Superbike World Championship presenter Matt Roberts joins hosts David Prutton and Iwan Thomas on motorcycling podcast Full Chat to discuss his career and working alongside some of the biggest names in racing.
Roberts, who is best known for fronting World and British Superbike championships, is one of sport’s most recognisable television faces having presented the Winter Olympics, NFL and the Isle of Man TT.
The 47-year-old sat down with our boys to discuss how he fell into presenting and being alongside star names such as Bikesure brand ambassador Carl Fogarty.
Matt Roberts on becoming a motorcycle racing presenter
During the episode, Roberts detailed how he became a television presenter having got a degree in Spanish at university.
“Some of the people I work with have become heroes, I suppose, over the years,” Roberts began.
“Not because of what they’ve done on track, this sounds corny, but because they’re proper legends Shakey (Shane) Byrne, James Haydon, James Whitham, James Tosland – you know, like proper top, top guys.
“I actually as a kid was never really into motorbike racing. I was into football, I lived and breathed football all the time. It was all I was ever interested in.
“I did a degree in Spanish and I wanted to get into sports journalism. A job came up in MotoGP with Dorna Sports, who owned the rights to the championship, and for me it was a foot into sports journalism.
“So it could’ve been bikes, it could’ve been anything. Maybe not cricket, but anything else. The job was based in Barcelona, so the fact I had a Spanish degree really helped me and gave me a leg up into that world.
“With bike racing, once it gets under your skin and once you start to understand the characters, the psychology of it, even the engineering and machinery, everything that goes into winning and the stories that get told during a race, it’s captivating.
“Every race is its own story. I loved it and I wanted to tell that story. When I started in MotoGP in the early 2000s, obviously Superbikes was huge in this country, but Valentino Rossi was just starting to breakthrough as the big new star of the sport and the focus started to turn from Superbikes and Carl Fogarty and all of those over to MotoGP, and it was perfect timing for me.
“I connected with Casey Stoner and Lorenzo Valentino, to be close to those guys at the peak of their career was special.”
Plenty more episodes of Full Chat to enjoy
Series three’s engine is well and truly warm, but we’ve also got a host of episodes for you to listen to if you’ve missed the previous two series of our motorcycling podcast.
You can listen to Full Chat on Spotify, Apple, YouTube or various other platforms if you want to see what all the fuss is about.