enjoyed uncertainty and unknown environments. I think later when Freddie came to Europe to race in the GPs, I was able to help him make that transition since I’d already spent a year living there.”
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