1982 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season
The 1982 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season was the 34th F.I.M. Road Racing World Championship season. Season summary. Italian Franco Uncini on the Roberto Gallina backed Suzuki took a well-earned championship for Roberto Gallina's Italian Suzuki team in the 500cc class. Yamaha introduced a new motorcycle with a V4 engine for Kenny Roberts but, suffered from having to develop a new bike during the season. Roberts was also now using Dunlop tires after Goodyear withdrew from motorcycle racing. Honda abandoned its NR500 four-stroke in favor of a V3 two-stroke NS500  piloted by American newcomer, Freddie Spencer, defending champion Marco Lucchinelli and veteran Takazumi Katayama. Spencer would give Honda its first 500cc win since the 1967 season and its first with a two-stroke. Roberts injured a finger and a knee at the British Grand Prix and would miss the remainder of the season. Barry Sheene was lying third in the championship, tied on points with Roberts after eight rounds however, his season was brought to a premature end while testing the new Yamaha V4. He hit the obscured fallen machine of Frenchman Patrick Igoa during practice at Silverstone and badly  broke both legs and an arm. Most of the factory sponsored riders boycotted the French round at Nogaro in protest of the unsafe track conditions. Anton Mang successfully defended his 350 title for Kawasaki despite winning only one race. He would be the final 350 world champion as the class would be discontinued after 1982. Mang lost his 250 crown to Jean-Louis Tournadre by one point despite winning five races. Tournadre's only victory would be at the boycotted French round. The Frenchman would become France's first world champion. Angel Nieto clinched his eleventh title in the 125  class on a Garelli. In the 50cc class, Eugenio Lazzarini and Stefan Dörflinger traded wins, each rider winning three races, but Dörflinger took the title because of his three second-place finishes. 1982 Grand Prix season calendar. The following Grands Prix were scheduled to take place in 1982: Points are awarded to the top ten finishers. A rider has to finish the race to earn points.