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/127719
.. : . .. .INTERVIEW Kenny Roberts ยท- . EWrII S IIT E _ By Gunter Wiesinger I Photos by Henny Ray Abrams he Wo rld Championship Road Ra ce Series wi ll r un a fours troke s u ppor t class in 1995 call ed Thun d e rb ik es . Gra nd Prix road racing is under th e threat of being su r passed in popular it y by th e World Su pe rbike Series. Th e Ll.S, Grand Prix m akes its m ove from Laguna Seca to Road Am er ica in Wisconsin. Wh o b ette r t o t a lk ab out th e s e chan ges than th e King himself - Kenny Roberts. Gunther Wi esinger s a t d own for a d iscussion recently w ith th e three-tim e World Champion and current Marlboro Yamaha team owne r to di scuss a few of the thi ngs going on in the w o rld of professional road racing. What do you think a b o u t Thunderbikes? No t much. You don't like four-strokes, do you? No, I like fou r-st ro kes. You 've changed your mind? No, I h aven 't changed m y mind. It ' s been a real mi scon cep tion of me. I like four-stroke bikes. But not fo r racing? No. I ju st d on't believe th at th e top of this sport need s to be produc tio n-line racing. When Li t tle Kenny (Ro be rts ' son) sta rte d, I started h im on a 400cc fourstroke. I have four-strokes I ride all the time. I'm more of an en th usiast for fourstrokes th an I am for tw o-stro kes. But do n' t com pare a two-stroke w ith a fourstroke . When IRTA (International Racing Teams Association) went for the alternative World Championship three years ago, they didn 't want sidecars because there wasn't enough space in the paddock; and they. didn't want four-stroke support races, because four-strokes leak oil, we were told. In 1995, we have four-strokes at nearly every GP, sidecars at se ven out of eight European GPs and even 125cc European Championship races. But the pad. docks didn't get any bigger. Was the original idea wrong? Some of th ese things are compromises . And we' ve .never banned four-strokes from racing. It 's just that two-stiokes make them obsolete. I'll never forget the sound of the MY Agust a. And I w as really disappointed when Honda came back with a four-stroke in 1979 and even the sound was shit. I am a real four-stroke fan . If we decide to go four-stroke racing I don't care. As long as it is the highest form of rules an d exotic equipment, I don't give a crap if it's four-strokes or two-strokes. I couldn't ca re less. The Thunderbike thing is all right if only that it brings younger riders to this arena so we can watch them. And if the spe ctators want a su p port race then we should provide them with a su p po rt race . W e alread y have a lot of r acing that only' involves tw o-s tr ok es . If w e are going to have a su p p o r t race, it's probably logical that you would T wan t to make it d iff erent. Rega rd in g the o ther cl ass, I' m m ore in favor of 400cc than the 12Scc. Will the World Superb i k e Champ ionship ever become a serious threat to GP racing? Quite a few new entries are sch ed uled to come in - Aprilia, Cagiva, Suzuki will be back. Harley has a bike, Triumph... I wo uld like to see superbike as a competi tion . We need competitio n. The only way we ge t anything done is by competition. It's th e only way to ge t any better . My team wou ld never ge t any better if w e won the Wo rld Ch am pi onsh ip year after year after year. If Suzu ki joins superbike ra cing what ar e they going to do? There will be ano the r bike out on the grid. Wh at' s that goi ng to do for raci ng? Is it goi ng to be more interesting with a bunch of Suzu kis? You know what' s in te resti ng for m e ? It ' s Sch w antz , Doohan. In Fo rmu la One, .i t' s not how . m an y car s are out there. It's person alities. We' re no t selling brands. Are you trying to tell m e th at Carl Fogarty is not a pe rsonality? . Fogarty is a big. big fish in a little pond. It's better to be a little fish in a big pond . I have nothing against that guy. Peo ple say: How come yo u are not going to hire h im? I wou ld hire Doohan. Mo st of the guys in World Superbike seem to be worn out GP riders. That's tru e. Some people say it w ill hurt GP racing because Cagiva h as pulled o u t. Hey, w hat have they ever done? They put two bikes on the grid . That's it. I h ave never seen any Cagiva signage aro und the track - nothing. How man y bikes are they selling? If a guy like (Io hn) Kocinski is yo ur b est h ope to win a W orld C ha m pi onship, what can yo u expect? You are a team owner and you h ave promoted the United States Grand Prix in 1993 and 1994. Is it right to say that the new GP system developed some weak points in the last three years. Ticket prices went up by 100 percent at some places, and there weren't enough support races. What need s to be changed? I think personally when things are not going into' th e right direction th ey ge t ch anged very quickly. Th at w as something we wanted to achieve. And I think some of the changes maybe happen ed too quick . W e didn't think th em through. For me there is more works bik es on the grid, the spectators are coming back. And you have a full grid in the 500cc class. Right. And th e TV is s till goi n g up. There is a lot of pluses. But it ta kes time. For me to propose something to Yamaha it takes three years for it to get through. We are coming on to our fourth year, and I think we are seein g so m e vast im p r o vem e n ts in televi sion, s o m e im p r o v e m e n ts in the equipment, im p rovements in the paddock. . And I ca n tal k t o the h ead of the organization, (Carmelo Ezepeleta, man ag ing d ir e ct or o f Dorri a a n d TWP ), IRTA can talk d irectly to th e head of the org anization. We don't ha ve to go to a congress to d o it. We can do it every . week. Th e head is here every week. A b ig team can talk to h im and a small team can talk to him . H e is o pen fo r business. Thi s is a professional sp ort. It's n ot run by someb ody in th e laundry dep artment. . You don't agree to the new rule that bans teams from using spare bikes in the 125 and 250cc class. I d on't see an y cost savings there. If you are a sm all team you are a sm all team. If you are a big team you are a big team. Sm all teams d idn't h ave a spare bike last year. It's not going to bring a small team an y closer to a big team. I don't see any logic there. I think it's just confusion. Promoters are worried because if the local star crashes during the first lap of final qualifying the spectators won't see their hero - like Max Biaggi at Mugello or Ralf Waldmann at Hockenheim. That's right. It's ju st confusion. I don't see it helping the cost. Some team owners like Herv Poncharal of Tech 3 claim that IRTA should have had a General Assembly to change this rule. But IRTA knew they wouldn't get the 70-percent majority necessary. So they had the decision taken in a much small er committee. I don't understand w hy IRT A w ould ha ve done th at on purpose. Ther e is no gain for IRTA. Some IRTA officials have admitted that. Then we need to change the committee. We should n' t be biased. The committee sh ould go wi th what th e people want to go with. IRTA has teething problems. But they are only going to learn w ith the teething problems. The nice thing about it - they learn once a month. I would like decisions not to be made so qu ickly. You said that if IRTA wants to reduce costs they should look for lower hotel prices and reduce costs for plane tickets. Do you think IRTA can achieve that? Yes. That's life: If they can't let's quit talking about making the racing cheaper . In 1992, Thursday's practice was cancelled' for cost reasons. Now in Europe the teams with the smallest budgets, like the 125cc European Championship, Thunderbikes and Sidecars will start practice on Thursday. Well, they only use cost when it helps in what they want to do.