Spencer's Track Return Puts Squeeze On Dowson
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday January 21, 1989
"Fast" Freddie Spencer, winner of world motorcycle championships for road racing in both 500cc and 250cc classes, has decided to return to racing this year.
A master of the rear wheel slide technique of riding, Spencer will head the Marlboro Yamaha Team Agostini - run by another racing great, Giacomo Agostini
Spencer last raced with any success three years ago and has been plagued with tendonitis in his wrist. It was generally accepted that he had retired from the sport. In the interim he has reportedly beefed-up considerably.
But with current world champion, "Steady" Eddie Lawson's defection to Honda, Yamaha obviously went in pursuit of Spencer to fill the void left by Lawson.
It is great news for motorcycle racing to have Spencer back at the top level and will mean the championship will be at least a three-horse race between Wayne Gardner, Lawson and Spencer, with no love lost between any of them. The fact that Lawson and Gardner will both line up for the Honda team might cause their well-publicised antagonism to be somewhat suppressed.
On the down side is the fact that Spencer's return virtually squeezes Australian maestro, Mike Dowson, off the GP circuit once again. The talented Queenslander has been racing at the top level in Australia for about eight years and has only sporadic exposure on the international scene, although success in this arena has come his way on more than one occasion. He recently won the Swann Insurance Series from a particularly strong field.
There is no doubt that Dowson would be competitive in GPs. He has the experience, the skill and the fire to give any rider a run for his money but at this stage in his career, Dowson must be wondering where he is going.
He has family and business commitments to think of and is not getting any younger; and the prime mover behind the Australian Yamaha race team, Warren Willing, has decamped for the GP circuit next year. Willing will be wrenching for Dowson's former team-mate, now Lucky Strike Yamaha teamster Kevin Magee.
It would be good to see Dowson on competitive GP machinery this year, if only at Phillip Island for the first Aussie GP, but at this stage the possibility seems highly unlikely - a real pity for Dowson and Australian motorcycle racing fans.
© 1989 Sydney Morning Herald
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