ROUNDS 5-6/JUNE 22-23, 2014
BARBER MOTORSPORTS PARK/LEEDS, ALABAMA
AMA SUPERSPORT
P78
AMA MOTORCYCLE-SUPERSTORE.COM SUPERSPORT
HEY JOE, YOU WANNA
GIVE IT A GO?
Joe Roberts bursts onto the scene
with command performance
BY LARRY LAWRENCE
PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRIAN J. NELSON
N
o pressure kid - you've only
been crowned America's
next big thing after a single
professional race weekend.
That's the conundrum before
Glendale, California's Joe Roberts set the bar extremely high in
his AMA Pro debut at Barber Motorsports Park. Rumors that the
Red Bull Rookie was a future star
swirled before the races started
at Barber, but after the weekend
was done his cell number was
likely added to the speed dial of
every team manager in the paddock.
Roberts was in a word… awe-
some. In only his second-time
ever racing a 600cc Supersport
bike, the 16-year-old, who secured his pro license just days
before the race, was P1 in every
session, earned the pole and
easily swept both rounds of the
Motorcycle-Superstore.com Superport Series here. He also established a new race record and
ran under the class track record
during Sunday's race.
Coming into in AMA Pro debut
weekend, Roberts was expecting to go the European GP route
of Moto3, Moto2 and hopefully
eventually to MotoGP. But that
route for an American means taking non-paying rides and struggling with a minimal support sys-
tem to scramble to the top over a
horde of well-backed Spaniards,
Brits and Italians. Now Roberts
looks to have options in his future, options that include a factory contract in America that
comes with a nice paycheck.
The only thing that didn't go
perfectly for Roberts was his
starts. In Saturday's race he
wheelied his California Superbike School/Roadracing World.
com Honda CBR600RR off the
start and got shuffled back.
"I think I got the worst start
ever," Roberts smiled in the postrace press conference. "I wheelied pretty bad off the line and
about six riders went by me. By
the [end] of the first lap I was up
