Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Kenny Roberts Jr. By Henny Ray Abrams . , sheany good? . It is the question that defines every rider's career, but none more so than the rider with the most famous name in racing. For him, the question has always implied a suggestion of nepotism. The time has come for him to move on. Kenny Roberts Jr. is good. How good remains to be seen, but good enough for Suzuki to pin their perennially flagging hopes on the 25-year-old from Modesto, California. This was not their first offer to the eldest son of Kenny Roberts. The past two years of his career are an aberration. The motorcycle he rode (valiantly in most cases), the Modenas KR3, has, for much of its short life, been more a design exercise than a fleshed-out racing motorcycle. Rushed into production, hampered by shoddy suppliers, underdeveloped, undertested and, most importantly, underfinanced, the KR3 has only now begun to show the promise it held on paper when conceived almost three years ago. . Roberts Jr. - known simply as '1unior" - committed to his father's project, saying in 1997 that they had to make the thing work. It never did, his career was stalled, and a decision had to be made. "I knew and my dad knew that this was a make-orbreak year for him and 1, as far as we were either going to do it or basically we have to figure out other things," Roberts Jr. said recently during a far-ranging interview at his comfortably furnished home in a gated communi. ty in Modesto. There is more than a little of the fa ther in the son. He's taJIer thap his father, but he has the same prominent jaw and central-California intonation. Their dedication to their chosen sport is identical, though Roberts the senior spent much of his career fighting the battr'es which allow Junior and his generation to enjoy far more in every aspect - salary, equipment, track safety -. than he . ever did. And he did this while raising Junior and his two siblings. . Though his dedication to " motorcycle racing is unwaverJng, "KR JR," as he's also sometimes called, has other . terests. As an avid cook, he's not above showing off Polaroids '€lJ his famous deep-fried turkeys. When there's time, he fishes, always for sustenance. His home office contains a massive aquarium that he's converting to a living-coral tank. cNN Headline News. plays continu'ously on his large-screen television. There is the usual .assortment of toys, but many of t!:tem are rela ted to keeping him fit for racing, something he's braced with a passion for the first ,u1 !,is career. He is, in a word, normal not an adjective often used to describe otorcycle racers at the highest levels. It is a s'tament to his famous upbringing, the time spent chasing around paddocks around the ,;rld, wherever where his father raced. They v.e been together since Junior went to Europe in 3, This past year proved he needed to become his 'own man. By midseason, it was clear, that he and his father would be going their separate ways, that he would be leaving the fold. If Kenny Roberts Jr. was going to prosper on his own, it would be with a different team. Tha t team would be Suzuki. Since the brilliant but erratic Kevin Schwantz retired, Suzuki has done nothing but struggle, reaching a nadir this year when they floundered with a host of Japanese riders and no sponsorship. To right the ship, team manager Garry Taylor could have had almost anyone, and he chose Roberts Jr. Junior wanted to go, but with one condition. "(Taylor) asked me if 1 wanted to bring anybody, and 1 thought for a while; 1 thought, 'What about Warren (Willing)?'" JuniOI' recalls. Warren Willing is the man who did most of the dE;sign work on the 'Modenas and is one of the most highly respected engineers in the paddock. Taylor was one step allead of him. "He was already talking to Warren," Junior said. "So

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