Kurtis Roberts Coming Home to AMA Superbike This Weekend at Infineon Raceway

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Kurtis Roberts on the #80 American Honda RC51 whips it out of turn 8 at Road America while practicing for the AMA Superbike round in June of 2000. Kurtis, the youngest son of King Kenny Roberts and the younger brother of 2000 World 500cc Champion Kenny, Jr., will be returning to U.S. soil to race this upcoming weekend at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, CA. This will be his first appearance racing in the U.S. since last seen at Barber in the AMA Superbike series in April of '07 when racing for the ill-fated No Factory Support Racing.
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The Erion Racing Honda RC51 of #80 Kurtis Roberts gets some attention in the paddock area at Road America in June of 2000. Kurtis rode the RC's for both American Honda and Erion Racing in 2000-2003, and finally broke his premier-class cherry at VIR in September of '03 as well as placing 3rd in the championship that year behind Mat Mladin and Aaron Yates. Roberts won the '99 and '00 AMA Formula Xtreme Championship as well as the '00 AMA 600 Supersport Championship while riding for the juggernaut Honda-satellite team of Erion Racing. In those two years he won 12 races in both classes, including a win at Daytona.
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Miguel Duhamel on the #17 American Honda RC51 leads Erion Racing's Kurtis Roberts on the #80 Honda RC51 and Jamie Hacking on the Team Yoshimura GSX-R750 while battling for third place in the race 2 running of the AMA Superbike series weekend at Mid Ohio in July of 2001. Duhamel and Roberts fought tooth and nail for the majority of the race for the final podium spot that weekend with the old master out-dueling the younger pro that day.
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Kurtis Roberts on the #80 Erion Racing Honda RC51 appears to have lost his balance on this shot as he chases the old master, Miguel Duhamel, on the American Honda #17 RC51. Their battle during race 2 of the AMA Superbike weekend at Mid Ohio in '01 was a great match-up of track, rider ability, and the massive grunt that the bullet-proof RC51 put to the ground.
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Unless you've been living in a cave the last four or so decades, then chances are you have heard the name Roberts at least once or twice while following motorcycle racing of some sort or another. And if that's the case, one of 'those' Roberts just happens to be The King's youngest son, Kurtis, who is coming back to race in the AMA Superbike series this weekend at Infineon Raceway on an Ace Racing Yamaha R1.
This is super news for not only fans of the Roberts lineage, but for fans of Kurtis himself, who while racing in the States garnered the AMA Formula Xtreme Championships in '99 and '00, as well as an AMA 600 Supersport Championship in 2000 while riding for the Erion Honda Racing team. Kurtis last appearance in the U.S. racing scene was, to the best of my knowledge and memory, an appearance at Barber Motorsports Park in April of 2007 riding for the ill-fated NFS (No Factory Support) Honda Racing team that he tried to help establish with former 3-Time AMA Superbike Champion Doug Chandler. Unfortunately both showed up at Barber with less-than-adequate Honda CBR1000RR's at their disposal, but both bikes were more then 4 seconds/lap off of the top times for the weekend and quickly fell by the wayside once the racing action kicked in. I never really heard the official reason for the team's demise, but I could easily surmise it was the lack of results (and confidence in the machinery) that led to the effort's fall-out.
It's going to be great to see Kurtis 'The Red One' back on the track. Always one of my favorites over the years, Kurtis put on a great show in all classes, but once graduating to the premier superbike class, took a few years to come into his own, and also being over shadowed-as everyone was in those years for the most part-by multi-time champ Mat Mladin. Roberts finally got his first AMA Superbike win at VIR in the fall of '03, and managed a 3rd place result in the final year's standings as well. His battle with Mat Mladin at Mid Ohio in both races in '03 were classic examples of learning and learning again. Crashing out of one race, to finish second to the master in the other. And superb on-the-edge riding every lap to boot!
Congrats and welcome back to Kurtis and we look forward to seeing more of you back here on U.S. soil racing again. It's gonna be a good time and we wish you and Ace Racing the VERY best of luck. Go get 'em and have some fun, man!

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You can read the official press release here on Kurtis' return to the track from the Ace Racing Yamaha team as supplied to the always bitchin' Larry Lawrence over at TheRiderFiles.com:

http://www.theriderfiles.com/?p=4347

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