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
Q It seems that it's almost an advantage for you , at t imes, t o live here and not li ve in Eu rope. You may not f ace the pressure they face by racing so cl ose to home. A lot of them te nd to st ruggl e at their home race ... 500cc Wo rld Ch am pionship - th e fi rst of three wo rld titles fo r the legend. At the time, he wa s a hell -ra ise r in the m ak in g, a fa r cry from t he nic e yo ung m an he wou ld m atu re into. When he wasn 't holding co nstruc ti on work ers hostage with a slingshot at th e Yama ha race shop in Amsterdam, he was us ually fou nd ri d ing his b ic ycl e. He wa s h ell o n whe el s. He was K en n y Roberts Jr. , his li neage on display for all to see. Th e m o t o rc y cl in g c are er w oul d c om e l a te r, mu ch l a t e r. Like h i s fath er, Junior was n 't a chi ld p rodigy . He wa sn 't a six- y ear -c ld motocro ss star. Instead , he started slowly , rid in g ing cu rv e sho rt-c hanged by his la ck of racing at an early age. A ft er all, he wa sn't out ridi ng at the ranch by hi m self. He rode at t he ranch with the likes of Wayn e Raine y , Edd ie L aw son, J ohn Kocinski . his father - and the numerous guests who sho we d up there to see if they had what it takes to be a champion . Ju n i o r was a quick s tudy . H e watc hed, listened and co m peted . It 's fair to say that he lea rned m ore from t hose days a t t he ranch t han h e would have at the loc al m otocross , or flat track . Junior's name fir st ap pe ared in the pa g es o f th is pub li cat ion wh en h e Cham p io n s All: Kenny Roberts Jr. steadies his younger brother Kurtis - the AMA 600cc Su p e rs port an d Fo rmu la X treme Champion - as he readies to fire. m ot or cycl es at th e ran ch in his spa re time while atte ndi ng a nearby private sch oo l. At sc hool , h e e x c ell e d i n sp orts . pl a y in g baseball . bask etba ll and gol f. Li ke hi s father. J uni or is b le ssed with natur al a t h leti ci s m . H e 's an obsessive com petit or who will figure ou t a way to beat yo u no matter th e playing field . But in no way was Roberts ' learn - Q started racing a YSR50 , a m ini ro ad racer th at he started honing h is pavem ent sk ill s on . Still it was no big deal. T hen h is name reappears wi t h some outi ng s at Willow Spring s on a Yama ha 4 0 0 . T he n came WERA 2 5 0cc r aci n g and a sing l e se aso n i n th e AMA 2 5 0cc G rand Prix S eri es in which he finis hed the season fourth . Then he was gone, whisked away from Americ an racing and dropped in Will Set e be a good tea m m at e? Do you get a lon g with him well? A He' s a goo d gu y , so that reall y doesn't come into pla y . T he good th ing is at the last test is he is feeling the same things th at I' m feeling. He's ab le to push the b ike and get good feedback fro m it, and he 's ab le to tell that to Warren. That's really help ed . Warr en was really happy , and Stu art... the y haven 't been able to get th at feedba ck before . Sete tested th e sam e tires I did and ha d th e same co mments; eve n though it was he lf-a -second slower, the comments were still there . That's fabu lous. Before, with Nobu [Aoki] , it was alwa ys seven- I Oths to a second beh ind with not the same feeling. Then what do you do , you know? Q Is Valentino Rossi as good as everybody say s? A I'm sure that it has something to do wi th it , but there are pros and con s wi th everything . Th e onl y con abo ut my situation is that co m m erci ally I don't ha ve a lot of va lue with sp onsors. I also do a lot more fly ing . But the pros are that I get away from stuff if I want to, and I th ink I proba bl y have a bett er qua lit y of life wi th family at home. I'm abl e to shu t everything off and do m y own thing. Right now I'm pretty happy with the wa y th ings are. As long as I k eep winn ing races, I'll be fin e. I'm not looki ng to tra de in my passport yet. Q When you 're here in Modesto, are you recognized? A Not really. I've never asked for an ything here beca use it's really not promoted the right way. You 're not on Letterman or Len o, th ing s tha t in other cou ntri es you would be on . Sometimes it's better not to be recognized ; then no one asks , " Don 't you race? What k ind of bikes are those?" And then ha ve to explain. I'm happy with it - Modesto. I would lik e to move more out into the coun try , but with Rochelle going to Stockton every day fo r schooling, it's difficult to get her farther away from the freeway at this point. Someday we' d like to m ove farthe r out. We're no t putting too many pictures on the wa ll. We're leav in g the house pretty st and ard . I' d like to kee p winning these races and cha m pionships , so we can do what we want out in the co untry. Q You don 't live a very extravagant lifest y le. Is that just the way you are? A I nev er went to a lot of parties or anything, and I was never subjected to having to continua ll y impress peo ple. I never had to do eve ry thing bigger or better than the next guy. I do n't have much going on, but also remember that I'm gone like 220 days out of the year, so the stu ff wou ld just deteriorate anyway. Q What do you do when you are home? A During the da y , I li k e to do stuff around the house just getting awa y from racing for a while. I also have a boat that I like to take up to the lak e and go fishing for a couple of days. With Rochelle go ing to school, about all I can do is workout and play golf, and just be around in the eve ni ng s. The p robl em is you can never becom e normal. .. you can never just go someplace because you always have some kind of com mitment that holds you back. You try to get enough time off to enjoy that. > Q Motorcycle racing doesn 't seem to be a regular topic of conversation around the house... A My mom li k es to co me around and ta lk abo ut b ik es and AMA racing and Ku rt is, b ut I make her go in the garag e. I do n't like to ta lk abo ut racing in m y house. I never talk abo ut m ot orc ycl es with anybo dy . I never ask an yb od y an y qu esti ons abo ut m otorcycles... even m y dad . We tal k about situations m ayb e, abo ut peopl e doin g thi s or th at , but we never go ssip about bikes. There's nothing yo u can do abou t it , and I don't need an y advice about it . I don 't need to hea r about other people. I ju st do my thing . Q Are you still the K i ng of th e H ond a XR 1OOs ou t t h er e at the ranch? A I th ink I ha ve m or e of an understanding of the momentum... it's not reall y anything t o bra g about. but I won 't be beaten on th em. [Alex] Cr iville is actu all y pretty good on 'em - he 's prob abl y th e best Spanish guy on them. The story y ou've heard about Sete [Gibernau] is the day we were out here racing on the short track and we were both battling it out when I fell down and broke my arm. That probably got translated into him beati ng me. He's got a long way to go , and he wants to come here and tra in a little bit. A Rossi is good. He has an amazing amount of tal ent, and his racecraft is good. His mentality is probably the best of any of them because he tries hard, and he is a racer. When that green fla g drops, he trie s to ov erride th e thin g as much as he can, as m uch as an yone would . You have to resp ect that. I do n't fee l that he's going to Tiger Woods anybody because I feel that we can im prove our bike the most of any of our com petitors . by far . By double-fold . If we do ou r job, hopefully we 'll Tiger Woods everybody next year. But that kid is good, and he's Honda 's hope now ยท that's what they've turned him into , He's a hard guy to beat, Q A Is he the guy t o beat next year? That falls in t o the c ate gory of q ues tions I d on 't li ke t o answer beca use I don't like to be wrong . Racing is too un predicta ble . I don't like to say something that do esn 't come to fr uition. O ur worst enemy is ourselves, If I can con trol my bike, my team and we don't make stupid mista k es... we are the on ly people who can lose the championship. Spa in where he c ompeted i n th e Ducados Open - a hotbed of 250cc racing . The re he raced against the likes of Sete Gib erna u (i ronically , his teammat e fo r next ye ar) , Luis d 'Antin and J ose Lu is Cardoso. Why Sp ain ? It's sim ple reall y . With his fa the r run ni ng ra ce t eam s in the Grand Prix Series and spending the majority of hi s ti me in Europe, that' s wh ere he wanted Junior to be. Initially at least, Robert s Sr. wa sn't o verl y fond of the i d e a o f Jun i or ra c ing . Once he realiz ed h e was goi ng t o race , and race seri ous ly , he at least e y e I EO wanted h im raci ng wh er e he cou ld keep an eye on him. And he wanted h im racing on racetracks t h at he deemed t o be sa fe . Th er e a re no Loudons in Spain . Fr om th e Sp an ish Seri es, Roberts graduated to Grand Prix racing , mak in g h is debut in th e 2 5 0cc c lass in 1993. He fi nished 27th in the championship in 1993 and 18th in the t itl e chase in 1994. Then , in '95. he ende d up eighth in the 250cc World Championship. His first season in 250s was as a Marlboro Robert s rider; the nex t tw o s a w h im i n a Marlboro tea m n e vv s JANUARY 3. 2001 9