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Kenny Roberts won his first of three championships with it. 1978: 2nd 1979: 0W45: 2nd 1980: 0W48: Introduction of an aluminum frame to the YZR500. 2nd 0W48R: At round 4 of the season, the YZR500 returned to a steel frame, and the engine had the outer cylinders reversed and thus rear-directional exhaust. 1981
Roberts' son, Kenny Roberts Jr., won the 2000 500 cc World Championship, making them the only father and son duo to have won the title. Ironically, Roberts has stated that he considers himself a dirt tracker at heart and only took up road racing because it was necessary to do so if a rider was going to compete for the Grand National ...
Roberts also secured the financial backing of the Goodyear tire company. [2] Sheene opened the season with a win in the Venezuelan Grand Prix but then fell ill to a virus that weakened him for the first part of the year. [1] [3] Roberts won the 250 cc Grand Prix in Venezuela but then suffered a mechanical failure in the 500 cc race.
Roberts first raced in the 250cc class at Willow Springs in 1990, winning 5 races in his debut season in road racing. By 1993, he made his World 500cc debut at the Laguna Seca Raceway event, and was a full-time 250cc racer for 1994 and 1995 with the Marlboro-Yamaha team.
With the success in the early 1980s of Kenny Roberts and the Yamaha YZR500 in Grand Prix motorcycle racing Yamaha realised that a road going replica of their 500 cc racing machine would sell well. Using the similar technology of the smaller RD series of two-stroke motorcycles the RD500LC was launched in 1984.
A season of changing fortunes in the 500cc class saw American, Kenny Roberts capture his second crown in the face of the Suzuki-mounted opposition. [1] In the 50cc class, Eugenio Lazzarini won every race in which he finished to take the championship. [1] Angel Nieto dominated on a Minarelli to take his seventh world championship. [1]
500 cc. Pos. Rider Team Manufacturer Time/Retired Points 1 Kenny Roberts: Yamaha Motor Company: Yamaha: 42'56.720 15: 2 Barry Sheene: Texaco Heron Team Suzuki: Suzuki
Mamola joined the newly formed Kenny Roberts-Yamaha team in 1986. [4] Riding a YZR-500, he won the Belgian Grand Prix and scored six podium results to finish the season in third place behind Eddie Lawson and Wayne Gardner. [1]