By Dean Adams
A scene from the 1981 San Jose Mile. Back then Kenny Roberts and Mert Lawwill were co-team owners of a Yamaha dirt track team which USGP winner Jimmy Filice (right) rode for and Bud Aksland (left) served as Roberts’ long-suffering crewchief, mechanic and fabricator. The engine came from a hideous Yamaha Virago cruiser. The effort had limited success but was interesting.
Judging by the expression on his bearded face, Roberts is already four races down the road in his head. He’s probably thinking something along the lines of ‘This bike, with a shorter swingarm, would win Lima’.
