Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125828
Page 13 October 2, 1973 Roberts Then at age 18 1 went Class C for Cliff Aksland, who sponsored me on a Suzuki. He worked on my Yamahas last year for me. Then went into Novice·and got number one Novice, on to Junior and number one Junior and now number one Expert. CN: How did you happen to sign with. Yamaha? KR: None of the other factories wanted to support Juniors as well as Yamaha did. 1 asked several other people if they were interested, and they were to a certain point, but Yamaha really fixed me up like 1 was an Expert, and they thought I'd make a good Expert and it paid off for them. The other companies weren't so sure; they had their Experts so they didn't need any other riders. CN: You and Gary Scott have raced against each other quite a bit. Are you friends? KR: Yeah, very good friends. Never had any disagreements or arguments. Gary and 1 get along real good. CN: Road racing is the newest aspect of your career, right? KR: Yeah, road racing is the newest. Kel Can:uthers taught me about everything 1 picked up in road racing as quick as 1 did. So 1 had a good teacher and without him 1 couldn't have learned as fast as I did. When I did get the hang of it, last year, 1 picked up the basic things pretty quick. 1 really like it now, where I used to just ride it. CN: Do you feel as comfortahle on a road racer as you do on a dirt tracker? KR: Yeah, now I do. I used to think that dirt tracking was my strong point, but now I'm thinking that road racing is as strong if not stronger than dirt track. At Daytona I had a flat tire, I got third at Dallas, third at Atlanta, second at Loudon, quit at Laguna Seca, second at Pocono, and second at Charlotte and at Talladega I blew up. CN: Will you be riding the Yamaha 700 next year? KR: Yea!', we'll have them ready to go for' Daytona. CN: Have you ridden one yet? KR: No, I haven't. Kel and Gary Fisher have, but I've yet to get on one. My dirt program interferred with going to Japan to ride one. CN: Do you think there should be rule changes to keep the 4-strokes competitive in road racing? KR: I don't know. The ·4·strokes are in there now, with the way points are gathered for dirt track and road racing. But I think there will be a lot of problems riding the 700, tire problems and chain problems. Things we're going to have to work out that won't be worked out as quick as everybOdy thinks. So we're going to have our Kenny at the San J~e Half-mile. Photos by Dan Mahony. problems. If the 4-stroke people can't make a competitive motorcycle, then I don't know what will happen. But the rules change so much. A company might make a 750 and then the rules changed to 500: any· particular year they can change the rules and say, "Well the rules changed 'cause you guys.went too fast." That would shoot the factory down and they'd be out that much money: and you can't do that. The rules should be changed. Maybe just let them make one motorcycle to race, or the 4-stroke companies probably are going to be a little disappoin ted. CN: Do you think it would be fair to give the 4- trokes some extra displacements? KR: Have you ever seen a 1000cc Honda? 'CN: Not that stayed together very long. KR: Well I can assure· you that the factory can get 'em to stay together for a long time. And that would just put Z-strokes right back in the hole. The Honda qualified this year at Daytona as good as any Z-stroke: All 4-strokes aren't behind. CN: What kind of rule change would you like to see? KR: I'd like to see something like a support class. The factories have taken over so much: anything the factory does they're gonna win. They have the best riders and they have the best equipment. You can't beat that combination. Now if they had a support class for th'e non-factory racers, and 'let Continued on page 31 Kenny looks over the San Jose situation as a Novice_ Kenny and the man responsible for his rapid success, Jim Doyle. As a J.unioron an A & A Yamaha at Loudon. -.