The TV monitors in the Team Roberts pit count down the time remaining in final qualifying...4:00, 3:59, 3:58...and all eyes are on them as the crew waits for Kenny Roberts Jr. to say the word.
Jr.'s KR211V stands at the ready, a Michelin qualifying slick hugging its magnesium rear wheel and tire warmers keeping both skins pliable. Nearby, Roberts' father-three-time 500cc World Champion Kenny Roberts Sr.-waits calmly for the drama to unfold.
I catch myself thinking, "I can't believe I'm here" as I stand alongside Roberts Sr. in the maw of the team's Laguna Seca garage. Wearing Team Roberts duds and sporting a headset connecting me with the crew, I realize this is a Very Special Moment. A year ago, this Born-in-the-USA team-with an Austrian KTM engine and Brit Shakey Byrne in the saddle-scored just a single point all season. Yet here they were, resurgent with Honda power and 2001 World Champion Roberts Jr. at the controls, fighting for pole position and podium finishes with the Haydens and Rossis of the world. Talk about a turnaround.
Suddenly, with just three minutes left in the session, Jr.'s voice crackles in my headset: "OK, let's go!" Team technicians spring into action, peeling off the warmers as Roberts walks purposely to the bike from his air-conditioned Alpinestars chair, his stars-and-stripes Arai helmet hiding the most intense racer's eyes I've ever seen. He jumps aboard, the V-five is ignited, and he's away, his grid position for the 2006 USGP hanging in the balance.
The team is upbeat, Jr. having posted fast time Friday on the recently resurfaced-albeit very bumpy-circuit. After the opening session, his first words were, "That's the bumpiest track I've ever ridden. It's bad!" And the bumps aren't the worst of it. By Sunday the asphalt literally began to crumble in places.
These final three minutes are tense. MotoGP veteran Warren Willing-who worked with Jr. during his championship year at Suzuki-had the techs bump rear spring preload slightly to compensate for the Michelin qualifier, a common strategy given the added chassis forces the extra-sticky tire generates. But when Jr. comes in after two hard-as-he-can laps (qualifiers only last a couple of laps), his times aren't quite what everyone expected. Still, qualifying third-on the outside of the front row-is a minor victory, and the look in the team members' eyes says they're jazzed. Later, Willing tells me the firmer preload made the rear end a touch harsh, which compromised grip. "We'd have been better leaving it alone," he admits.
On pole is Suzuki's Chris Vermeulen, with Yamaha's Colin Edwards alongside. Championship leader Nicky Hayden is sixth on the second row, with his Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa and Suzuki's John Hopkins alongside. Valentino Rossi-the most dangerous rider on two wheels-lies 10th.
"Well done, guys!" Race Engineer Tom Jojic tells the team as Jr. is congratulated by friends and family. The crew knows they're close, right on pace. As they get back to work, it's obvious these guys are hungry. They've been down and out for the past few years, and the smell of a podium finish-and of respect within the MotoGP community-is fresh in the air.
Calm Before The Storm
It's Friday morning on Laguna's pit apron, and things are quiet. I've just joined the team for the weekend, Roberts Sr. and Team Manager Chuck Aksland having granted my request, and I'm straining to find something to do. Operations Manager Charlie Moody, a veteran of several Formula One teams, introduces me to Stuart McNally, an F1 colleague who's found a temporary home with Team Roberts. McNally promptly introduces me to the tire-warmer rack, capable of keeping 12 wheels wrapped, warm and ready to go.
By 9:30 a.m. the silence is broken by the shriek of unmuffled MotoGP engines being warmed for the first practice session of the weekend. Roberts Sr. arrives at the team's pit from his motor home and is immediately swarmed by fans. Questions fly between autographs. Someone asks about the Honda engine versus last year's KTM V-four-and the team's own V-five. "The big difference this year is the HRC engine," Sr. says. "It runs, perfectly, every time." Another asks how often they're rebuilt. "It takes a week to assemble one," Roberts offers. "Everything is measured, even the transmission gear teeth. That's one reason they're so dependable."
Typically, the team arrives at the racetrack on Thursday and spends the day working on the bikes. At the USGP, which followed the German round in which Roberts Jr. crashed heavily, the crew was extra-busy building a second machine from scratch. Considering the pit constitutes significant physical structures in addition to the air, power, Internet, telephone, water, closed-circuit TV and other necessary accoutrements, the fact that the team gets its work space up and running in just a half-day is amazing.
I watch the technicians go through their routines, checking, draining, filling, cleaning, adjusting. "We're trying some new stuff this week," Moody tells me. "A shorter fuel tank, to get Jr. more forward on the bike, and some other bits. There's not much time for proper testing; we end up doing a lot of it at the races."
I see what he means when the first one-hour practice session rolls around. It's race-day serious, with everyone-me included-wearing headsets so everyone's on the same page. Roberts Jr. is in and out several times, swapping bikes each time, before the team-and Jr.-gradually begins to concentrate on one machine. The team's movements are perfectly synchronized as they remove and reinstall wheels, body panels and fuel tanks, adjust suspension components, download engine and chassis data, etc. It's obvious they've done these tasks hundreds of times together. Radio chatter during the session is sparse; it's mostly Jojic relaying lap times to Moody so he can put them on Jr.'s pit board.
In the garage watching a monitor, I see Jr. nearly lose the front end entering the Corkscrew; the track looks bumpy even on TV. Jr.'s times are good. Hayden, pitted next to us, records a 1:26.3. Thirty seconds later I hear Jojic say, "Twenty-six zero, Charlie. That's P1," meaning Jr. is now fastest. I can almost see a ripple of energy run through the team.
Later, there's discussion about what tire to put on the back-up bike. The Michelin tech confers with Jojic. "Stu," Jojic says, "let's get the such-and-such rear, OK?" McNally heads for the tire rack in the back of the garage and gestures for me to follow. He grabs the wrapped tire, shows me how to replace the cables and we head back to the bikes. A minute later Roberts Jr. pitches the number-two bike into Turn Two, the tire and wheel we'd just grabbed providing traction.
At session's end I hear this: "Twenty-four flat, Charlie. That's P1." There's cheering from the crowd that's gathered in the garage, and when Jr. gets off the bike at the end of the session he's nearly mobbed.
Between sessions there's talk of gearing, tires and the shorter tank, which seems to help with front-end feel according to the data-acquisition system's cornering-speed traces.
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