He Helps Make Freddie Fast
He Helps Make Freddie Fast
Erv Kanemoto Talks About Working the World Championship Road Racing Circuit With Freddie Spencer.
Jeff Fisher & Ron Zuehlke
"Grand Prix Racing is the real challenge,” says Erv Kanemoto when he explains why he left his home in San Jose, California for the World Championship Road Racing circuit. Kanemoto’s latest job is tuning for Freddie Spencer, but he’s been on the circuit before, wrenching for Barry Sheene in 1981 and Gary Nixon in 1 976.
“I used to spend my own money racing and 1 found out that it’s tough to make living spending your money and racing the U.S.,” says Kanemoto. “There’s not enough money in U.S. racing unless you're into the Superbike thing and didn’t want to get into that. I had a couple of businesses going doing bike modification and engine work but it was really hard to deal with people some people don’t understand racing and that would cause me problems. That’s what I enjoy most about GP racing you do the very
best you can do to win races, and you have no problems with the people. You don't have to deal with personalities such as you do when you are selling something. Grand Prix racing is simple and I know what to expect.”
Between races, Erv lives in his Pace Arrow motor home, based in Brussels. He claims that all he does is sleep and work, that his job is 24 hours a day. That's believable he made that statement to reporters at 1 1:00 p.m. the night before the Belgian GP at Spa, which Freddie won.
“I worry a lot about the bike, the tires, the gearing, etc.,” continues Kanemoto. Sorting through possible tire combinations and gearing was made more difficult at Spa because it rained in practice. Kanemoto estimates that 80 percent of the practice sessions for 1982 Grands Prix up to Spa were held in the rain.
There are advantages to working for Honda, according to Kanemoto. “Honda is probably the team with the highest budget this year, especially if you count development costs,” Kanemoto says. “The money is good and there’s the satisfaction of working with a team that has a new bike and three good riders (including Spencer, Marco Fucchinelli and Takazumi Katayama).
“One of the things I like about GP racing is that it is so competitive that you have to get updated parts throughout the entire season. In GPs you can’t build something and expect to get through the season without changes. We get updated parts often. Sometimes the input that leads to a new part or updated part originates from Freddie or me or from one of Honda's on-the-spot specialists, such as the suspension and carburetion engineers.
“A main part of my job,” says Kanemoto, “is to make sure the parts are delivered from the factory to the tracks and properly installed on the bikes. I need to know what’s coming and when the parts are arriving to make the
changes to the bikes in a timely manner. If the parts don’t come through I must improvise but generally Honda has been quite successful in meeting parts delivery schedules so far this year.
“Time is always a problem. You can do much more to ready the bike when you have more time. We work on the bikes as much as we can, but sometimes you have to make quick repairs. Shorttime repairs may not look good but that’s part of GP racing. Because of how time is, you can appreciate it when things go well.”
Kanemoto is assisted at the races by two other Americans, Stuart Toomey and Matt Owens. Along with Freddie, the team made a big splash in Grand Prix racing in 1982. Kanemoto figures that they’ll make a bigger mark in the future.
“I want to stay on the Grand Prix circuit as long as I can,” says Kanemoto. “I feel I haven’t achieved what I'm looking for yet to win the World Championship, hopefully quite a few World Championships. I know Freddie, and if we can get the bike working right for him he can and will win. Providing the bikes are good the only question will be how many Championships he can win.” S
