Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128307
Frenchmen deign his father's team wo rthy. We spoke to Kurtis o n the mo rning of the third day of the test. More subd ued than w hen he was in the AMA paddock , Roberts was clearly relishing the new challenge, w illing to start over while meas uring himself against the best in the wo rld . His thoughts on variou s subjects follow : WHY HE MADE THE MOVE: "I cou ld stay there and try to win the cham pionship on an equal bike. But you can always put off your goals and stuff for one more year to put everyone else 's ideas of w hat you should [do] befo re you move up and settle t hose . I fee l I'm riding goo d enough, and this is definitely a new challenge to take on . It's nice to get out of AMA, with t he [GP] tracks a lot bett er and you don' t have to deal wit h all the things like they 'r e go ing through right now at Daytona. You can show up and concentrate on riding the bike. You don't have to show up and worry about the weathe r and wa lls and wh atever e lse . I feel we' re on t he right path. To make this thing better, there 's a lot of th ings we do have to do . I have to improve myself, the bike has to improve, and the tires have to improve a lot. We're not coming into this with anything better than anyone else . We're co ming in with eve ryth ing a little beh ind everywher e else. Ithink if Dunlop can do its homework and get som ething at least somewhat equal or competi tive, we should be a lot better." The Next Raberts Now it's Kurtis Roberts' turn to make an impaa on Grand Prix racing STORY AND P HOTOS BY HENNY rt iS Roberts has re prese nted the first family o f Am erica n racing well in his t enure in Ame rica, w it h more success than his o lder brother Ken ny Jr. but less than his fathe r, the ost dom inant Ameri can r ace r/ t eam ow ner/visio nary of all t ime. In the way he spoke, the wa y he rod e, the wa y he comported himself, the allegiance s he formed and the e nem ies he battled, there w as no denying his bloodlin e. That he wo n three championships - tw o in Formula Xtreme and the 2000 Supe rsport tit le has large ly be en forgotten by his strugg les with the RCS I. Unlike the four-cylinders that fit his tail-wagging style, the V-twin Superbike w as a more finicky weapon, demanding a precis ion that only even tu ally became seco nd nature . His father 's last great rival, Fred die Spenc er, brought him closest wit h his iron ically fatherl y tute lage for t he 2003 season. The result was tha t Kurtis broke through w ith his first Superbike w in, w hich he quickly followed up w ith anot he r en route to the highest finishing pos ition of the American Honda team. Success notw ithstanding, there was always t he sen se that he was an o utsider, not only to the se ries but also to his team. li ke much of the facto ry paddock, he railed against t he AMA for any number of reasons - track safety, I( 40 JAN UA RY 21, 2004 • CYCLE NEWS RAy ABRAMS whims ical penalties , rules ineq uities - a tedious and ulti. mate ly exhausting exercise in futility His lineage mea nt there was more for him than holding his breat h ar ound the banking at Dayton a or worrying abo ut sliding on a pavem ent seam at Mid-Ohio or co ming to a sudde n sto p in the potentially deadly final turn at Road Atlanta . Now was the time for him to move on . For 2004 , he 's back on the World Championship circuit he left afte r an abysmal 1997 season. The return will be made o n his father's hom e-brewed Proton KRV-five... pro bably. Should a more competitive ride become available before t he start of the season , Ro berts is fre e to make the move, with his father's blessing. Kurtis made a striking MotoGP deb ut during a test at Valencia, Spain, in December. Not only did he lap the 2.5mile stad ium circu it faster than anyo ne ever had on the Proton, but he was also faster than World Supe rbike Champion Neil Hodgson in his first ride on the Ducat i Desmosedici, nearly as fast as Spaniard Ruben Xaus, and faster than Nicky Hayde n had gone a year earlier in his first Valencia te st. Should he be on the grid w hen the year sta rts , he 'll be on a brand-new Proton KR, the first to be de signed by FI guru John Barnard, and possibly on Michelin tires , if the 40 t h Anniversa ry HIS IMPRESSIONS OF THE PROTON KR V-FIVE: "It came a long wa y fro m wh ere it could have been , and it's a lot bett er and a lot smoothe r to ride t han I thought it was going to be . And I think at the end of t he day it's going to be a lot bett er. Right now I'm just trying to sit o n the t hing and not change too much and get a feel for the thing and not wo rry abo ut lap times and everything e lse as much as yo u will at race time - but just get a feel for the thing and ta ke it easy and take it o ne step at a t ime instea d of ta king all six or seven steps at once , like I've been known to do . And find the limit and push it too far past it real quick, and it ends up biting you sometimes; sometimes you get away w it h it." T IRES: "I th ink if w e w ere in a different position as far as everything else was as good or better t han everyone else or the same , then you cou ld kind of gam ble with the tire choice and know that yo u're not going to win the championship anyway because it's your first year. But you might get t o those th ree or four tra cks, or maybe one, w here you'r e going to have a definite advantage, and who knows? Maybe you could pull out a win th ere or something else . We' re not really at t hat pos ition yet to just go at those one or two t racks. Because we've st ill got to make up in ot he r areas. So it's not like w e have that gambling to just payoff for five races. Those five racetracks that might make us equal on tires , but then we still have to make up for everything else." WHETHER HE WAS FORCED OUT BY HONDA: "We didn't push much . I talked to them a little bit, but that isn't whe re I wanted to be. They had already signed t he ir riders [jake Zemke and Ben Bostrom] two years ago. T hey were complaining abo ut budg et prob lems . They st ill had a Superbike fo r me . This is more a recou p yea r for them in America and to get mo re geared up for the future when they have mo re lineup in their brand and everything else . And I didn't really wa nt to stay the re too much