MotoGP: Kurtis testing for Team Roberts today.

[R1 Biker]

Team Roberts remains on target to return to the MotoGP World Championship for the 2005 Valencia season-finale on November 6, and are currently testing with former rider Kurtis Roberts - the younger son of team principal Kenny - at Almeria.

Since the controversial withdraw of the team's KTM engines after the German Grand Prix in late July - the fallout from which also resulted in the loss of rider Shane Byrne - Team Roberts has only appeared at one MotoGP, when they ran Jeremy McWilliams on last year's KR V5 at the Czech Republic Grand Prix on August 28.

Despite the last-minute nature of the team's Brno package, McWilliams was a head turning 16th fastest (out of 22 riders) in morning warm-up, before being forced to retire from the race after 15-minutes.

With the next five GPs being costly 'flyaway' events, Team Roberts have been forced to watch from the sidelines while stocking up on parts and preparing for the future - but always made clear that they would be back when MotoGP returned to Europe for the season-finale.

McWilliams, who missed much of the BSB season with Stobart Honda due to injury, may again ride for his former team at the Spanish event - but Kurtis Roberts, who raced for Team Roberts during 2004, is arguably now looking more likely after being given two days of testing.

"We are testing with Kurtis in Almeria on Wednesday and Thursday. After that we will decide on who will race at Valencia," team manager Chuck Aksland told Crash.net.

Kurtis signed for his father's team after finishing third in the 2003 AMA Superbike championship with Honda, but the 2004 MotoGP season proved a tough one for the young American - who only made eight starts, due to injury, reached the finish on just two occasions and claimed a best result of 15th.

Roberts returned to Honda and the AMA Superbike series for 2005 but, in a season dominated by Suzukis, finished just 16th in the championship with a best result of fifth. Could Kurtis be planning to use Valencia to launch a full time MotoGP return in 2006?

However, it is the other Roberts brother who has been the subject of most speculation, with rumours that Kenny Jr - the 2000 world champion, who will leave Suzuki at the end of this year - could be tempted to join his father's team, should they secure Honda RCV engines to power their highly rated Proton KR chassis.

"As for next year, we are still putting everything together and no decisions have been made regarding riders," said Aksland of the rumour. "There does seem to be a lot of interest in a possible Team Roberts/Honda collaboration but we are still working on making it a reality."

At present, wild-card team Moriwaki Racing is the only outfit to use a Honda engine to power its own chassis. Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki and Ducati currently do not lease engines to other teams.