Kenny Roberts
Introduction
Kenny Roberts arrived in Europe
for his Grand Prix campaign in 1978 having dominated
racing in the United States. Born on 31st December
1951 in Modesto, California, Kenny Roberts got his
mother to lie about his age so he could go racing.
Pretty soon the kid was winning races on his 100cc
bike by such a margin that he was soon put into
the 250cc class on his smaller machine! He joined
the AMA national circuit in 1970 as a novice and
was picked up by the Yamaha factory while still
a junior. Kenny won the AMA Grand National Championship
in 1973 in his second year as a 'senior' level rider
- a feat which meant taking part in a gruelling
schedule of events including: dirt racing on half-mile
and mile ovals, TT racing (which was dirt-tracks
with jumps), road-racing and short-track racing.
He won the title again in 1974,
but by a much bigger margin. By now road-racing
was beginning to be the focus of Kenny's amazing
capacity for concentration and dedication. He had
already raced in the British Trans-Atlantic races
and taken on Giacomo Agostini at Imola so it wasn't
surprising that he eventually went GP racing full-time
from 1978 with Yamaha. To learn tracks faster, Kenny
took part in the 250 and F750 races too, which was
no mean feat on the punishing and often dangerous
circuits of the day. He won the 500cc GP title first
time out, winning it the next two seasons as well,
making him the first rider to win three back-to-back
titles since Agostini. The titles were the icing
on the cake in a memorable career which included
an amazing rivalry with Britian's Barry Sheene,
as well as the classic title confrontation with
Freddie Spencer in 1983 which went down to the wire
at Imola. 'King' Kenny lost the title to Spencer
by just two points.
Retirement after the 1983 season
didn't slow him down. He ran a team with Wayne Rainey
and Alan Carter in the 1984 250cc championship before
taking a few years off to re-enter in 1986 with
the Lucky Strike Yamaha team. In 1990 with Marlboro
backing, Kenny steered the team to the 500cc championship
with Rainey and the 250cc title with John Kocinski.
Rainey would emulate the feat of his team-boss and
friend by re-taking the title in 1991 and 1992.
Kenny eventually decided to go his own way and become
a race bike manufacturer in his own right in 1997,
but his spirit and determination marks him out as
one of the great Yamaha champions.
Race Stats
- 1964: First race
- 1969: Oregon State 100cc dirt-track Champion
- 1970: US National Novice Champion
- 1971: US National Junior Champion
- 1972: 4th US National Expert Championship (Yamaha)
- 1973: US Grand National Champion (Yamaha)
- 1974: US Grand National Champion (Yamaha)
- 1975: 2nd US Grand National Championship (Yamaha)
- 1976: 3rd US Grand National Championship (Yamaha)
- 1977: 4th US Grand National Championship (Yamaha)
- 1978: 500 World Champion (Yamaha)
- 1979: 500 World Champion (Yamaha)
- 1980: 500 World Champion (Yamaha)
- 1981: 3rd 500 World Championship (Yamaha)
- 1982: 4th 500 World Championship (Yamaha)
- 1983: 2nd 500 World Championship (Marlboro Yamaha)
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