Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

INTERVIEW I raced it (the TZ dirt tracker) twice. They black-flagged me the second time because the thing wobbled so bad. We outsmarted ourselves at that race. It was at San Jose and Kel (Carruthers) had hand cut a slick because we'd chunked a rain tire in the heat race, which I'd won. I don't think the rain tire would've made the main event. I tested the slick in practice when it was damp and it worked. Like an idiot, I'm out there with a slick on it with some grooves in it. It hooked up okay. I just figured that when it got black it would be even better because slicks are even better than grooved tires. I remember starting the race thinking, "You poor bastards out here, you're going to eat shit because I'm just going to kill all of you." The thing never hooked up going down the straight and il'd just get into these big tank-slappers and wobbles and I didn't know what to do. Kel said, "Well, black-flag him, maIL He's going to kill himself." I was just about ready to pull in anyway because you couldn't ride the Uting. It wouldn't hook up going in, it wouldn't hook up coming out. So we out-tricked ourselves that time. race I could. I could go outside, inside. The 500 had big flywheels and I could get traction. Where ~e 650s and stuff, thaI's what really killed me my whole career. On most race tracks, I just couldn't hook up like the Harleys. It really does make it look bad when you've got to ride it out high and out of control to keep up. I think that (the Houston IT) was a big moment for me. Coming back to America after winning th.e World Championship three times. That was a big, big thrill. Like Wayne (Rail,ey), and those guys, and Eddie (Lawson), they had World Championship races that they won in America but I never did. The closest thing I had in America was racing at Houston or laguna. Daytona, I don't know about Daytona. As a rider's circuit, it's not what I consider a skU! thing. Sure it was when J was head-too' head with Freddie (Spencer) and Eddie that year, but it wasn't like master- ing Laguna Seca for example. Not mentioning the money or how big the races are, I just felt beller being able to put it on everybod y at Laguna beca use it was a rider's circuit and it didn't really depend on the tire or speed of the bike and stuff. Roberts cut his teeth on the AMA Grand National Circuit, riding Yamaha 650cc twins against the mighty Harleys. - When asked which of his races on the Yamaha 650 twin stood out, Roberts was at a loss. All the ones I won, obviously. I had good races on the twin when the bike was competitive. And, even when it wasn't competitive, Tfelt that I could be there. I just wanted to be better than anybody else that could ride that twin. I know there were times that I was too far ahead. I was running shock absorbers and stuff that they're just now running, the single-shock stuff. We went through all of that. And at the time it was a disaster. All I wanted to do was ride the wheels off of it. Whether it was hard to ride or not, I didn't care. 11 was just, "LeI's see if I could make this work." I had fun doing all that stuff. Riding harder than everybody else...to win on a better bike was never really a thrill for me. Tdidn't want to win on a Honda. If I was (Mick) Doohan right now I'd be going, "1 don't want to do this because it doesn't show my ability." I just wanted to show my ability. The Yamaha was sometimes not the best motorcycle on the race track. 1 just wanted to be the best guy, best racer, it didn't matter - 750, 250, 500, dirt bike, short tracker. The best races that I won on the twin, and the best races that I won on short track and TTs and stuff, were the ones that [ helped engineer to make it better and win. That was more satisfying for me. When I could put something together that could win. Sometimes I had to make it win. I'd work a lot harder to make it win than I would if somebody else just brought me a bike. What about the Houston IT in 1980, your final dirt track win after two 500« World Championships? That was fun. That was one of the things that Mert (Lawwill) had built the bike and.the bike was good. [t was just a aawless .deal. It was a slam dunk for me. r could still ride dirt, obviously, and the bike was very good and had the right power. I'm really picky on power. Top-end power, I've never been a big fan of. But I really need throttle conlrol. Because I lean it over so far that if I don't have that throttle control it gets ugly. I really need that throttle control to make it do what I want it to ?o. I was never really concerned about winning. I wanted to ride the motorcycle the way I wanted to ride it. And in that In 1983, Roberts battled all season with a young Freddie Spencer. Here, Spencer leads Roberts in their classic battle in Jarama, Spain. Spencer and his Honda won when the pair hit traffic on the final lap and Roberts was balked. The 1983 Swedish IT where Freddie Spencer ran you off the track in lhe final comer, a move that probably cost you the . World Championship. You said you underestimated Freddie at the time. Yeah. I did. I didn't think he was that foolish. because there wa no doubt he was going to make it. In racing, if there's a doubt, if there's a little doubt there, especially on the last lap, you know the guy's going to go. for it. There was no doubt. It was too off-the-wall for him to make it. Because I knew he wasn't going to make the comer. I just knew it. And thaI's why I just underestimated him. r didn't know it was worth that much. And it wasn't worth that much to me. Winning i great. I was a winner, 1'd won races. But to knock somebody down to do il...l'm more of a people person. Right after the accident I had some words for him in tbe car. I was a little angry. Nobody said much. It was just worth more to him than to me. 1 like winning races and World Championships. It's not like I didn't like winning. But it's not the biggest thing in the world to me. I haven't talked to Freddie since then. Our paths don't meet, unfortunately. I don't see him and he doesn't get to see me. What about your first win as a team owner at Spa in 1986. How does that compare to being a rider? Like I said, I'm mOre of a people person. I enjoy people and engineering. Solving problems . and relationships that I've had all my life. That (team ownership) was just sort of a natural progression that you could continue on with. When I was racing it used to drive Kel (Carruthers) nuts because I'd come down there and do stuff that he knew wasn't going to work. But there's no way to tell me it wasn't going to work. T had to do it myself. Thal'·s the way I was - Twanted to know. Twanted to know why it did that. The racing team was a way to just continue that. And also to keep going with the relationships that I had built up. The tire pe0ple and bike people, Yamaha. And that was just the way to do it. We put the Dunlop thing together and tha t was off the norm, a risky venture, to bring them back in to 500cc Grands Prix at that level. And T think that was successful. And that was one of the things you couldn't do. as a team owner if you ran Yamaha equipment, do a tire deal or do a suspension deal or something out of the normal Yamaha. Did you think using the Goodyears you used during your GP career ever cost you a race? More than once. Bu t they a Iso won me some races too. I would have never left Goodyear if they hadn't left. I don't leave people unless they Roberts returned to dirt track racing for a one-off ride in the Houston TT in 1980. Roberts just desert me. I would have found the Mert Lawwill-built, single-cylinder 500cc Yamaha to his liking and he won the never left Yamaha. It was never race, the last of his 15 career AMA Grand National dirt track victories. my cboice to leave Yamaha. If

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