The rider making a breakthrough to awaken MotoGP’s “sleeping giant”

MotoGP has a storied history in the United States, beginning with the country’s very first premier class race winner Pat Hennen in 1975 before the likes of Kenny Roberts Sr, Freddie Spencer, Eddie Lawson, Wayne Rainey and Kevin Schwantz celebrated title success for America across the 1980s and 1990s.

In 2000, Kenny Roberts Jr took the 500cc crown, before the late Nicky Hayden beat Valentino Rossi to the 2006 MotoGP title.

That remains the last highpoint for US representation in MotoGP. Hayden wouldn’t win a race again after 2006, while the final premier class victory for an American rider remains Ben Spies’ 2011 Dutch TT success.

The last American to race full-time in MotoGP was Hayden in his final year in 2015, while Garrett Gerloff was the last US-born racer to start a premier class event when he was an injury replacement at Petronas SRT in 2021 at the Dutch TT.

The page, however, does appear to be turning. At the end of the year, following the collapse of RNF Racing, MotoGP announced NASCAR squad Trackhouse Racing would be joining the grid for 2024.

Decked out in a stars and stripes statement livery, Trackhouse has lofty ambitions of being so much more than a simple customer Aprilia team. A few months after Trackhouse was confirmed as an entrant for 2024, news came of US media giant Liberty Media’s move to buy MotoGP for a deal worth €4.2 billion.

With expanding MotoGP’s reach in America already outlined as a key battleplan for Liberty – who hopes to close the deal at the end of the year – one rider in Moto2 is perfectly placed as a potential poster boy for the USA.

Joe Roberts has had “my journey” in grand prix racing since stepping into the Moto2 category full-time in 2018. On an uncompetitive NTS chassis, he scored just five points that year, while an equally underwhelming KTM frame with the American Racing Team saw him manage one less point in 2019.

A switch to a Kalex frame for 2020 yielded better form, with Roberts kicking off the season in Qatar with a fourth having qualified on pole before scoring a breakthrough podium in the Czech Republic later that year.

Picked up by Italtrans for 2021, who won the Moto2 title with Enea Bastianini the year before, saw him score a first grand prix win in Portugal the following season. But only one more podium followed before he elected to return to American Racing –…