Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

go farther than anybody else in aerodynamics, in suspensions, in whatever. That's what we've always been good at, going the next step, and we will continue to do that. Right now we want to win. We know tha t tlus thing is going to be okay on the race track because it's got to be okay. We've got· too much experience for it not to be okay. Whether it wins aces ... that's another thing. That depends on riders, tires, whatever. But we know the bike's going to be okay. And from riding it the first time, it's going to be a joy. Is it like anything you've ridden before? Yeah, it is like something I've ridden before. Something I rarely got beaten on, actually. Like one of my 250s that Kel ~(Carruthers) built. J asked Kel to make me a small 250 once. It had the kind of a powerband tha t this thing has - real good bottom-end power. It's just going to be a _joy to ride. It's a very small motorcycle and after riding a Yamaha this one is just l;going to be funner to ride. Now whether Jit's faster, I don't know. But it's going to -Jbe a lot funner to ride. We're not going to ~win any top-speed award. That's not our .·goal. "How are you going to win? .We've won races before and we've never )won on top speed. There was only one ,year that we had top speed, and we ,didn't really have top speed. We've always had handling and acceleration 5was good, but we never really had top peed cornered. That's been Honda's domain for a long time. And we don't feel tha t we're going to bea t tha t, and horsepower-wise. But our bikes are hopefully going to come off the corner a little better, and if it can come off the corner a little better that's really better than what we had last year. If everybody makes a big jump, okay, then we've got 9to reset our target. But our target was et on something that we had last year hich was a very decent motorcycle. The .,motorcycle that we had last year was a .lot better than it was a year before. So ]We're basing it on that and J think we're 1!\0ing to be competitive. I'm not sure that ]We're going to win every race, I'm not .,sure that we're not goin~ to win any. I'm not sure that we're gomg to last every race. But we have to start somewhere. Are you at all concerned about the .effect this will have on the riders if the ,-thing isn't reliable? . I'll tell you something. We have the two pnentally strongest riders that I've had for :a long time since Wayne (Rainey). These guys are, and not because Junior's (Kenny Roberts) Junior, but they approach racing the right way. There's no thrills, there's no sunglasses and blowjobs. These guys know the sport and ·jts engineering and, yeah, there's going ,1:0 be some hiccups. They both rode the mad1ine a!ready. They're both thrilled to death with it. But ~ey haven't had it on a race track. Just (airport) runways and stuff. They're relying on us to make it ight. They're young enough in their jj:areer to jump on anything and ride it lleally well. It's not like if this tiling isn't ,t:eliable they'll never get another chance 'n SOO racing. I think Jean-Michel (Bayle) t has been nearly 11 years since the final race of Kenny Roberts' career - the 1986 Suzuka 8:}{our - and over 13 since he retired from the 500cc World Championship after finishing second to Freddie Spencer in 1983. The highlights of his 22-year racing career are the two AMA Grand National Championships and the three consecutive SODcc World Championships from 1978 to 1980. And as soon as he hung up his leathers he went into team ownership, running Wayne Rainey and Alan Carter on Marlboro Yamaha 250s in 1984, then coming back in 1986 with Randy Mamola and Mike Bald win on Lucky Strike Yamahas. He's been at it full time since then, winning the 500cc title with Rainey from 1990 to 1992 and the 25(Jcc World Championship with John Kocinski in 1990. Trying to pick the highlights from such a long and distinguished I I raced the whole race with Virginio Ferrari on the factory Suzuki. I raced at proqably 75 percent and it was a real fast race track and that's where I excelled anyway. r didn't take any chances and won the race. And it was one of the easiest races that I ever rode. And r thought about the back all the time, kept myself out of trouble, very focused on that. r wore a back brace around the pits. But it healed very quickly. It impressed the hell out of the guy (tile doctor). He didn't understand what I did that it could heal that quickly. One of my fans sent me a vegetable book on juices and stuff, so I was maxed out on that stuff. My place looked like a supermarket with vegetables and raw beet Iuice, things to build up the blood. career isn't easy and it's made mOre difficult from the distance Roberts feels to his accomplishments as a team owner. To him, they don't compare to his racing successes. What follows are a few of the races tha t stand out and the circumstances surround- ing them. Roberts doesn't just explain why he won, but how he won. Roberts broke his back at a Yamaha test track in lapan, then won his . first race back at Salzburg, Austria, in 1979. It's really funny. Now that I look back on tI,at r don't know how r did it. l fell off on the 29th of February, 1979, at the Yamaha test track in Japan, and I raced at the end of March. The bike went into the guardrail before I did and knocked the padding away. Then I Although Roberts says that racing the TZ700 dirt tracker was probably the dumbest thing he ever did, no hit the guardrail with race did more to add to the Kenny Roberts legend than his victory on the bike in the 1975 Indy Mile. my a s and it knocked me back onto the race track. I ended up with compression fractures of the 11 th and 12th ver- At the Indianapolis Mile in 1975, Roberts rode a Yamaha TZ700, tebrae . and quite severely. I was very lucky tI,at it didn't do perma- four-cylinder .two-stroke dirt tracker, running down Harley-Davidnent damage. It ruptured my spleen and I think [broke a collarbone. son's Corky Keener and lay Springsteen on the final lap. [t's funny, you know. I worked on my own skills and my riding To me, tllat was probably the dum1Jest thing I ever did - ride the fourability so much by the time I got to Europe, and that came from flick· cylinder. If I saw my kids riding like that J'd take them off the bike. ing Yamaha dirt trackers around and wanting to win races when the Hitting hay bales to get traction at 120 mph is not what you should be equipment wa not quite up to what the Harleys were at time. It was doing when three feet away from the hay bales is a cement wall with just trying to find a solution to win. And always trying to do that. We inch cable every foot. You'd end up looking like you went through a never gave up. And we made a lot of mistakes. But' learned a lot cheese grater. It was probably the dumbest thing I'd ever done. [ had so mucll faith in my ability that I'd kill myself. I knew tI,at if 1 about motorcycles doing that 1had my own frame manufactured for a . while and it was all a disaster. But I learned an awful lot. I probably came to Europe too early I'd kill myseli because I have too much. You know more about what makes a motorcycle work. I didn't read any build up too much faith in your ability, and this is why I try to keep books about it - I did it Nothing was done on a blueprint, it was done my riders from doing that. You build up such a Superman coat of armor that you think you're invincible and as you're flying through on a race track. Looking back on it, if I'd have had an engineering taft and money the air you're thinking: '1 hope I didn't hurt the bike so I can get going . it would have been a lot different. And I was learning stuff myseU. I again." I was just about smart enough to realize that in general. That race (the Indy Mile), that was one of the stupid things. I wantnever found anybody that knew any more about it than I did. Because Kel (Carrutllers) didn't know anything about dirt track, and K.,I was ed to win that race. And I was getting closer and closer to the lead, but the cushion was getting farther and farther away. It had wire on it and probably the best guy that I had. But dirt track was a whole other deal. So I always worked on a straw all over the thing. The tire was chunked completely; it had no solution to a problem of riding. And the solution at that race (the tread on it r don't know how I got that drive. I have no idea. You did comeback ride in tI,e Austrian GP) was to ride at about 80-85 percent sometlting different with that thing every lap and lap times varied like of my ability and strength, and at the end of the race J'd do one lap at a second and a half, just depending on 'what kind of drive you could 90 percent, because I just didn't know. But I knew how far I could Jean get off the corners. And when] grabbed fifth it would always hook up. the motorcycle over and 1 knew how hard to gas it and I knew how to And it just launched and I damn near ran into him (Keener). brake. All these things I knew. [didn't really have to exert myseU. I started out dead last trying to get the cushion. And once I built up The competition was (Barry)Sheene and his bike broke, on the first the cushion to where it was helping me, it just kept getting farther and lap. And the 1979 Yamaha at that race track ran very good. It was farther out. And if [ missed it, of course, I'd be in the hay bales. Turns probably the best it ran the whole time that I raced the World Champi- three and four were always higher than turns one and two because the onship. That particular race it just seemed to be reaUy good. The 79 cushion just kept getting out there further and further. Jt was getting to the point where we.were just packing the hay bales in three and four. bike was actually a pretty good bike.

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