One more forgotten hero of the MotoGP - Kurtis Roberts. And news about him!

ROUND TWELVE - CZECH REPUBLIC GP

RACE REPORT

KURTIS GETS BACK TO SCORING AT BRNO

Brno, Czech Republic - August 19, 2007: Kurtis Roberts finished 15th in today's Czech Republic GP, adding to his championship points tally after overcoming a poor start as the lights turned green. Hopes of early improvement on his 17th-place grid position evaporated when the engine bogged down on the line, and the England-built Honda-powered hybrid KR212V was last at the end of the first of 22 laps of the 5.403km Brno circuit.
Once the engine settled, the younger son of team principal and triple World Champion Kenny Roberts was able to get down to work, picking up two places on the second lap, then another on lap six, putting himself in the points again. All race long, however, Kurtis was fighting front- and rear-wheel slides, as well as a shortage of acceleration and top speed. At the finish, he was a lonely 15th.

The race was won by World Championship leader Casey Stoner (Ducati), his seventh victory of the year, in warm, sunny conditions in front of a crowd of 141, 632. Title rival Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) could manage no better than seventh.

KURTIS ROBERTS - 15th Position

For some reason the thing bogged down off the line. I'd got a good jump, and it just died. That made life difficult, because instead of being able to pass (Makoto) Tamada and (Ivan) Silva in one lap and be done with them, it took a long time. Their bikes are so much faster right now than ours: I'd set 'em up and set 'em up, then block pass them, and they'd get me back on the drive out of the corner or up the hill. It just frustrates you. It took four or five laps when I should have been with Nakano up ahead. I struggled with tyres after that. I was catching Nakano, and I could tell he was having the same issues I was. Then it started chattering and sliding much worse. We just did all we could do to get 15th. We can only go round the corners so fast. We are still missing out on acceleration and top speed. Hopefully, some engine upgrades will come along soon.

CHUCK AKSLAND - Team Manager

We're all hoping to get some new engine bits eventually, but it sounds like the tyre / chassis combination was the biggest set-back today.

Kurtis said he didn't really have too much grip, losing the front and pushing the thing around quite a bit, and spinning a lot. Hopefully the weather will co-operate and we'll get to test some tyres tomorrow or Tuesday. We need to find out which constructions and compounds work best with our bike. Things have moved on since we have last been able to test some tyres and hopefully we can find a combination that works better then what we have now. We'd also like the opportunity to do some more back to back with the two chassis we have. There are differences between them, and the newer one should be better but we have not yet had a good chance to confirm that this is the case. The motor is what it is, but we should be able to improve our lap times by working on chassis and tyres.



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From teamkr.com

Tuesday Conversation: Kurtis Roberts
July 31, 2007
By Eric Johnson


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Out of sorts with the No Factory Support AMA team he was riding for earlier this spring, in early June, Kurtis was drafted by both his Kenny and brother Kenny Jr. to compete at the Mugello Grand Prix. The former world champions felt Kurtis might breath some new life to the family business, and since showing up in Italy, Kurtis has yet to leave the series. Having scored points at Donington, Assen and the Sachsenring, Kurtis was getting his head wrapped around the bike. Throughout the following conversation—held at the recent Red Bull USGP—Kurtis talked about the bike, the team and his place in the grand scheme of all things MotoGP.

Kurtis Roberts is getting used to life in the MotoGP.
Andrew Northcott photo RRX: First, talk about what you had going coming into the 2007 season. I saw you at the Anaheim Supercross back in January, and things sounded like they were pretty up in the air.
Kurtis Roberts: Well, it’s a long story. The NFS [No Factory Support] team had talked to me a bit and they asked if they could use my name with potential sponsors and stuff. I said, “Well, you can say that I’m interested in the program as long as you get things to where I want.” But out came a press release the next day saying I had signed with them. But I never did. I was kind of pissed off about the whole deal, but I thought that maybe it would work out. But once the program started, it was never anything it was supposed to be. Then some other issues started coming up and that’s when I decided to leave the team right around Sears Point. Well, I had already been talking with my dad about coming over and testing this thing and doing that sort of stuff. So Little Kenny called me and asked, “Do you want to come over here and do the next two races with me?” I was like, “Yeah, sure.”

When was the last time you had competed in a MotoGP?
In 2005 I did one session. I did one race.

After you got the call from your brother, when did you head over to Europe?
They sent me right over for the races in Italy and Barcelona. Italy was more of a test than a race. The weather was intermittent—it would rain one session then be dry one session—so we went through the weekend just trying to get used to the thing. I knew that going in, though. When I talked to my brother before I even went over there, he said, “Just use Italy as a test and then go to a Barcelona, a track you like a little bit better, and then ride the thing how you want. Just be kind of tentative and careful there in Italy.”

How many times had you raced at Mugello before?
I had ridden at Mugello once in 1997 and once in 2004.

Did you like the track?
I felt comfortable on it. I felt fine except we were limited with the amount of mileage we could put on the bike and everything, so I just had to pull in there at the beginning, which was fine because that way we got to concentrate on Barcelona.

How did Barcelona go?
The race at Barcelona was going well. I finished right behind [Carlos] Checa and was ahead of Kenny—at least a couple of seconds—for nineteen laps, but then the tire went off and stuff. I didn’t know I was as far ahead of Kenny as I was. I thought he was right behind me the whole time.

Kurtis makes due with what he has, which is basically one bike, and keeps his hopes up for the future.
Andrew Northcott photo
Up to Barcelona, how had things been going for your brother?
Kenny has kind of been over it the past couple of years now. And I think once he saw we were both going as fast as we could on this bike, then he didn’t feel so bad abut leaving the team. He figured it would be a good situation the way it is now. He knew I wanted to do it and he was at that point where he was over it and his heart wasn’t in it and that’s when you can really get hurt, you know? I’m not glad that I have this job now, I’m glad because I don’t want to see anything happen to him. We’re still struggling a bit with some things, but we’re definitely making some headway now.

How’s your motorcycle?
We just got the new chassis. We had the same one all year, pretty much. It’s quite a bit different. The engine and stuff is the same as it was at the first test and everyone knew how well the Honda engines worked at the first test. And it hasn’t gotten any better. Me and [Shinya] Nakano are still waiting for our updated engine that pretty much everyone else has. In this sport, you can only do so much with what you’re on. Look at Roger [Lee Hayden] and Miguel [Duhamel] and you look at the [AMA] Superbike results and then you look at how things are going here and Miguel is ten places behind Roger. That’s because Roger’s on the Kawasaki that’s been finishing a lot further ahead than the customer Honda guys have. But Honda will get it right—sooner than later, hopefully—and the chassis is coming along. We’re doing everything we can do with the means we have, because we can’t take big chances. Like here: I’ve only been riding one bike all weekend because we only have one chassis. But we’re just putting our head down and trying to get it right.

Even though you guys have some ground to cover with the motorcycle, are you happy to be back racing in MotoGP?
Oh yeah. You can’t be glued to the results, thinking you’re going to win. Sure, we all like to win and we’re all putting the effort in to win, but the problem is that we don’t have what we need to win right now or what we need to put it up on the box like they did at a few rounds last year. If they overlaid all the telemetry with last year, me and Kenny at Italy and Barcelona were carrying more corner speed and more acceleration—I mean, we have better exit time and speed then he had on the V5—but instead of being at the top of the sheets, we’re at the bottom of the sheets. You can’t go ten more miles per hour in one corner all of a sudden, trying to make up for a bike that can’t go from point A to point B fast enough. That’s the biggest problem.

How do you like the 800cc platform?
I don’t. Compared to the 1000, it’s like playing a PlayStation 3. There’s so much stuff now taken away from rider ability. It’s all computer stuff now. You get these guys and they get in the corner and just whack it wide open when you can’t, but they can because of the electronics and stuff. It’s real frustrating because there are a lot of things you shouldn’t be able to do on a motorcycle that people can do now.

So it’s more like Formula 1 now?
Yeah, it’s just like that now. Casey [Stoner] passed me in the rain and the guy was leaned over through this fast chicane, wide open in the rain. I was like, “Dude, that shit doesn’t happen in the rain. Like, you should be dead right now.” You see that stuff and it’s frustrating because you’re not racing against another rider, you’re racing against their electronics and their engine package and their tire package. We all have to adjust to that now.

As far as results go, what would make you happy right now?
If we could get a top ten right now, that would be really awesome. That would be a really good result for us right now for what we have.

Though Kenny Sr. (on right) hasn't announced his plans for next year, Kurtis is intent on returning to the MotoGP.
Andrew Northcott photo So this whole thing is a huge work in progress at the moment?
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s a huge work in progress—especially when you’re the only guy out there on that chassis! We don’t have the five or six guys out there or the five guys or the three guys or the two guys to try different stuff with, to work to find the best bike or best setup. You’ve got one guy doing it with one bike now. So, it’s even a bit slower then it can be, but it’s still better off than what we were with the old chassis. If we can just keep moving up and we get the new motor and that thing works better and it moves us up a few more spots and that sort of thing, then that’s all we can do.

If you were on the right equipment, do you think you could be right there with your fellow Americans?
Oh yeah, no problem. I mean, I like Roger, but what’s Roger ever done? He’s won a couple of Daytona races, but that’s easy. He’s never won a championship yet. I’ve won three of them. You’ve got Nicky [Hayden]. Other than the Superbike championship, I’ve won the same [AMA] championships he has and he didn’t have to race against the Suzuki 1000s the following year like I did. And you look at Casey and [Dani] Pedrosa. I know who is better there. And the guy who is better is not the guy who is winning all the time, in my opinion. I mean, Casey is a great rider and he’s doing really, really good this year. But then you look at Valentino. He’s struggling, and you know he didn’t forget how to ride. All the Michelin guys are struggling a lot. I don’t think there’s a doubt in anyone on our team’s mind that we would be there if we had what we needed.

What’s in your future? Will you be back here with your dad and brother in 2008? Or what would happen if somebody came along and said, “Kurtis, we’d like you to ride our bike in MotoGP next year”?
Well, you have to look at that and take it as it comes. This team is not set on exactly what they’re doing next year. If Honda comes out with what they need to come out with for us to be competitive, I don’t have a question in my mind that this team can’t build a chassis as good as Honda or better. And if Honda can build a four-stroke motor that Honda can build, there won’t be a better motor in the paddock. So you can see this place could be the perfect place to win some races at next year and possibly be racing for the championship. It’s a difficult task to even think of, but at the same time, it’s not something that’s impossible.

I prefer Kenny Jnr!!

Thanks for the article, tassedievil! Very nice of you
And, btw, me too, I prefer Roberts Jnr more... although Kurtis does all is best to get points... not always successfully, but still, it is worth respect.