[W.]

There’s an oldie but goodie on YouTube called Fast Freddie Spencer explains motorcycle road racing...

[Paal Gulli]

All of these vehicles would have been left in the starting blocks by a top fuel or nitro funnycar dragster.

"There’s an oldie but goodie on YouTube called Fast Freddie Spencer explains motorcycle road racing..."

I met Fast Freddie in the paddock after a Daytona 200 in which he had finished second to "King" Kenny Roberts. Roberts left the Winner's Circle in a track security car that drove him straight off the complex. Spencer, OTOH, left the Winner's Circle on foot and walked back to his paddock. I walked around for four hours, photographing bikes and schmoozing with riders and team staffers, and happened to come back by Spencer's paddock. He was still there, still dressed in his leathers, still surrounded by a throng of fans and still signing autographs.

And the phrase popped into my head, "Suffer the little children come unto me."

I don't care how badly Roberts (who is a known walking phallus) beat him, what I saw Spencer do that day was much more impressive.