Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Nicky Havden and Kurtis Roberts By HENNY RAY ABRAMS hey are as similar as they are different and they are very similar. They've ridden motorcycles since they were children. That's all they've ever wanted to do. Their fathers raced, as do their brothers. Their style was developed thro~gh years of dirt tracking on family properties, big spreads with tracks in varying configurations. They are both precocious and are living out their dreams. They both tend toward Gen-X baggy clothing and bleached or spotted, or moussed (or all three) hair, all subject to change on a whim. One has a tattoo, but he won't admit it and you'll never see it. They've both won the 600cc Supersport Championship and they both ride Hondas. And this year, their rivalry will be fought over the most coveted crown in American road racing - the AMA/Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Championship. "We both want to beat each other bad," American Honda's Nicky Hayden says. Erion Racing's Kurtis Roberts concurs: "We both want to beat each other more than anything." But there are a few others they'll have to beat along the way, riders like Mat Mladin and Aaron Slight, and Doug Chandler, and Anthony Gobert, and their own rejuvenated teammate Miguel DuHamel. No one said it was going to be easy. Hayden and Roberts are the future of American road racing and the future is now. In his rookie year, Hayden made a surprising run at the Superbike Championship after an impressive near victory in his first Daytona 200. 1 18 FEBRUARY 28,2001 • cue I • "When I left there on Sunday night, pulled out of the speedway, I thought, 'If I don't screw it up, then I have a shot at it for sure,'" Hayden remembers in the aftermath of his .011-of-a-second defeat by Yoshimura Suzuki's Mat Mladin in last year's 200. But there were rookie mistakes made, including pulling out of the draft too early at the Daytona finish, and he had to be content with second in his first year on the new, but powerful, Honda RC51. For a rookie season, Hayden's was both impressive and unexpected. As the junior member of the American Honda team, it could easily have been tagged as a learning year. But Hayden's a quick study and inserted himself into the hierarchy at the flfst chance. In 1999, Hayden had run a few Superbike races, but his performances were less than expected - but valuable nonetheless. What he learned was that power had to be used judiciously. "Sometimes you have to slow down to go faster," Hayden says. "I totally understand that now. I definitely had to try to slow down and smooth out at places like Willow and all the places where we were running a dual-compound tire - Willow, Colorado, places like that." Roberts, like Hayden, had a few Superbike rides in 2000, the year before he joined the class full-time, but they were catastrophic. His debut at Road America ended in a horrific crash, and the Laguna Seca round was equally disappointing. Roberts didn't know the mechanics he'd been assigned and they never coalesced. n ... 50 "It was just a lot of things that weren't put together right," he said. "Showing up for the first race with mechanics I hadn't seen before. I kept complaining about things for three days, things that made me fast. I was trying to change myself to make the bike work and it didn't work. I never got the back end of the bike working for me. I lost the back end at Elkhart Lake. At Laguna, when I shut the throttle into turn four, the thing backed itself around. " It wasn't that Roberts was lacking confidence in his ability, it was the team that let him down, and he won't allow that mistake to be made again. He has complete faith in his mechanics this year and uses his sparkling test times as evidence of their synergy. More than many, he understands that it's the team that wins, as much as the rider, and there's ample evidence of his beliefs. "Mat Mladin works great with his team," Roberts says of the two-time defending Superbike Champion. "Nicky works great with Merlyn [Plumlee] and Davy [Jones]. The guy who handles the downswings the best and has the team behind him is going to win. Look at Mat in his first year with Suzuki, then look at the last two years. The team makes all the difference." Roberts' Erion Racing team, led by Rick Hobbs and Kevin Erion, helped him to three crowns in two years. He and Hayden were teammates at Erion in 1999, the year Nicky won the 600 crown and Kurtis the Formula Xtreme. In 2000, Roberts defended his Xtreme title and added the 600cc crown. Having beaten most of the best riders in America for the 600cc title has given Roberts the confidence he needs to move up a notch in 2001. That, and his consistently fast testing times. "I've been the fastest Honda rider at the tests so far," Roberts said, which gives him the conviction to say, "I can win the championship as easily as anyone else. Look at Nicky. He got close." Roberts is aware that such talk earns him a label as arrogant. "I can't change that. Everyone's entitled to their opinion," he says. "I'm going to come across as an asshole and Mat's [MJadin] going to come across as an asshole half the time. I can't change that because it's brought me three championships." That overly harsh self-assessment aside, it's that sort of statement that separates Hayden from Roberts. Of his chances for the title, which he came five points shy of winning last year, Hayden says, "My main goal is to try to win the championship.

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