Kenny Roberts Comes Back Again to Ride at Laguna Seca

Once a year, for the Champion Spark Plug 200 at Laguna Seca Raceway near Monterey, three-time world champion Kenny Roberts comes out of retirement to ride his 500cc Yamaha road racer.

Roberts, who grew up not far from Laguna Seca, in Modesto, and now lives on a ranch in Hickman, Calif., is a folk-hero of sorts in the area. He has won the race seven times, including last year, when he made his first “comeback” and set a qualifying record of 102.72 m.p.h. and a race record of 99.712 m.p.h.

Roberts’ last ride on the world championship circuit was the final one in 1983 at Imola, Italy, where he won but barely missed winning his fourth world title. He announced his retirement at the time, but came back to ride four races last year. He retired again after winning at Laguna Seca.

Two weeks after that race, while riding in the desert between Hesperia and Apple Valley with Sparky Edmonton, his former mechanic, Roberts hit a rut and crashed. The result: severe spleen and stomach injuries, a broken leg and a dislocated shoulder.

“The leg still bothers me a bit,” Roberts said by phone before taking off for a practice ride at Laguna Seca. “I really won’t know until the race if I can go the whole 200 kilometers (125 miles). I hadn’t ridden a road racing bike since last July until last week when Yamaha sent me their latest model. It’s really fast and it handles much better than the one I rode two years ago.

“After Sunday, the only commitment I have is an eight-hour enduro in Japan in two weeks. I’ve never done that before. It’s the biggest race in Japan and they expect 200,000 fans so it should be a lot of fun.”

One reason Roberts is riding at Laguna Seca is that Yamaha wants rider representation and its No. 1 rider, world champion Eddie Lawson, is involved in Europe in defense of his crown. Lawson is trailing fellow American Freddie Spencer, a Honda factory rider.

“It’s not easy to say one way or the other how much more racing I might do,” Roberts said. “My schedule won’t allow for many races. I’ll just go along one race at a time and see how I feel and how Yamaha feels. They’re the one that scrapes up the money to pay me.”

Roberts has built a flat-track oval and a motocross course on his ranch. Earlier this year, he was riding motocross with American Motorcyclist Assn. Grand National champion Ricky Graham when Graham missed a jump and broke his leg, just as Roberts had done last August. In a strange coincidence, Graham’s mechanic is Sparky Edmonton, the same Sparky Edmonton Roberts was riding with when he broke his leg.

Roberts will have his hands full Sunday with three-time world runner-up Randy Mamola, an old friend and former protege, who returned from Europe for the Champion 200. Mamola, who won the Dutch Grand Prix on June 30, will ride a Honda. Mamola has also won twice at Laguna Seca--the only rider other than Roberts to have won on the 1.9-mile, nine-turn circuit since 1977.

SPRINT CARS--Eleven drivers have won in the first 24 Kraco-California Racing Assn. main events this season. Dean Thompson has won six, but Brad Noffsinger leads in points, 1,120-1,118, over Eddie Wirth, closely followed by Mike Sweeney with 1,086. The sprinters will race twice this weekend at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix.

OFF ROAD--Mickey Thompson’s show, featuring mini pickup trucks, single-seat buggies, compact stock cars, ATVs and Odysseys, will move into the Coliseum July 20 for Round 4 in the five-race Off Road Gran Prix series. The 17-race program has played to packed houses at the L.A. County Fairgrounds in Pomona and the National Orange Show stadium in San Bernardino, so Thompson is looking for a record crowd for the Saturday night program in the Coliseum. . . . The Amerathon, Brian Chuchua’s Around the Americas rally, has quietly expired. Only three cars started the race from Anaheim and all finished the 19,400 miles of the North American section, but the South American portion was canceled when Venezuelan authorities denied them entry. The winner was a French team of Yann Cadoret, Frederic Le Chanu and Francoise Jaquot, driving a Mercedes Benz 280G Wagon.

MOTORCYCLES--Steve Lucero of Riverside and Mike Faria of Colton continue to lead speedway riders in the overall standings compiled from weekly shows at five Southland track--Ventura on Tuesdays, San Bernardino on Wednesdays, Ascot Park on Thursdays, Costa Mesa on Fridays and Carlsbad on Sundays. Faria, who has been the high scorer the last two years, credits his recent wins to a shift from an English-built Weslake to a Czechoslovakian Jawa engine. . . . Five California riders, Lance King of Fountain Valley, Rick Miller of Reseda, John Cook of Roseville, Shawn Moran of Huntington Beach and Sam Ermolenko of Cypress will ride Sunday in a world-championship qualifying round at Bradford, England, against riders from England, Australia and New Zealand. Nine will advance to the next round.

STOCK CARS--Marcus Mallett and his fiber glass-bodied Camaro moved up in the Curb Motorsports Pro Stock series standings with a win July 4 at Ascot Park. Mallett, rookie of the year in 1983, will be back again for Sunday night’s main event along with track champion Ray Burns and runner-up Don Wright. . . . Modifieds will return to Saugus Speedway for Saturday night’s multipurpose show that will include mini-stocks, street stocks, Figure 8s and a daredevil racing clown.

MIDGETS--Three-quarter midget drivers from Ventura Raceway and Ascot Park will meet Saturday night at Ascot in the opening night of a North vs. South series. Robby Flock and Harlan Willis lead the Ascot team. Also scheduled Saturday night is a U.S. Auto Club western regional race featuring defending champion Tommy White and two-time national champion Sleepy Tripp.

VINTAGE RACING--The second round of the Vintage Auto Racing Assn. historic car series is set for Saturday and Sunday at Willow Springs Raceway in Rosamond. Eight classes of cars, all from 1965 or earlier, will compete.

DRIVER OF YEAR--For the first time since balloting for driver of the year began in 1967, the Indianapolis 500 winner was not a quarterly winner when votes were tabulated in the Eljer panel. Bill Elliott’s domination of NASCAR overshadowed Danny Sullivan’s dramatic Indy win. Quarterly voting results: Elliott 84, Sullivan 56, Mario Andretti 50, Darrell Waltrip 21, Al Holbert 19, Al Unser Jr. 6.