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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128601
He began as a dirt tracker, running Newman and Lodi like most all the Division 36 Northern California hotshoes. He had a target on his back, though. His name, Roberts, meant he was the man to beat, even as a kid. He was a good dirt tracker and still is, but the master plan was for "the kid" to go road racing and at the highest level. Dirt track was a step along the way, a grade in school that had to be passed, but the move that most young dirt trackers take when they sell off their 600 Rotax and go on to a Harley XR750 was never really in the cards for Roberts, or younger brother Kurtis. He cut his road racing teeth at Willow Springs, a fast track that teaches you that you can make up time best in the fast corners where the risks and the rewards are higher. You combine that with the pure-but-controlled 250cc championship run on the excellent Spanish circuits, all except one of which are homologated for GP racing. Spain was an excellent place to run young Kenny. The series was designed to prepare riders for the GPs, with the same practice format and similar race length. Like all successful and responsible national federations, the Royal Spanish Motorcycling Federation considers the nurturing of World Championship stars to be its primary obligation to the Spanish fans. Allowing foreign riders to ride under Spanish license serves to expose the local riders to top young internationals, but the "open" Spanish Championship also served as an early pre-GP training ground for two of today's most exciting non-Spanish stars - Roberts Jr. and Valentino Rossi. aggression of short track racing (especially on the Lodi groove where wild men just run wide and spin) and you have the making of a modern rider with a classic dirt track background, the kind of balance that his father took to Europe in 1978. Unlike "big Kenny" he did not arrive in Europe with fanfare and a list of titles. He was beaten soundly by Colin Edwards (ironically also runner-up last year in World Superbike) in the AMA 250cc Grand Prix Championship of 1992. At that time the Texan had more experience on twostrokes that the Californian, but both were clearly the fastest young riders in the United States and destined for the world stage. "Big Kenny" realized that the American tracks were 20 years behind the European tracks in rider safety and also that young Kenny needed to get comfortable in Europe. "Our goal for Junior is not to win the AMA Championship," he said. At that time, Kenny Sr. was living in Sitges, just south of Barcelona, and in addition to running his 500cc GP team, he was being urged to put a 250cc team into the Spanish Open Ducados series, an international Right from the offset there was no question that Roberts was good and improving fast, so fast that he kept moving up before ever becoming a dominant rider at a lower level. His chief rivals in Spain were Luis D'Antin, who won both titles that Roberts contested, and his Yamaha Roberts teammate Sete Gibernau, now a factory Repsol Honda rider. After establishing himself as a top gun in the Ducados series, Roberts was promoted to GP level as teammate of Tetsuya Harada on the Marlboro Roberts 250 team that then became Wayne Rainey's. Roberts' rookie season in 250cc GP racing in 1994 was spoiled by a serious break to his left arm that was complicated by nerve damage. He missed the first 10 races, but scored in the final three, managing a sixth place in Argentina. In 1995 he was fit and finished eighth in the championship, just missing out on what would have been his first podium placing when he was held to fourth in a battle with Tadayuki Okada on his works Honda at the German GP. By that time Roberts had only 18 GP starts, but he looked like an excellent prospect for the 250cc 30 FEBRUARY 23, 2000' lCl U lCl e n e vv s World Title in 1996. However, nobody at the Roberts household was too concerned about 250 titles. Suddenly at 23 and with less than 20 GP starts in 250, he was promoted to a 500cc ride on his father's team for 1996. Look back and see what was being said in pre-season articles and you'll see that a lot of European journalists resented the move. His rookie season in 500cc GP racing was, in retrospect, outstanding. He was only 13th in points but had a fourth, a fifth and two sixths. The high point of that year came at Donington Park where he qualified third and then led the first two laps before dropping back and eventually crashing out. That brief memory of looking up the road at empty racetrack for just a little over three minutes would have to suffice to keep Roberts' dreams alive because - after getting his first taste of 500cc racing on a works V-four - his services were not required by Yamaha in 1997 and he found himself riding alongside JeanMichel Bayle on the very first batch of three-cylinder Modenas machines. There was suddenly loads of testing to do and virtually no chance to shine. What you don't see on television barely seems to exist nowadays, and the fledgling Modenas team was most definitely off-camera - enough so that Roberts was out of sight and out of mind for most race fans and even GP journalists during 1997. . In 1998, Roberts gave the Modenas a sixth-place finish at the Sachsenring in Germany (best Modenas result so far) and was consistently running section times that showed that, given more horsepower, he would be on the pace. But to notice this you had to analyze the timing charts. Roberts himself knew it though, and in spite of the frustration at riding a development bike, he was confident of his abilities. On one of the many flights to and from the GPs, I sat next to Roberts on a two-hour drone back to Spain and went away impressed with his selfassuredness. He had no doubt, absolutely no doubt, that on a works four cylinder he would run with Doohan. "I don't say I'd beat him, but he wouldn't run away from me, and I'd work and train to beat him." On that same flight he said, off the record, that he would be riding a Suzuki in 1999. Of the Modenas experience he said, "I've had to deal with a couple of problems, engines that run on when you shut the gas and all the things that break on a prototype, but what doesn't kill you makes you stronger!" Once on the Suzuki, Roberts showed that his self-confidence was not unfounded. He started the season winning two in a row while Doohan was still in the mix, but after being knocked off the track by his teammate Nobuatsu Aoki in round four at Jerez (and finally dropping to 12th with engine problems), Roberts did not win again until his victory at Sachsenring on a bike that could probably not have won with any other current rider. Watching Roberts hold off first Alex Barros and then Criville, I couldn't help but think that that ability to stay down, keep the door shut, make no mistakes and get the best possible drive off the launch patch was something that years of running the shiny Lodi groove had taught him. When he said after the race, "I just got out there and pole putted," I was able to explain that unusual language to my British colleague in the booth. By the end of the year, Roberts and crew chief Warren Willing had swapped the works Showa suspension for Ohlins and had the Suzuki working to the American's liking. He ended the season on a very strong note. (Interestingly, Roberts is the first rider to win the first and last race of the season since Kevin Schwantz, also on a Suzuki, did so in 1989, also without taking the title.) Over the final five races of 1999, Criville, injured and feeling the heat after crashing out in Valencia, finished on the podium only once (third in South Africa). Roberts, after his second place in Valencia, seemed set to close on the ailing Criville and probably would have made things a lot closer had it not been for a major tire problem in Australia. He clearly would have won at Phillip Island where he had broken away and was cruising, but his rear Michelin threw a chunk and he was only able to limp home 10th. In the following race in South Africa, tire problems struck again and he was last after a pit stop to change the rear. Those two races ruined his chances of closing the gap on Crivi1le, even though he won the final race of the season in Argentina after a. long battle with Max Biaggi, who ran off the track on the last lap while leading but under extreme pressure from Roberts. Criville was dominant through the middle of the season and then sort of backed into the title after injuring his wrist. Roberts started strong and ended even stronger, but the numberone plate went to Criville and the number two to Roberts.