Destiny The kenny Roberts Jr.story
Kenny Roberts Jr: “My first race was at the Lodi Cycle Bowl on a motocross bike, but I wasn’t really serious about it. I did maybe 10 races. It wasn’t until I saw John Kocinski at Sears Point in 1989, the year before he went to the 250 World Championship. I knew John and rode with him, and then to see what he was able to do, I thought I would be able to do that myself. To get the experience with being around one of the quickest guys around, was intriguing. It kind of took off from there.”
“I did some local stuff around Buttonwillow and Willow Springs, and from there it was on to WERA. I spent 1991 doing eight races in WERA, then in 1992 in the AMA riding for Wayne Rainey’s team. I flew to most of the races, which back then wasn’t common I guess, but I didn’t know any better. I’m sure I had advantages that most people didn’t have, but I assumed everybody did what I did and didn’t ask questions. If my dad had raced go-karts, I would have wanted to race go-karts. It was just wanting to do what your dad did.”
1992 was a banner year for the 250GP class in the AMA with Kenny running against Colin Edwards and Jimmy Felice. “I had probably 15 road races under my belt by then, so even by the time I got to Spain in 1993, I was still trying to figure it out. I was always in over my head with stuff because of my name, so I never got to stay in one category to win and dominate the category and move up. In the AMA I never won a race, but if I finished the race I was always on the podium.”
Kenny Sr had crossed paths with Señor Bulto while golfing in Spain and Bulto pressed the case for giving an opportunity to his grandson, Sete Gibernau. Kenny Jr and Sete were to become team-mates for 1993. Kenny: “I was ready to go to Europe. When I got to the Spanish Championship, I won the race at Albacete, and was leading at Jarama by three or four seconds after a couple of laps and was pulling away quite rapidly. I pushed the front out of the last corner and fell down on the second lap. I didn’t fully have the hammer down, but I should have been more cautious and that race cost me the championship. I competed for the championship all the way to the last race and ended up second.”
In 1993 looking around the
