Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

o Roberts thought at Brazil that hi s team was set. "K evin, Wayne , john. Wayne was for sure, john was for sure. And if someone wanted to buy my team that was it. So Eddie didn 't enter into it at this point. The o nly thing I noticed at Brazil was that Eddie was . . . I was o nly there one ni ght and I met him (at dinner) and just out of th e blue he says. 'j esus, H onda's pi ssin g me off, I'm ready to leave them righ t no w.' That bl ew me away." One of th e things that had bothered him was th e lack of urgen cy Honda was showing in signing him fo r 1990, esp eci a ll y since th ey 'd sig ned Gardner before Brazil. Lawson also knew that he'd never wor ked harder to win a World Championsh ip and it wouldn 't get any easier. Rainey wou ld be o n Mic helins in 1990, Schwantz would hav e a new bike and more maturity, and Gardner wou ld be healthy. He also knew that he rode the Yamaha better and he do esn't much lik e passing gu ys on the straights. And, he wants to win a fifth World Championship. " He's not slow in g down an y," Roberts says. Roberts returned home fro m Brazil for a family emergency a nd a few da ys later Lawson clinch ed his fourth title. A few hours aft er the race , Lawson met with both Suzuki and H onda back at his hotel. The bigger money o ffer was from Suzuki. That didn't cha nge when Roberts made his offer, which Rob erts was ' careful to exp lain. "T he re are very few people I've go ne after and bought, " he says. " I have not had to go to o ther people yet and hire th em from somebody else and I prefer not to do that. 1£ the peop le come to me, as Edd ie did, a nd show some disinterest in wha t they're doing, whi ch means the y're going on the open market, then if I like th em, which I do Eddi e, th en I'll try to put it together. " But after aba ndoni ng Yamaha and Marlboro a year ago was there a ny relu ctance to taking him back? " No ," says Robert s cautiously, taking tim e to think about it. "T here' s a wh ol e group of people who co ns ist of Yamaha. The maj or ity, there was no real reluctance. There's a lot of concern among th e japanese factories that people a re switching and swap p in g a nd trading places too much. And I agree with them. But Edd ie's a Yam aha rid er in my feeling. 1£ it was Gardner, okay, I agree. But Eddie's a Yamaha rider." Earlier, Roberts had chosen not to go into the reasons that Lawson left Yamaha, but did say th a t th ere were some equipment problems within the Marlboro Agostini team and Law son lo ng complained ab out th e team 's inability to so n o u t the carbureti on. That sho uld all change wi th Rob erts. ' e x tens ive tes ti ng program. " It 's easy to say yo u're th e number one R&D team, " Roberts admi ts. " If th ey don 't develo p a nything in R&D it means nothing. 1£ they do 'develop some thing, diff erent motor la you t, d ifferent pans, we get it. We will bs develo pi ng it: T hat gives Yamaha the freedom to develop wi th one team instead of trying to cover all th e teams. It does n't mean our bi ke is o se e going to be better, it means we're go ing to be doing resea rch and devel opment. "We've started establishing testing anyway ," he co nt in ues. " O ur test program is probabl y seco n d to none, " a fact his nea r perfect Grand Prix record go es a long wa y to confirm. " But the problem is not the testing, but stu ff to test. It 's ok a y saying we could go test for two months, but if we don 't hav e an ything to test, new products com ing in , new adjustment s o n the bike, or were th ere. T ell yo u th e truth , I think that we mi ght be leaving a year earl y. But with Mich elin and their develo p ment, you never know. "Mich elin may be ahead right now a nd Dunlop may be ah ead in th e future, but that's th e ballgarne," says Rob ert s. Wh at Rob ert s doesn 't say is th at neither Lawson nor Ra iney would likel y have signe d if he'd in sisted o n stay ing with Dunlop. Ra iney becam e increasi ng ly cr itica l o f th e tires durin g th e year, despite a strong to speed up the building of the tires, it seemed the consistency of the q uality lacked a little bit," Roberts believes. " We had a few tires that got by that shouldn 't have." H e a lso thinks that because they got behind in building the tires , they were unable to test them properly away from the Grands Prix. " So it came down to the problem of ac tua lly being able to test the tires properly a nd picking th e right tire for th e race. 1£ we had a lot of good practice in th e dry it seemed our races went a This rostrum shot from the 500cc Belg ian GP was a preview of what Team Marlboro Ro be rts wou ld look li k e in '90. (From left to right) John Kocinski, Wayne Ra iney and Eddie Lawson fin ished two-one-three in the rain -sodden GP. but the FIM would later award t he w in to Lawson w ith Rainey third and Kocinski fifth . o the r things, it doesn 't make sense to test. Sure you have to test tires, every body tests tires." The tires Roberts will be using thi s year are Michelins, after years of associa ting with Dunlop. Actually, h e ca me cl ose to sig n i ng with Mich elin in 1989, losing o ut at th e last minute when Freddie Sp en cer came out of retirement to ride for Agostin i. Michelin felt obligated to su pp ly him. " Last 'year Mich elin said no , they didn't have roo m for us. T h is year th ey sa id we do have because we'd like to s tay with Marlbo ro . Obviously, Eddie has a lot of pull with Mich elin , but it was Marlboro. Michelin ha s a stro ng rela tionship with Marlbo ro. I do n 't th ink it ma kes su ch a d ifference who's rid in g for the team. Obviously, Eddie has a lot of pu ll with Michelin , but it was a stro ng asso ciation with Marl boro , I think. Beca use, let's face it, we were ver y close with Du nl op to hav ing a Grand Prix tire a nd I think that we push by Dunlop a t the end th a t cam e up short. T he problem , accordi n g to Roberts , was consisten cy. In Austri a , Rain ey used a front tire th a t was lat er fou nd to be mi ssin g a section of cor d on its inner circum ference. Despite holdin g off Lawson ear ly, Rainey faded to a di stant thi rd. "T ha t same tire showed up a t H ockenheim and we won th e race ," Roberts says. " Obvious ly, a week a pa rt there's no test time a nd the re was no test time afterwa rd that we cou ld elimi na te the problem rig ht a way." At least twi ce during th e year Kevin Magee had problems with th e tir e sp inn ing on the rim. " T hat tire was obvio usly larger than it needed to be on the ri m a nd Kevin used a lo t of bac k brake whi ch is why it a ppea red on Kevin mor e ' than it a p peared o n Wa yne ," Ro be r ts expl ains. "I think you co uld say th e biggest problem was when they go t behind tow ard th e end of th e yea r and had lot better. But in th e end of th e year when practices started getting rai ned out that rea lly h urt u s." Rainey had qual ified o n the pole for th e season-e nd ing Brazilian race o n a tire that Dunlop j apan had been developing all year. Unfort una tely, it didn't last and Rainey again faded to a lonely third. " I think o ne of th e prob lem s we had was that a big co mm itme nt was made fro m j a pan a nd I felt that Dunlop japan didn 't hold up their end of th e bargain. Dunlop En gland di d an excelle nt job in my o p inion," he says. . So, th e 1990 G ra nd Prix seaso n will see Ken n y R oberts field Marlb oro-sp onsored Yamahas - top of the line Ya mahas - eq ui pped wi th Mich el in tires with World Champion Eddie Lawson, 1989 500 runne r-up Wa yne Rainey and young sen sa tio n j ohn Kocinski as h is r ider s. A powerhouse tea m . No wonder King Ken ny is smili ng a lot la tely. . •

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