MotoGP world champion Joan Mir brought Suzuki 20 years after Kenny Roberts jr. another title in the «premier class». The now 47-year-old American said goodbye to the big stage in 2007.
Across all GP classes, 23-year-old Joan Mir is only the tenth different world champion for Suzuki – after Kenny Roberts Jr. (500 cc: 2000), Kevin Schwantz (500 cc: 1993), Franco Uncini (500 cc: 1982), Marco Lucchinelli (500 cc: 1981), Barry Sheene (500 cc: 1976, 1977), Dieter Braun (125 cc: 1970), Hans-Georg Anscheidt (50 cc: 1966, 1967, 1968), Hugh Anderson (125 cc: 1963, 1965; 50 cc: 1963, 1964) and Ernst Degner (50 cc: 1962).
Mir’s predecessor, Kenny Roberts junior, disappeared after his “break” in 2007. Hardly any GP visits, no interviews, no public appearances. If Kenny showed up at a race after retiring, it would be best for a day in Laguna Seca, California, around 1.5 hours’ drive from his home in Modesto.
But since Laguna Seca disappeared from the GP calendar after the 2013 season, “Kenny junior” has traveled to Austin / Texas every year with his family in the Motorhome. He then parked his mobile quarters in the paddock right next to his dad, the legendary “King Kenny”, who won the 500 World Cup in 1978, 1979 and 1980 and was afterwards even more successful as a team owner.
Roberts Sr. discovered Eddie Lawson for Yamaha (three 500cc titles on Yamaha, one on Honda). He then discovered Wayne Rainey, who won the half-liter World Championship three times (1990, 1991 and 1992) with his Marlboro Yamaha Roberts team, and John Kocinski, who won the 250cc World Championship in 1990.
“I resigned from the Barcelona GP in 2007 and then led a relaxed life in California,” said Kenny junior in an interview with SPEEDWEEK.com. “Afterwards, I didn’t board a plane from 2007 to 2013 and I never left the USA. It wasn’t until 2013 that I flew to Japan for an invitation race with my dad. “
The junior’s face has become a bit more rounded. “I’ve trained enough in my career for the rest of my life. I don’t do any sports other than skiing, ”he says.
With Kenny junior and his wife “Ro” Rochelle, the focus is now on the family; they have a daughter Ashley, 11, and a son, 10 named Logan.
“My children don’t know that I have raced,” says Kenny Roberts, the younger one. “They only know that their grandfather was a racing driver.”
With skiing, “Little Kenny”, who sometimes still appears as a Suzuki ambassador, has discovered a new favorite pastime and passion. «I used to stand on skis very rarely. But I’ve been crazy about it for four years, ”he said. “We own an apartment in the Lake Tahoe ski area. It’s only two hours away. We take the children out of school for three months in winter and teach them home schooling so that they can ski almost every day. We have been on skis for between 30 and 45 days in the last few winters. “
While the Suzuki factory team never produced a really powerful four-stroke engine in Kenny’s time, a different wind is now blowing at the Japanese manufacturer. The three-year break from racing (2012, 2013 and 2014) and the change from the V4 engine to the inline four-cylinder as well as the separation from team boss Paul Denning had a positive effect. Suzuki achieved no fewer than nine podium positions with the GSX-RR in 2018. In 2019 there were only three of them, but Alex Rins took victory in both Austin and Silverstone. The coup in 2020: Joan Mir was named MotoGP world champion, Ecstar Suzuki took the team crown.
Kenny Roberts junior’s GP career has not always had an easy time. At the beginning of his World Cup career, Papa Kenny said to him in no uncertain terms: “You always have to keep one thing in mind: as a racing driver you will never be as good as your father.”
“Little Kenny” entered the World Cup in 1993 in his father’s 250cc Yamaha team, and in 1997 he moved to the 500cc class with the Marlboro Roberts team. In 1999 he signed for the Suzuki works team, cut his cord from his dad – and with four GP victories immediately finished second in the world championship behind Honda works driver Àlex Crivillé from Spain.
In 2000, Kenny Roberts Jr. wrote. History by winning the 500cc World Championship 19 years after his father’s last title win. Roberts junior was the sixth American world champion in the premier class of motorcycle racing. Then the series of five World Cup titles in a row began by Valentino Rossi, before Nicky Hayden won the last title for the USA in 2006.
In 2006, after six years in Suzuki, Kenny returned to his father’s KR team, which in the meantime had gone astray in the meantime with the three-cylinder Modenas 500, the V4-KTM 990 and the self-made V5-Proton would have. With a self-made KR chassis and Honda V5 engines, Kenny Jr. some respectable successes in the 2006 season; he achieved two third GP places. With the sixth final place Roberts jr. the best final result in the driver standings for the KR team since they built their own vehicles.
In 2007, the Honda KR team received the new 800cc engines, but the season didn’t start very promisingly. “Little Kenny” soon complained of motivation problems and left his team place to his younger brother Kurtis from the Barcelona GP.
What was originally intended as a break turned out to be a definitive resignation at some point. Because the world champion of 2000 has never competed again.
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