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 0' the Year: Kennv Roberts Jr. Q It must ha ve been nic e having all t he f am ily in B raz il t o see you wi n the Wo rld Champion ship . A On one han d it was coo l, but on the othe r it wasn 't becau se if anything happened then everybody wou ld have gon e do wn th ere for no th in g. T hankfully , I did n' t have t o answer that que stion. Q Going into that race, you had a plan and stuck with it. A I j ust wan ted a top six. If the bik e ran we ll and I co uld run away , then I would do it , but we had a couple of m ech anical failures in pra cti ce , and th in gs were happening, freak things on the bike like th e brake pad s boiling , just strang e things th at led us to beli eve that it wasn't our week end. Th ings weren 't go ing our way . It just gave you the feeling of just wanting to get th rough it. I had th e feeling th at if I pu shed, I wouldn 't have any lu ck if som ethin g happened . T hat 's what we wer e feeling on Frida y and Saturday. Sill y thi ngs kept happening , like cy li nde r-h ead bolts snapping off. T hi ngs that never happ en . Whe n we did push , something wo uld happen to th e bike, and wh en we weren 't pushi ng we'd have th e wrong tires on. We were just go ing uphill all week end . I wasn't overly worried about it. I just felt that I couldn 't push llke I wanted to . I got som ewhat of a decent start, th en gu ys starting goi ng around m e in one. I was like, "Th is isn't no rm al. " Usu all y I do some of th e passing in the first corner. I just had to relax because I was all th e w ay in 10th or 11th. It would pus h a little bit , and I would just say , "Okay." Th e wo rst th in g I could do was fall down. I just didn' t want that type of issue. We didn 't need to be in tha t positi on - th e cham pio nship was ri ght there. In two y ears, nobody will know whe re I fi ni shed to win the cham pionshi p. I was j ust think in g way too lon g -t erm to pu sh harder than fin ish in g six th. in m y opinion. When I settled down, I saw Sete and Laconi, and I k new that wa s it . I k new if I passe d those guys, I could race howeve r I wanted t o. I li ned'em up , go t by and tha t was that. It was such a relief. Q Is there a race this year that stands out as being your best rac e? A I would pro bably say Jerez. We didn't really ha ve th e bike setup that we needed th ere . The li ght went gr een, and by three laps I had a three-second lead. We consistently ke pt pulling away. T o go to Spain and do tha t was exactly what we needed t o do . Once I real ized that we were go ing to win Jerez, it started to rain and along ca me all the other cra p . But we ended up wi nning it , and it was a big win. That' s usua lly when th e Span ish and Ita li an riders start making a big p ush , and they start to get that momentum going. We were able to stop that. Q What about the A ustralia n Gra nd Prix? A I thought , going into Phillip Isla nd, that our bi ke would be better the re than it was in J apan . I think nature reall y p layed a part in that race. On Friday we had a really windy day , and Saturday m orn ing was wet , then qualifying was dry. We started of f with someth in g that we thought wou ld be fine . We cou ldn 't exactl y rep lic at e our settings from the tes t, so we had to go wi th cl ose to your Japan settings. It was a fru stratin g race. We ran a tire th at was a little b it harder than wha t we sho ul d have . Then halfway through, it cam e in , and I st arted movi ng up t here. I m ade a m istak e passing [Garr y ] McCoy , and that dropped me back . It was just a frustra t ing week end. I th ink if we could go back ther e now and rewind the clock , using our setti ng that we used there on T uesda y [a test after the GPJ, we wo uld have do ne more dam age. Our bike is better than the one we put underneath us that day at the racetrack . It's easy to say , and everyb od y says it , but I'm confi dent that we wou ld have done it . Junior is a family m an . An d now is fam ily ti me , tim e to plan his upc omin g weddi ng , t i me to wi nd dow n before starti ng to refocus on what he needs t o do to defend his title. T hat p ro cess ha s already begun, but h e do esn 't let it c ons u me hi m . He is , after all , fi nally ab le t o enjoy some of th e fruits of a very diffi cu lt season . He is away from raci ng for now, but not entirely . He is com p letely rela xed , a beer in han d , smi li ng la rg e as he slid es his Suzuk i und er Max Biaggi ju st t wo turns from the fin ish line of th e F ren ch Gr and Prix , h app y to ha ve pro ven his doubtful guest wrong . Four second s behin d with j ust a sin gle lap rema ining, it seem ed a good bet th at Kenny Roberts Jr. couldn' t catch Biag gi an d his fa cto ry Yam ah a at Paul Ricard . As it turn s out , it was a bad bet. Roberts wins with a bold mo ve in the final tw o corners , proving that in life - an d Son y PlayStation g o od gu ys do fi nish fi rst. CN 12 J A N UA RY 3 , 200 1 • cue I Q People see the good part of you being a Rob ert s . They me ntion the silv er sp o on, the rides o n y our father's teams ... but t hey don 't see the bad , th e pressure of the situation, A I never reall y considered it bad. I just considered it human nature . If Michael Jordan 's kid grows up and isn't as g ood as hi s dad, or doesn't win a championship , they 'll say that he only got th ere be cause of hi s dad. It' s ju st human nature, and you can' t fault anyone for think ing that way. I'm sure there are kids out there who take ad vantage of it in a business situation , wi th their father being the boss . But in racing , it' s a bit more difficult. The ability shines through on the bike , and you can either do it or you can' t. I don 't blame anybody who ever said bad th ings when I wa s co m ing through because that's human nature, it's expected. ' Q If you had it t o do over again , would you take t he same pat h? A I would ha ve to say y es - for a couple of reaso ns. I've th ought abo ut that. Now that I' ve won races and have been in a pos it io n t o win a ch am pions hi p, I' m happ y with the way it all went. Oka y , you co uld st art at Rossi's age and be as tal ented as he is, and th at wo uld all seem gre at , but I wo uld probably have never had th e oppo rt u nity to ri de my dad 's bik e. We h ad so me di fficul t ti me s, but w e worked hard and never g av e up - t hat' s what d evel oped that Modenas so quick ly. O nc e I left, y ou co u ld see how mu ch we were really pu ttin g in to it t o get in the top 10 and qualify in th e first two rows . We'll never get much credi t for tha t because no one eve r knows the sit uation fro m the outside . I've bee n through havin g 18 mechanical failures on a weekend, and t ha t was the weekend wh en we ha d the best eve r resu lt on the Modenas at Holland in '9 7 - an eighth place. I end ed up riding Jean -Michel's [Bayle] bike in the race beca use we couldn 't get m ine to sto p seizing. We brok e gearboxes .. . I' d go out and do a lap , go out and do a lap, go out and do a lap. Bu t eve rybody has a story th at 's more di ff icult th an th e next guy 's . Q Was it scary to ride that bike at t imes? A You had to ride wi th a finger on the cl utch and hope it didn't do somethi ng at the wr ong ti me . But to be hon est, the th ing only ever threw me down tw ice or three times. If you co nsider t hat we were developing a bik e, a whole new bik e... well , it didn 't break dow n , and I didn't fall down as mu ch as yo u think I cou ld have. Tha t wa s a bonu s. Q It has to be nice to see that Colin Edwards had success at the same time yo u di d, conside ring you both came up through AMA racing at the same time . A I didn't get to spend a lot of time w ith Co li n. When we raced together in America, I'd rac ed a ye ar before that. We hung out a little bit , and then we went ou r separate wa ys . Bu t knowing hi m a lot or a little, I understand the co m mitme nt an Ameri can rider has to make to race in Europ e. You can't be an Ameri can ri der and go win the cham p ionship. You hav e to kind of breed into that cu lture as far as getting around Europe and knowing wha t to expect with the foods , the different tracks, tires and all of that. It's quite a big jump, especi ally from raci ng in the U.S . For h im it has probabl y been a more diffi cult ju mp than fo r me because he had to rac e in the U.S . for three years on a Superbike, and then go to Euro pe , someplac e h e wa s u nfamiliar wi th, and learn to do it all over aga in . For me , I grew up in the paddock , and I grew up around that environment, so fo r m e it was very natural. That ha d to have helped me . For us to have both done this in the same year, it's goo d for raci ng here. Hopefull y , w e will get m or e co verage out of it. It ca n't hurt. I!! n e IN s In 1990, Roberts rac ed with Co lin Edwards In the AMA 250cc GP Se ries. After t hat, the pair wen t thei r separat e ways. Ironically, they bot h w on World ChampIonshi ps In the same season.