Three-time AMA Champion Kurtis Roberts, 26, will race a 2004-spec Team Roberts Proton V5 racebike on Michelin tires at the final round of the 2005 MotoGP World Championship at Valencia, in Spain, according to a creditable source. Team Roberts started the 2005 season with Shane Byrne riding a Proton-sponsored, KTM-powered racebike on Michelins, but KTM pulled its support from the program mid-season, which included Byrne (who was contracted to and paid by KTM), its V4 engines and financial backing. At Brno, the round immediately following KTM’s abandonment of the effort, Team Roberts entered Jeremy McWilliams on a 2004-spec, V5-powered machine but did not race in the recent flyaway rounds in Japan and Malaysia. Team Roberts must continue to field MotoGP entries in order to retain rights to its spot on the MotoGP grid. The source Roadracingworld.com spoke with indicated that Kurtis Roberts’ involvement in the Valencia Grand Prix is mainly to prepare him for a post-Grand Prix test at Valencia with another team. Kurtis Roberts is the son of Team Roberts owner Kenny Leroy Roberts and younger brother of Team Suzuki MotoGP racer Kenny Lee Roberts.