Video: The Genius That Was Kenny Roberts
He Wasn’t called King Kenny for nothing!
by Harry Fisher, on’King’ Kenny Roberts is a massively important figure in motorcycle racing: two Grand National championships, 32 wins, three 500cc World Championships and 24 wins. No matter what he rode, he beat all-comers.
Kenny Roberts: The King
He might have a knack for rubbing people up the wrong way with his direct manner and no B.S. approach, but there can be no argument that Kenny Roberts is one o the most important figures in motorcycle racing, either in America or on the world stage.
The statistics speak for themselves. In a 13-year professional racing career, Roberts won two Grand National Championships and three 500 cc world championships including 32 Grand Nationals and 24 Grand Prix road races. He was a three-time winner of both the Daytona 200 and the Imola 200, and was a six-time winner of the Laguna Seca 200. He was the second AMA rider after Dick Mann to accomplish the Grand Slam of winning all five events of the Grand National Championship.
He not only went to Europe to go road racing in the Grand Prix world championship, he brought a new style of riding and showed them all how it was done, winning the championship in his first year and then proving it was no fluke by winning it again the next two years running.
Then he went into team management and won three 500cc world championships with Wayne Rainey riding the Marlboro Yamaha. Then he formed his own KR team but didn’t find the same levels of success. It didn’t matter: Kenny Roberts was already a legend and the family name returned to the top step of the 500cc world championship in 2000 when his son, Kenny Jr. took the title.
This video captures the genius that was Kenny Roberts.
