Kenny Roberts

Kenneth LeRoy Roberts (born December 31, 1951) is an American former professional motorcycle racer and racing team owner.

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.

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.

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.

At the end his first year of national competition, Roberts was named the 1972 AMA Rookie of the Year Award.

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.

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.

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 1973, in just his second season as an expert, Roberts won the AMA Grand National Championship.

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 (AMA) 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 (FIM) 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..

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.