Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Kurtis Roberts says he is 99 percent sure he will be racing in the MotoGP World Championship next season.

“It’s 99 percent, pretty much. I don’t know with who,” said Roberts Wednesday via cell phone from North Carolina. “There’s a few things we’re working on right now. You know how it is over there. It’s so f**king hard to talk about because they’re in such a changing process. There’s new teams coming, and there’s a few things going on, possibilities, things like that.”

The only way Roberts would stay in the AMA? “If I have another year with a guaranteed two years in Europe after that I might possibly stay, but I’m not really interested at all to be here (AMA),” said Roberts.

Roberts said one of his MotoGP opportunities is with his father’s Proton Team KR.

Roberts has been racing in the AMA with American Honda for the last six years, 1998-2003, and has won two AMA Formula Xtreme (1999 and 2000) and one AMA 600cc Supersport (2000) Championships.

As for recent reports that Eric Bostrom will be riding Kawasaki’s Ninja ZX-RR MotoGP bike in 2004, Bostrom’s manager Norm Viano calls those reports “speculation” but did confirm again that Bostrom is contracted to Kawasaki in 2004.