Kenny Roberts
Kenneth Leroy Roberts is an American former professional motorcycle racer and racing team owner. In 1978, he became the first American to win a Grand Prix motorcycle racing world championship. He was also a two-time winner of the A.M.A. Grand National Championship. Roberts is one of only four riders in American Motorcyclist Association racing history to win the AMA Grand Slam, representing Grand National wins at a mile, half-mile, short-track, TT Steeplechase and road race events.
Roberts left his mark on Grand Prix motorcycle racing as a world championship winning rider, a safety advocate, a racing team owner, and as a motorcycle engine and chassis constructor. His dirt track-based riding style changed the way Grand Prix motorcycles were ridden. Roberts' proposal to create a rival motorcycle championship in 1979 broke the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme hegemony and increased the political clout of Grand Prix racers, which subsequently led to improved safety standards and a new era of professionalism in the sport. In 2000, Roberts was named a Grand Prix Legend by the FIM. He is also the father of 2000 Grand Prix world champion Kenny Roberts Jr.
Early life
Kenny Roberts was born to Alice and Melton "Buster" Roberts in Modesto, California. As a child growing up in the rural agriculture area just off highway 132 near the West side vineyards of E & J Gallo Winery, Roberts was originally interested in horseback riding. He rode his first motorcycle at the age of 12 when a friend dared him to ride a mini bike. Roberts accepted the challenge and the experience thrilled him. He built his own motorcycle by attaching his father's lawn mower engine to a bicycle frame. Roberts began his career in dirt track racing after attending a local race in Modesto and deciding that he wanted to compete himself. His father purchased a Tohatsu bike for him, but once it proved itself uncompetitive as a race bike, he moved up to a more powerful Hodaka motorcycle.Roberts showed a natural talent for dirt track racing and began winning local races. In 1968, his race results drew the attention of a local Suzuki dealer Bud Aksland, who offered to sponsor Roberts aboard a Suzuki motorcycle. He made the decision to drop out of high school before his senior year to pursue a career in motorcycle racing. Roberts was allowed to compete professionally when he turned 18, and on the day after his eighteenth birthday, he entered his first professional race at San Francisco's Cow Palace, finishing in fourth place.
Racing history
Early AMA career
Realizing that Roberts needed more help if his racing career was going to progress, Aksland introduced Roberts to airline pilot and amateur motorcycle racer Jim Doyle, who would become Roberts' personal manager. In 1971, Doyle and Roberts approached Triumph's American distributor to ask about the possibility of a sponsored ride, but were told that Roberts was too small for one of their motorcycles. They then turned to the American Yamaha importer's team, who agreed to make Roberts a factory sponsored rider at the age of 19. Yamaha asked the head of their American racing program, former 250 cc world champion Kel Carruthers to help guide Roberts' racing career. It marked the beginning of a long and productive relationship between the two men. Carruthers ended his riding career after the 1973 season to concentrate full-time on maintaining and tuning Roberts' motorcycles while mentoring him in the AMA Grand National Championship, while Doyle remained as his business manager.The AMA Grand National Championship was a series which encompassed events in four distinctive dirt track disciplines plus road racing. In his second professional race as a rookie expert class rider in 1972, Roberts rode to victory at the Grand National short-track race in the Houston Astrodome. A few weeks later at the 1972 Daytona 200, Roberts continued to impress observers when he rode a 350cc Yamaha TD3 to qualify on the front row of the starting grid with the fifth fastest time. He led the race for one lap before he suffered a flat tire. At the end his first year of national competition,. Roberts made a name for himself that year by battling the dominant Harley-Davidson factory dirt track team aboard an underpowered Yamaha XS650 motorcycle, making up for his lack of horsepower with sheer determination. He finished the season ranked fourth in the country.
Saarinen influence
In 1972, Jarno Saarinen was considered one of the top road racers in the world, having challenged the previously dominant Giacomo Agostini for the 350cc world championship. At the end of the 1972 world championship season, Saarinen traveled to America to compete in the season ending Champion Spark Plug Classic AMA sanctioned race held at the Ontario Motor Speedway. Roberts observed Saarinen's riding style where he shifted his body weight towards the inside of a turn. While Roberts had a natural talent for riding motorcycles on dirt surfaces, on paved road circuits, the motorcycle felt unsettled beneath him while negotiating a turn. He tried Saarinen's technique and found that it helped settle the motorcycle. He adopted the cornering style and exaggerated the body shift to a greater extent than Saarinen had by extending his knee out until it skimmed the track surface. With his new riding technique, Roberts began to excel in road race events. Yamaha motorcycles performed very well in road racing, where the Yamaha TZ750 was the dominant motorcycle of the era.AMA Grand National Champion
In 1973, in just his second season as an expert, Roberts won the AMA Grand National Championship. Despite his Yamaha dirt track motorcycle lacking the horsepower of the Harley-Davidson team, he won three races and consistently finished among the top ten, amassing a record 2,014 points in the 25-race series.First European competitions
In the 1974 Daytona 200, after early leader Gary Nixon retired, Roberts battled for the lead with former 500 cc world champion, Giacomo Agostini before an overheated engine forced him to settle for second place. In April 1974, Roberts ventured to Europe for the first time to compete in the prestigious Imola 200 road race for 750 cc motorcycles where, he made a positive impression competing against the best road racers in the world. Wearing the trademark bumble bee yellow and black racing livery of the Yamaha USA team, Roberts took the lead at the start of the race with Agostini in second place. He began to build his lead over Agostini until his tires began to lose their adhesion, forcing him to reduce his speed and, eventually allowing Agostini to overtake him for the victory.Although Roberts finished second to Agostini once again, his first European racing experience left a deep impression on him as, he marveled at the size of crowds and the warmth of the Italian fans. Roberts' first European performance also left an impression on European race fans, as, few had ever witnessed a Grand Prix motorcycle sliding its rear tire, in a bucking bronco manner as it sought to regain traction. Italian journalists labelled him "Il Marciano", or the Martian due to his small stature, his bright yellow riding suit and his seemingly otherworldly riding abilities.
Roberts then traveled to England with a team of American riders to compete against a British riding team in the 1974 Transatlantic Trophy match races. The Transatlantic Trophy match races pitted the best British riders against the top American road racers on 750cc motorcycles in a six-race series in England. The conventional wisdom at the time was that American riders, who competed mostly in dirt track races, could not race on asphalt at the same level as the British riders, who specialized in road racing events. Roberts dispelled any such notions by winning three of the six races and finishing second in the remaining three races. Roberts was the top individual points scorer in the event with 93 points, five more than Barry Sheene, the top British rider.
Following his success at Imola and the Transatlantic Trophy match races earlier that year, Roberts returned to Europe to make his road racing world championship debut in a one-off appearance in the 250cc class at the Dutch TT on June 29, 1974. Against the world's top competitors, Roberts claimed pole position during qualifying then, broke Mike Hailwood's seven-year-old lap record while pursuing race leader and eventual world champion Walter Villa. Roberts eventually crashed but, recovered to finish on the podium with a third-place finish.
Second National Championship
In the 1974 Grand National championship, Roberts won the San Jose Half-Mile dirt track race then, won his first national road race at Road Atlanta on June 2, 1974. On August 18, Roberts won the Peoria TT race to complete a Grand Slam with victories in each of the five different events on the Grand National calendar. He claimed his second consecutive Grand National championship, winning six races and surpassing his 1973 points record by scoring 2,286 points in the 23 race series, collecting points in all 23 races.Roberts continued his road racing successes in 1975, winning three out of four races in the 1975 Transatlantic Match races. After having won the national championship in 1974, Roberts faced an increasingly difficult battle in dirt track races, as Harley-Davidson continued to improve their XR-750 dirt tracker while Yamaha struggled to maintain the pace. Roberts made up for his bike's lack of power with an almost fearless, determined riding style. He battled Harley-Davidson factory rider Gary Scott throughout the 1975 season but mechanical breakdowns hampered his title defense. He had been leading the Daytona 200 when mechanical problems yielded the victory to his Yamaha teammate Gene Romero. At the Ascot TT, Roberts battled from 17th place to take the lead before a broken sprocket ended his race.