Kenny Roberts

Kenny Roberts ( sr. ) ( born December 31, 1951 in Modesto (California ), United States ) is a former American professional motorcycle racer and team owner in the Motorcycle World Championship.

In the years 1978, 1979 and 1980, he won the World Championship in the 500cc class of the MotoGP World Championship.

Career

Kenny Roberts began at the age of twelve years to ride the motorcycle. He decided to go racing and won his first race in 1967 at Lodi Cycling Bowl with a Hodaka.

In the years 1973 and 1974 Roberts won the AMA Grand National Championship. 1974 was also the year of the first digression into the motorcycle world championship. Roberts started at the Dutch TT in Assen, Netherlands in the 250 cc class, and was there at first third of the race.

In the motorcycle world championship in 1978, he went again, this time with factory support of the Japanese motorcycle manufacturer Yamaha, on the international racing stage in the classes up to 250 ³ and 500 cm ³, in advance announcing that his goal was winning the World Championship title. This quickly earned him the nickname loudmouth Roberts.

Kenny Roberts brought from the United States his spectacular driving style, which was caused by his starts in the AMA Grand National Championship, the races were held not only on road courses, but also on dirt -track courses, hard -rolled sand ovals, and the so-called TT Steeplechase, flat dirt tracks with left and right turns and jump hills, comparable to many years later introduced in Europe Supermoto race. This un-European driving style was later hallmark of almost all American motorcycle racer, who increasingly boarded after Robert's success in the motorcycle Grand Prix racing and dominated the sport for several years.

Roberts won on his black-yellow- white Yamaha ( these colors were the hallmark of Yamaha USA, already Roberts' dirt track used to have them paint) right off the bat in 1978, the World Cup and was besides still fourth overall in the 250 - cc class. The title in the 500 cc class, the top class way, the first for Yamaha, he was able to defend in the following two years.

This success, which was not expected from the European racing scene, earned him the nickname King Kenny, the loudmouth was forgotten. Another nickname, awarded by the European trade press, was Yellow Dwarf, because of Roberts' short stature and his yellow leather suit.

After the completion of the 1983 season, which ended Roberts as runner-up, he returned to the active racing back.

Career as a team manager

In 1984 season he emerged as the team leader of a Rennstalles - always with the make motorcycles Yamaha - again. Later, Roberts started his own racing team and a racing school near Barcelona, Spain.

After the 1996 season came the break with Yamaha. Roberts was then a separate three-cylinder engine, called Modena KR -3, developed for use in his team, the GP Motorsports UK Corporation. Later, the largest car maker in Malaysia, Proton, Roberts' partner and the team was launched under the name Proton KR. However, the in-house developments proved, at least since the introduction of the MotoGP class in 2002 as a non- competitive, Kenny Roberts, mutatis mutandis, once said. " Our engine is good if you need a boat anchor ." In the years 2004 and 2005, son Kurtis drove one of these machines, however, was often plagued by technical problems.

In the 2006 season the team Roberts sat Honda customers engines and only designed the landing gear itself was piloted in the machine of Roberts' son Kenny Jr.. Already in the first year of this drove a two podiums, reached the World Cup sixth and struck the factory riders of Suzuki and Kawasaki.

In the 2007 season the team was still Honda engines, but could not build on the successes of the previous year by far and usually only went behind the field. Kenny Roberts was then an option to Honda engines for the 2008 season pass and has not been represented since in the MotoGP class.

Besides the two sons Roberts has a daughter.

Data

  • First win: 1978 GP 250 cc Venezuela
  • Overall Grand Prix Wins: 24
  • Podiums: 44
  • Pole positions: 49

References

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