68 amcn.com.au
Thefamilyhasbeenbasedin
Californiaeversince.
The work Carruthers did over
thenextfewyearshelpedchange
racing forever. At first he raced as a
privateer, but his results were so good
that Yamaha US asked him to run its
racing operation, as rider/manager.
Soon Yamaha Japan noticed his
engineering abilities, so he played a
huge part in the development of the
factory’s250,350and750racebikes,
which dominated racing across the
globe for years. But it wasn’t only
bikes he had to develop.
“PartofmydealwithYamahawas
to look after Kenny Roberts, who was
just a young kid, still racing dirt track.
It was pretty obvious that Kenny was
goingtobeprettygood.Icouldbeathimthefirst
year,thenhegotbetterandbetter.”
Carruthers quit racing to concentrate on
engineering and management. Then, in 1978,
Ya ma ha US sent Rober t s to Eu rope.
“Initially Kenny wasn’t all that keen on going,
butintheendhehadnoalternativebecause
Yamaha’s dirt-trackers weren’t good enough. I
talked it over with Jan and we thought we’d do
itforayearortwo.Thegoodthingwasthatwe
wereabletodoittherightway–KennyandIsent
motorhomes to Europe, so it was more comfortable
than it had been in the privateer days.”
Robertstooka250,a500anda750toEurope,
to contest all three championships. “If Kenny had
stuckwith250hecould’vewonthataswell,but
halfway through season he decided to focus on the- And he could’ve won the F750 championship
too, but there were too many conf licting dates.
“Thatyear,KennymoreoflessdidwhateverJan
andIsaid.Thefirstyear,thepeoplefromtheIsle
of Man wanted him to do the TT. They were going
to pay him a lot of money, so we sat him down
and said, ‘This is not a good idea; they’re going
to expect you to go over and win the damn thing
and you’re not going to, because
someone you’ve never heard of will
beat you.’ He took notice of what we
knew was best for him.”
Roberts famously won the
500 title in his rookie year, then
completed a hat-trick in 1979-80.
“The good thing about Kenny
was that he’d bitch a lot about the
bikes, but when I told him, ‘Hey,
Kenny, this is the best we can do,
now it’s up to you,’ he’d give it
100 per cent every time.”
Roberts lost the title in 1981 and
1982, when Yamaha produced a
useless square four and V4. “They
were the bad bike years.”
The 1983 season was one of the
all-time great battles, w ith Roberts
on the 0W70 and Freddie Spencer on Honda’s
NS500. Spencer won the title with a controversial
move at the penultimate corner of the penultimate
race. It enraged Roberts, but Carruthers believes it
was Roberts’ fault.
“It wasn’t so much what Freddie did at that
corner, it was the mistake Kenny made at the
corner going onto the back straight. If he had done
that corner right, Freddie wouldn’t have been
on his tail at the end of the straight and Kenny
would’ve won the championship.”
When Roberts retired at the end of 1983,
Carruthers was put in charge of Yamaha’s latest
American hotshot, Eddie Lawson. They won the
1984, ’86 and ’88 500cc world titles. “Eddie was
a very, very good rider on a good bike, but I don’t
think he was as good as Kenny on a bad bike.”
After Yamaha, Carruthers worked on Honda’s
NSR250 and Cagiva’s 500. Finally, he returned to
the US, where he tuned Sea-Doo watercraft racers
and managed Superbike and motocross teams.
He is one of only four bike racers in the Sport
Australia Hall of Fame, along with Wayne Gardner,
Mick Doohan and Casey Stoner – a suitable tribute
to a hugely significant career.KEL CARRUTHERS
To p. Racing for Team
Yamaha on a 350cc racer
in the 1973 Daytona 200
road races
Middle. Carruthers
shares a joke with fellow
Australian technical guru
Jeremy Burgess at the
2007 US MotoGP
Above. Kel in 2011- 12 years after being
inducted into the AMA
Motorcycle Hall of Fame