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/128644
Rider 01 fhe Year: Kennv Roberts Jr. Q Was get t ing the team to the point whe re it is th e big di fference between 2000 and 19 9 9 ? A It w as more th e experience than anything else . We had the ability th is year to st ay composed . In situations where we probabl y wo uld have made some judg mental mist ak es last year with th e setu p of the bike. we were able to catch ourselves this year. We made bi g ste ps with the bik e, and then I tried not to m ak e any mist ak es in th e races . That's wh at p ut th e thing t og eth er. We won it this year by staying consistent and work ing w ith what we had. We k new we we ren' t going to have th e b ik e to beat ev er y weekend , but we didn 't get down abo ut that. We tried to j ust understand that and not get fru st rat ed ov er tha t. Q It doesn 't seem li k e you can pi np oint wh at kind of tracks give the Suzuk i fi ts. A If we kn ew wh at it was and wha t tra cks we knew we would run into p roblems at , we wou ld definitely try and fix that -befo re we get there . Th e easiest way to say it is that we are lack ing a little bit of accelera t io n. Wh en the bik e is ho oked up and wo rk ing well, everything is dandy , and we can run with ev ery body, and we ha ve a li ttl e bit of adv antag e mid -corner. But wh en it's not, it 's not very good, and we don 't loo k com petit ive. Our top sp eed s get down , and then we get stuck behind people and it loo k s like we're lost all weekend . That's wh en it's di sappo intin g . Most of the tim e we go to a track and our bik e is d ial ed in right away. A t some ra c es, we were help ed by having a dry day and a wet day - and Honda c o uld n't get their power to the ground . They 'd sp in and get it sidew ays, and ours was already to the ground. But the re were track s this year whe n the lin k ages were just a little off, and we co uldn 't hit th e c om binati o n to get the gas o n as soo n as we need ed - and that reall y hurts us. Q Did riding the Modena s help you in setup? A That' s one of the are as th at you get co mplacent in . For sure wi th T eam Roberts in '9 6 thro ug h '98, especially '9 7 and '9 8 , was a trem en dous advan tage because I wa s ab le to do so many things. We had differ ent chas sis, different stiffnesses, different links, swingarms... I devel oped a feel for wh at the bike needs . Warren kn ows what the bike nee ds mathematica lly and physically , and we put those chassis into produc tio n and test 'em . You get all those num bers togeth er and m ak e things wor k . Look ing at where Sete is now reminds me a lo t of where I sta rted . He k nows a lot about a bike, but ex perience-wise he doesn 't have what I hav e. It m ak es m e realize ho w m uc h I' ve learned and how valu abl e it is . It's given me a lot of resourc es to look back o n. Q Yo u got a la t e s t art c om pa red t o most people . Could t hat be viewed as an advan ta ge? A W ell , yo u c an turn it into an advantage because of the burn -out fac to r. Some people have said that the prime of a road rac er 's career is between 28 and 3 2, so if yo u st art a little younger and get th e experi ence nec essa ry and yo u get to th at age whe re yo u're bod y is not hurting too m uch . you ca n turn it into an advantage. owned by Rainey . His best fini sh in . th o se three years was a fo urth in Ger m any . A nd just whe n he was startin g to show some p r o mis e , h e w as w hiske d away ag ai n , this t i m e dr o p p e d i n h i s f a th er ' s M a r lb or o Yamaha 50 0c c GP team . In his debu t 50 0cc season, Ju nior fin ished 13th in th e c h am pio ns h ip , ag a in po st in g a fou rth -plac e fin ish as his best resul t. Al l t h e whi le , h e was K enn y Roberts ' kid , and resp ect was hard to c o me b y . A f t e r all , the nays a yers ( a n d th e r e we r e p lenty of the m ) bem oaned th e fac t th at he was han d p ic k ed fo r Grand Prix rides bec au se hi s fa ther owned Gr and Pri x team s. That was all we ll and good , until Pap a Ro b e r t s de c ide d t o b ui l d hi s ow n Gr a nd Pri x bike . S u d d en l y , b eing Kenn y 's kid mea nt spend ing th e next tw o yea r s h elping de ve lop a t hree cy li nde r Mod enas. To say there we re bump s a lo ng t he w ay wou ld b e a n u n ders ta te me n t. The fin g e r wa s a lwa ys on t he cl utc h . But it turn ed out to be the ultim ate bonding ex pe rience between father and son , and it 's something tha t Junior wo ul dn't trad e for the world . "T hat is so m ething tha t him and I w ill always have," Robert s sai d. "How m an y so ns ge t t o rid e th e ir father' s Grand Pri x 50 0 ? It's someth in g that w e w ent throug h t og ether. W e we nt th r ou gh th e w or st tim e s o f o u r careers - both of us. Yet it didn 't rea lly get us down . It was just pa rt o f the w hol e d ea l. It shows w hat we went throu gh , th e p e rseverance t h a t we had." At t he en d o f th e 1998 se aso n , ev er y t hin g c ha n ge d . Juni or c a me out from the rat h er l on g sha dow ca st by hi s fa the r. He signed a con - . tract with Suzuk i to spea rhead it s attack o n th e 500cc Wo rld Cha mpi o ns hi p - and he wo uld do so wi t hout h is fath er . It wa s full steam ahead from th at m om ent on . Junior t u rn e d i t up a no tch h i g h er , t ra in ed hard er and pr e p ared hims elf fo r t h e ult imat e ch all en ge . " We' ve o n ly t a k en n in e d ays off sinc e he sig ned with Suzuk i in Oc tober of ' 98 ," Roberts ' train e r D ea n M ill er said whi le wo rk ing o ut with th e Wor ld Champion r e c e n tl y . T h o se wo rk outs start in the m orning and last fo r ho urs. Th ey in clude pi ckup ga mes of bask etball at th e gym in Modesto, rac quetball , weig ht liftin g an d m ore ca rdi ov as c ul ar wo rk . The pa ir w or k we ll t o g et he r , enjo y ea c h other 's co mpany, and Miller m ak es it a da ily ro uti ne, de sp it e th e fac t that th e man w ho used to train th e o rigi nal K enn y Ro berts h as to d r ive an h ou r and a half eac h m orning from his hom e t o Modest o. Bu t it's all paid o ff. A sta r was born in 19 9 9 , wi th Junio r wi nning th e fi rst two races of t h e seaso n . Th e fi rs t ca me at t he Sepang C ircu it in M a la ys ia , a nd it m ad e hi m the first American to w in a 500 cc Gr and Pr i x si nce K ev in S chw antz d i d so i n 19 9 4. I t a lso ende d a dry spell for Suzuk i. Then, j us t a w ee k l ater , J un io r bea t M ic k Dooh an in a straight fight in a d riving ra ins to rm in Japa n. Sud de nly, Ken ny Roberts Jr. was his own m a n. He was no lo nger j ust th e so n of a l eg end w ho was spend in g a Gr and Pr ix c a ree r eat ing from a silve r sp oon. T his ut ens il was earne d. • " It 's al ways been m y ambition t o be th e b est motorcycl e racer in the world - and to day I was ," Junior said after that fi rst win in M al aysi a. It was n 't all sm o ot h sa ilin g aft er th at , by any means . Roberts m ad e som e mistakes, and so d id his t eam , but the y end ed th e season second in the cham p io nsh ip to Al ex Criville and hi s Repsol Honda NSR500 - and you were hard -pressed to not get the fee li ng that a W o rld Cham p io nshi p was n' t ver y fa r away . He 'd won races. The ne xt step was a titl e. Rob erts c a me o u t of t h e gate in atta ck m ode in 2000. He won when he c o uld , fi n ishe d strongl y when he couldn't, and at season 's end he was the 500cc Wo rld Champion . He and Roberts spent a season racing 250s in the WERA Formula USA Se ries before racing for a singl e sea son in the AMA 250cc Grand Pri x Se ri e s. He 's been gone ever since. 10 JAN U A RY 3 , 2001 • eye I e n e _ s