A Ford In Kr's Future?

A Ford in KR's future?

RACE WATCH

Will Ford Motor Company sponsor a Kenny Roberts motorcycle race program in 1986? The answer could be yes, if one small addition to Roberts’ YZR500 at Laguna Seca was any indication.

Stuck on the bike’s fairing, alongside decals from chain, tire, sparkplug and oil companies, was a Ford sticker. In addition, Roberts hastily glued a Ford patch on his leathers. Roberts has done a few stints in Ford’s GTI Mustang, so perhaps his use of the emblems wasn’t too far out of place, but at the post-race press conference KR indicated he was no longer interested in cars.

“I don’t want to pursue automobile racing,” he said. ‘T was going to some selected events like I do now with motorcycle racing, but I don’t want to get into anything where I have to do a whole series of races. I’ll do what I want to do, basically one or two, and that’s it.”

Why the Ford decals, then? Roberts was noncommittal about the future, saying that the reasons he got out of GP racing—namely, the tremendous amount of time spent away from home—were still valid. Still, it seems odd that Roberts, the consummate professional, would nonchalantly slap some Ford stickies on his roadracer for the heck of it.

Time will tell if Ford and Yamaha, two companies that are already collaborating on passenger-car engines, will mount a world-championship motorcycle assault in 1986—with an unretired Kenny Roberts in the saddle. E3

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