Holy fucking bucket list

Jared Leto?


(Hey, I had to google it!)

 

great podcast. I love all the info he had on MM and Suzuki in moto 3.

 

Great interview.

You guys definitely need to get him back on..........seemed like he really started to open up a bit for the last 1/3 of the time you had. I would imagine he probably gets tired of TZ250 stuff but when you guys got down off-the-beaten-path I think he started having fun.

 

Ya know, I just remembered a very similar experience with Kevin Schwantz at the 1999 Ferracci Christmas party. I had heard that he was going to be there, so I just showed up with a tape recorder and ambushed him, hoping to get 10 minutes for freelance piece. He did not know me. Well, I'm assuming he did not remember the time, about a year earlier, when he signed the Kawasaki shirt I was wearing.
Anyway, he generously agreed to go sit down in the conference room for what I assumed was going to be maybe 10 minutes and we were there for a half-hour. Once they realize that you know your shit, they seem to actually enjoy being interviewed.

 

This. The more details you know they more they can expand upon.

What a great interview, Robby. Oddly enough, I didnt get the vibe that he was difficult at all. But I know Im pretty difficult to deal with so there’s that

 

He probably originally thought that you were related to Yvonne DuHamel. Because he's French, and Kawasaki, etc.

 

A lot of the pro racers ive known are really good with names and faces. This is coming from 4 wheel side mostly. Ive run into some I havent seen in 10 yrs at the sprint car track and they are like "hey Dave great to see you!".

 

I was fortunate enough to get to talk with him at length at a Daytona event a while back. I was of course awed at getting the opportunity, but he was funny and engaging, not at all a jerk at a personal level.

I know he doesn't like "the media" and will usually behave accordingly. He is also fond of skewering sacred cows, and will generally say the things that you "just don't say".

People do not realize that he (and others like Sheen and Ago) created the era of the "respected, professional rider". In his day, riders were treated by the organizers and media like something they scraped off of the bottom of their shoe. And American riders were somewhere way below that lofty level in Europe. They were looked down upon by the other riders as well. He wasn't having any of it and behaved accordingly.

He did more for the sport of Grand Prix road racing than nearly any other single individual.

 

That was terrific!

 

Yvon's daughter?

 

I'm trying to remember if he & Schwantz were racing contemporaries. Wasn't Yvon out way before Kevin came in?

 

Or a fellow from Bolano Italy. Or that other fellow from Recanati Italy. These guys also beat that young man from Shreveport.

 

Niece. It was probably the accent that threw him off.

 

Oh dear! There really is just no comparison here they're not on the same level now are they?
Roberts:
First American to win it all in Europe.
3 time successive world champion

3 time winner of the Daytona 200
Three-time winner of imola
6 time winner of Laguna seca
A three-time grand national champion
Man won a championship with a broken back!
Without Roberts I'm not sure if you would have had GP racing in the late 80s into the mid-90s we quite likely would have never seen
World champions such as Eddie Lawson John Kosinski, Wayne Rainey....and certainly we wouldn't have had the pleasure to watch Kenny Roberts Jr be the last American World championship in 500cc 2 strokes in 2000, your many other champions of various disciplines who gained confidence talent and discipline from him.
Without Roberts... I seriously think racing would have diedi America in the late eighties in the mid-90s and would look like it does now on the world stage....
He may be small in stature and overcompensate with a brash personality, but Fuck if he don't put his money where his mouth was!!
In the last 50 years he stands with Giacomo ,Rossi and just a very few others.
Not taking anything away from Spencer he did what he had to do but remember he only beat Roberts by 2 points...!
Alongside the usual massive funding and development by Honda!

 

Steve Baker was the first American International Motorcycle Champion.
Roberts got lucky when Pat Hennen crashed at the TT, or Pat might very well have won the 500GP championship in '78. Alas, we were robbed of that competition.

Two time

Freddie still beat him. And Kenny never won another riders championship after it.
2 years later Freddie became the only man to win the 3 major race classes in a week of Daytona, the 200, the F1 and the 250 race.
Then he went on to be the only man to win the 250 and 500 GP class championships in the same year.
His Freddie Spencer Riding School was the fertile ground that the Yamaha Champions Riding School rose from. This alone has educated, and empowered more quality riders, and racers, of late than just about anything.

He also gave is the immortal "key" during his time as a broadcaster

 

Dood, There's only 1 King.....


Freddie was a great champion but there's simply no comparison .

Roberts is and always will be the 1st American to hold the WORLD GP championship 500cc world title plus defended it 2x.

He holds the advantage in stats per volume of races has 60 starts/24 wins/44 podiums and 22 poles.
Vs.
Spencer w 72 starts/27wins/39 podiums/33 poles
His appearance and sucssess at the Transanatlatic matches where absolutely phenomenal.
He's also one of what only 4 riders ? to win the "Grand Slam"

The Spencer riding school just doesn't measure up to the infamous Wild West...." Ranch".

Is what it is......
Again no disrespect to Spencer.... But Roberts is considered the greatest American motorcycle roadracer ever... And the way it's going probably the greatest American road racer that ever will be .... Because of his long list of achievements and contributions to the sport.

I get it w Freddie....

My "personal "favoritea whom I consider the greatest GP American road racer is 4x World GP champion...Eddie Lawson , then I like Flying Fred Merkel whom beat the best of the best in America then went to Europe and won the 1st WSBK superbike championship....
It's all good we all got our Idols or Heros

 

There is no doubt in my mind that the Freddie Spencer school which became YCRS has helped more riders get faster versus Robert’s dirt bike track at his ranch.

 

I don't disagree, however he is the one who broke the myth about Americans not being good at roadracing....but then there is that Rayborn bloke...