Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

INTERVIEW they wouldn't have put the people in control that they did, I'd still be at Yamaha. I wouldn't be doing this. Goodyear, too. They just finally said, "Kenny, we don't think we can do this. We don't think we can turn this around in a year. We know we can't put other teams on them." It got to the point that everybody was ganging up on me. We had to expand it. And they knew that the people wouldn't go for it. And they didn't think they could turn it around in that year and they said "If you want us to, we will continue." And at that point I didn't think that we could turn it around, so I went to Dunlop. - Roberts has won four World Championships as a team owner, three with Wayne Rainey (right) and one with John Kocinski. Still, those wins as an owner rank well behind his own achievements as a racer. What about Sweden in 1989 when Wayne Rainey crashed late in the race while he was chasing Eddie Lawson, who went on to win his fourth World Championship? Obviously he was pretty destroyed. Again, I wasn't. I've never set anything up so that we have to win. Winning's really a plus, butI'm not going to live my life disappointed that we didn't win a World Championship or every race. I'm not really disappointed that I lost the World Championship in '83. It doesn't really have anything to do with me now. Whether I'm a four-time World Champion or a three-time World Champion didn't really mean anything to me and it still doesn't. And I may be a little strange. But I've seen a lot of racers make it their whole amqition in life to win a World Championship and once they win it they fall apart. I'm just not that type of person. I never really thought about it for me. Because my money as a team owner didn't grow or get less. It's about business. And more money was impossible on that day. He was going to win no matter what. I just don't want another rider to get into that position. 1 don't know what I'm going to do if they do, because I couldn't do anything with Wayne U,at day either. I talked to him twice before the race to just get him to calm down. But he was pretty focused on anniliilating everyone and winning his fourth World Championship and you just couldn't get him out of it. . When the 1996 season started there were a lot of people who wrote your team off. Did you feel vindicated when Norifume Abe won? No, I really have faith in (Kenny Roberts) junior's ability to ride a motorcycle. When Wayne came over to ride a 500, he had a lot of experience, but everyone said the same thing. What the hell are you doing? I mean Honda let him out of their contract to leave because they basically thought he wasn't going to make it. It was more behind-the-scenes reasoning for the two young guys because, literally, we had nothing else. Luca (Cadalora) had made up his mind that he could win on a Honda and that was it. You weren't going to turn that around. Basically, there was nobody else. I took junior, Marlboro wanted Oean-Mic1le!) Bayle, and Yamalla wanted Abe. It's one of those things that if you don't keep on top of it and keep the yourtger riding pool building up, and that's what the sc1looI's for. Someday I want to have a B·team, becau e I want the young riders learning what they need to learn younger. Because we're never going to get th.e longevity out of this game unless you bring them up sort of 18, 19, 20 years old. You've got to make them faster, safer and uncomplicated to get the longevity. And one of the things that Formula One has on us is longeVity at being stars. In motorcycle rae· ing, one of the problems is that they're a star just before they say, "I'm out of here." There's no question'that it's (racing motorcycles) more physically demanding, and there's pressure on yourself because of the danger involved in pushing it to that envelope. But that's also the name of the game. We push it a litUe farU,er in our lives than somebody else might. It doesn't mean U,at we have to give up. We're not the AMA. We're not just going to give up on it. The pursuit of better riders, safer race tracks and faster motorcycles is going to keep going. We're not giving up on any of it. What other races stand out in your mind? Obviously, winning the first World Championship at NurburgJ"ing in 1978.. And that was a he-hum race. All [.had to do was ride around and beat (Barry) Sheene and he was as scared as I was of th.e place. It wasn't a major feat. I just had to ride around with him, as a matter of fact. Hard races that I won, I remember Paul Ricard in 1980. The Suzukis, the three of them were just blowing me off down that straight. There's no way I could pass them and get ahead of them far enough that they wouldn't be right on me down the main straight and then, about halfway down the back straight, all three of them would go by. It was (Randy) Mamo!a, (Marco) Lucc1linelli, and (Valentino) Rossi. I can still picture them going by me. And they were all sitting on their seats. That's when they found out if they sat on top of their seat means a better team - more engineering, more testing. I've never even they could pick up like 500 revs or something. So I'm watching these looked at that. I never even thought about it. Wayne could've won the guys go by me sitting on their seats so I start sitting on my seat, thinkWorld Championship. but until you brought it up I never thought ing what a bunc1l of idiots these guys were. It didn't make any differabout me. ence in my Yamaha at all. That was a fun race because it was a long race track and it was a I knew we were going to win the World Championship eventually. I never had any doubts about that. That year, the motorcycle had our hard race track. I finally timed it to where there were two lapped ridexhaust pipe spec, our pistons and cylinder modifications from us. ers, or a lapped rider. And that's what I used to have to do. When I'd That's when we beat Eddie at Hockenheim. I started to put it together see the right opportunity to lap someone at the right spot, to be able just that year. When I rode the bike, and what a piece of... I reckon it to get three or four bike lengths on someone so they couldn't draft was the wrong kit. And we did our own. And it wasn't anything me and pass me again. And I did it. And in one lap I dropped like a magic. I said [ wanted the exhaust pipes from 1985. And everybody' second and a half or two seconds and split. I had the two seconds, went, the japanese went, "No way." So Bud (Aksland) build the pipes and once I had that two seconds, I went a second, a second, a second. for me and we altered them a litUe bit, but we went back to a different And I ended up winning by like 10, 15 seconds. And even Yamaha, specification exhaust pipe completely. I remember Eddie left, because they knew they weren't going to win that race. We were like 20k (12 they couldn't fix the carburetor problem. When in actual fact it was mph) down. It was embarrassing. And we won that race. It's little never the carburetors to begin with. And we did our own cylinder races like that that [ think about more than I do '83, winning so modifications and the pistons were lighter than standard and we had many. the best Yamahas on the race track. And to me, that was the exciting I think that in 1983 I had a lot of good races with Freddie because I part, not whether we would win. I knew Wayne would win the World felt that I was at a disadvantage. I had 3-year-old Dunlop tires made in Championship. japan against the very good opposition of Mic1lelin and that threecylinder, which was a very good combination. And a lot of times I After Wayne Rainey's crash at Misano in 1993, did you consider spent out of the seat and holding my breath and trying to make that quitting? thing work. It was very hard to ride because it didn't have muc1l of a I really don't think in the two weeks or week that I had to be with powerband. That was when they had the rotary. A year later they Wayne after that, I considered anything. It's just a blur. I never really came out with a reed valve whic1l really helped it out. thought about it. My main thought was Wayne and how to fix him. I All [ remember that year is that I'd always start eight seconds never pondered on the idea. It was brought up to me from probably be1lind. By the time [ got started, Freddie had eight seconds on me. It the press, if I was quitting or not. I don't think I really had time to just seemed like every race track we'd be "Minus 8." And I'd be like think about it. I had to go from there right to Laguna and that was a seventh or eighth the first lap because all the three Hondas were gone big major production. I never really thought about it. I think Wayne and the Suzukis were gone and then the Yamahas. Me and Eddie had thought about it more than I did. I think Wayne was more of an inspi- to push eight steps before we could bump it and start it. And the ration, like he's always been: "Don't worry, I'll be back. Don't worry threes were taking three steps and most of them were sitting on it and about me, And, hey, I want you to continue because I want something taking the three steps. to do later." It was more that than me talking about quitting or actualThe same thing happened with Wayne (Rainey) the ':lext year on ly thinking about it. the 250. Wayne kept wanting to race the pace car on the ftrst lap. That Something that drastic makes a pretty big imprint in your life. was when [ knew that Yamaha wasn't going to help. They were supWayne was a very special racer for me and like a brother, really. I'm posed to help me on the technical part of it, and they didn't. BaSically, more cautious. I've always been very cautious with the riders. If it's a they didn't really want a 250 race anyway. They just wanted to sell question of losing a race or winning, the chance to fall down - I'll take bikes. At the end of that year I didn't put in the normal proposal. I said losing any day. There's always another race I can win or they can win. if we're going to do this we have to do it like this and it has to be I really kind of beat that into him. That Superman armor was kind of worth this much money and that's what we need to do it. And everyhigh at tha t point. It was kind of hard to get him to finish second. It body said, "No, it's not wo~ it." and Kenny both proved as rookies that they were probably the best. I don't really see the downside for them. If it's just a complete shit, house, yeah, okay, there's going to be a big downside. They're trying to work hard on their confidence and styles and endurance and skill to be great road racers, not just to be racers. And I think that I worked. with them last year and Kenny is just ready, he doesn't know much about engineering. He just believes that we're going to do it. And we will do it. It's not a question that we're not going to do it. We will do it. You don't have this many good people involved. in a project and have a disaster with the kind of money that we're spending. It's not a backyard effort. Yeah, there may be some liability hiccups, something may get heat-treated. wrong or whatever. The Japanese went through that years ago. But we still had problems with the chassis. But they generally finish every race. We had a huge impressive record on finishing. We don't want to hurt that. We're going to make every effort, every effort: Our staff that's· working on this project is not a small staff. I couldn't tell you how many people are involved.. I couldn't tell you how many TWR has and then you have outside contractors. We probably have a lot more people than Yamaha has to do their effort, but they've been doing it a long time. I think that our riders have been very supportive. They didn't have a contract, they had a rough-out contract. Not until two weeks ago did we say we're going racing. Marlboro h

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