ROBERT S FAMILY WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BIKES
R I D E R E V I E W
P72
That came after a different kind
of lesson in my previous session,
where I was busy complimenting
myself about how late I'd left my
braking for the balls-out first-turn
Doohan Corner, waiting till the
150-meter [500-foot] board at
the end of the main pit straight
before knocking it back two
gears from wide open in top, and
braking pretty hard—when KR
blasted past, still hard on the gas
in top gear!
"I've done a '31 round here,
but only by not braking at all for
Turn One," confirmed Kenny
laconically later. "I just hook it
back two gears at the 100-meter
[330-foot] mark and scrub off the
speed on the tire. It takes a while
to work up to that—but it's one of
the Suzuki's main advantages—
how much turn speed you can
carry on it. But our big handicap
is we are down on horsepower
compared to the Hondas and
Yamahas. If we can get away
ahead of them in a race, we're
looking good to win it. But if we
have a Honda rider ahead of us,
Roberts took the title lead in 2000 at round three at the
Japanese Grand Prix and never looked back.
