2006 Australian Superbike Championship (YMF Loan) - Round Four - Queensland Raceway

Team Roberts Day 2 Report

Team Roberts’ Kenny Roberts Jr. will start his home race from the front row after blazing to the third fastest time on a blazingly hot day at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, site of Sunday’s Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix.

Fresh from setting the fastest overall time in Friday practice, the Turlock, California resident was poised to speed to his first pole position of the year. But a combination of factors conspired to prohibit him from hitting his target.

First and foremost was the heat. Temperatures of 38 degrees Celsius wreaked havoc on the track, the tires, the suspension, and the riders. The second factor was the machine performance on the Michelin qualifying tires. Though Roberts Jr. was comfortable on race tires, he struggled on the soft qualifiers right to the finish line.

Still he was able to jump to the third fastest time-.252 seconds off pole-on the same track where his father achieved legendary status. “King Kenny” Roberts won seven AMA Nationals at Laguna Seca, plus three more 250cc Lightweight races. As a team owner he won five times, making him by far the most successful single individual in the history of the famed circuit in the hills east of idyllic Monterey, California.

Kenny Jr. is aware of his father’s prowess and hopes to continue the family tradition in Sunday’s Red Bull U.S. GP.

Kenny Roberts Jr., 3rd, 1:23.420
I feel a heck of a lot better on race tires, because I know we’re all on the same stuff. It’s hard in the qualifying session to know who’s on what at what time and what fuel levels and stuff. As far as race set-up goes, we’ll be alright. And the most important thing is starting from the front row. On the qualifiers I struggled. I just struggled mentally. I was overriding it. I think we all struggled. I think maybe we didn’t have the right combination for qualifying tires. I said yesterday I’d be happy with the front row; I would have been happier with the front row if I would have been in the groove easier and crossed the line and gone, ‘OK, I made a tiny mistake here and there, not like out of control.’ Colin (Edwards) felt the same. Just the nature of today with the weather and the circuit.

Team owner Kenny Roberts
I thought he’d get pole, but we’ve struggled with qualifiers all year. It’s nothing really new for us. You get a short window to try it. It’s just one of those things that we’ve got to keep working at. Race pace, we’re right there, better than everybody in our opinion. But when you start throwing qualifiers and bending it over to touch the ground and gassing it, we’re still not there yet. We’re still on the front row. But we were on the front row in Barcelona, so now we’re getting greedy. We want to be the first one on the front row. But it’s real important here right now. I think the passing’s going to be really pretty tough.