Kenny Roberts Jr. to make 100th GP start.

Telefonica MoviStar Suzuki Team rider Kenny Roberts Jr. is scheduled to make his 100th Grand Prix start at the Sachsenring this Sunday, having made his GP debut as a wild-card rider at the 1993 USA Grand Prix at Laguna Seca riding in the 250 class.

Roberts signed with the Marlboro Team Rainey to do a full season of GP racing in 1994 riding Yamaha machinery but unfortunately he missed the first 10 races of the year after suffering a broken arm in a pre-season crash. The American continued riding in the 250 class for Rainey during the 1995 season, finishing the year in 8th place in the final Championship standings.

For 1996 Roberts moved up to the 500 class riding a Yamaha in a Team run by Kenny Roberts Snr. The following two years were spent racing and developing the new Modenas three-cylinder machine before joining the Suzuki squad at the beginning of 1999.

In the 40 starts he has had on the Suzuki he has won eight races, had nine pole positions and seventeen podium finishes.

Roberts will join 15 other current riders who have reached the milestone of 100 Grand Prix starts, as shown in the table below. After Kenny Roberts the next rider scheduled to pass the 100 starts should be Garry McCoy who has been stuck at 98 starts since suffering injury during practice for the French Grand Prix earlier in the year.

Kenny has qualified on pole and finished on the podium for the past two years in Germany - including a win in 1999. However, 2001 has been a difficult season for Roberts so far and the 2000 World Champion, who will have his 28th birthday on the Wednesday following the Grand Prix, has not had a top five finish since his win at the Motegi Circuit at the back end of last year.

MotoGP starts per rider:

1. Alex Barros 186
2. Alex Criville 186
3. Loris Capirossi 162
4. Noboru Ueda 143
5. Max Biaggi 141
6. Jurgen vd Goorbergh 140
7. Tetsuya Harada 121
8. Jeremy McWilliams 120
9. Carlos Checa 112
10. Lucio Cecchinello 109
11. Gianluigi Scalvini 106
12. Haruchika Aoki 105
13. Emilio Alzamora 105
14. Jose Luis Cardoso 102
15. Norick Abe 100
16. Kenny Roberts 99
17. Garry McCoy 98