The rider beginning MotoGP's long-awaited American revolution

It's Saturday, June 25, and the 2011 Dutch TT at Assen has just finished. Factory Yamaha rider Ben Spies has taken the chequered flag for his maiden MotoGP victory. Little did we know at the time that June 25 would be the last time the Star Spangled Banner would ring out during a MotoGP podium ceremony.

Spies' career took a nosedive after '11, with a crash-strewn year in '12 (as well as a Valentino Rossi looking for an exit from Ducati) losing him his place at Yamaha, while further injuries upon his switch to Pramac Ducati ultimately ended his career.

Since that day at Assen, American success on the world stage has tragically evaporated, with it now six years since a rider from the US was a full-time member of the MotoGP paddock - and even then, Colin Edwards' final campaign lasted just 10 races.

The dearth in American success in grand prix racing is a harder pill to swallow given the history the country has in the sport. When Kenny Roberts emerged from the dirt track scene in the 1970s and set up shop in the grand prix paddock in '78 with Yamaha, the floodgates opened. Three-successive 500cc world titles followed for Roberts, with the likes of Freddie Spencer, Eddie Lawson, Wayne Rainey and Kevin Schwantz adding another 10 to that tally across the 80s and 90s.

Kenny Roberts Jr kept the flame burning in 2000 when he won Suzuki's last premier class world title, while the late Nicky Hayden (below) faced up against the might of Rossi at the height of his powers to win MotoGP's most dramatic championship duel in 2006.

Efforts have been made since to try and return to these glory days, but three-time 500cc world champion Rainey's attempts to use the rebranded MotoAmerica series as a stepping stone for America's brightest and best two-wheel warriors have largely come to nothing. However, his exertions may not have been in vain, as a new hope carrying a legend's name may just be the rider to return America to the fore in MotoGP.

Joe Roberts (who has no actual relation to those aforementioned Roberts') enjoyed title-winning success in the various MotoAmerica classes earlier in the decade following a three-year period in the Red Bull Rookies Cup, where flashes of brilliance ultimately failed to secure him a full-time career in Europe and the world stage.

A return to Europe in '17 with AGR in the CEV Moto2 series led to a debut in the Moto2 World Championship later that season, with his 10th-place debut result at a wet Brno setting paddock abuzz with anticipation. And then it took an all too familiar turn in America's quest for success: form deserted him.

"John's been able to bring mental clarity for me. After two hard years, it's been hard to have this self-belief and know that I could win races." Joe Roberts on John Hopkins

An '18 campaign on the fledgling NTS chassis netted him just five points, while a switch to the KTM chassis last year when the Austrian manufacturer royally screwed up wore him down further and he scored just four points - ranking a lowly 28th. To boot, his American Racing team-mate Iker Lecuona - one of only three riders to achieve a podium on a KTM last year, at Buriram - earned a promotion to MotoGP with Tech3. A change was needed.

A switch to the all-conquering Kalex chassis (which allows Roberts to exploit the front-end of the bike in the way he needs to be quick) and aided by new crew chief Lucio Nicastro, Roberts ended a decade-long wait for an American polesitter in Qatar, and managed a career-best fourth in the race, having factored in the lead battle for its entirety.

But perhaps the most positive change American Racing team owner Eitan Butbul has made is bringing in four-time MotoGP podium finisher - and a "hero" of Roberts' - John Hopkins (below) as rider coach.

"John's been able to bring mental clarity for me," Roberts says. "After two hard years, it's been hard to have this self-belief and know that I could win races.

"That was a hard thing to overcome was the bad results from the years prior, especially last season. I felt that was a step back from even my first year in the World Championship.

"For [Hopkins] to come in and tell me that I'm just as good as those other riders, or even better and there's no reason why I shouldn't be winning races and really make me believe it, I think that was a big, big help for me just to kind of restart, because this year now I have all the tools I need."

Hopkins' advice has also proved useful because Roberts struggled with the same things his Californian mentor battled during his often difficult career.

Hopkins first met Roberts when he backed a rival rider in mini bike racing in America, but their first proper introduction was at last year's Austin race. Roberts asked for advice ahead of his home outing, with Hopkins telling him to "rail around the outside" of the first corner to make up some positions and then settle into a rhythm. Roberts did just this, but was wiped out by Fabio Di Giannantonio's Speed Up.

Despite the disappointing end result, Roberts showed himself to Hopkins to be "a breath of fresh air": a young rider devoid of ego and willing to learn.

"That's what actually surprised me the most was how open he was to taking constructive criticism," Hopkins says. "It was actually quite shocking, it was actually a breath of fresh air because in the racing world it's not too common.

"Especially coming off a year like he had - and I had loads of them, bad years where you just struggled and it was a tough time and you're down mentally. If someone even on the other side of the garage is doing slightly better, it's just crazy: you have every single person in the world trying to give you advice and the first thing that you want to do as a racer is completely close off and basically say 'fuck you all'."

Roberts notes: "I think I'd be an asshole if I had an ego right now! I was coming from two bad years. I'm looking for everything to get to where I want to be. I want to be the best in the championship."

The pair began working together properly towards the end of last year, and it was during their time training on the dirt tracks of America that Hopkins realised "talent wasn't going to be an issue" with Roberts. This allowed him to focus on unlocking Roberts from the mental prison his miserable two previous seasons had thrown him in.

"I think he has the ability to do it if that's what he chose to do." John Hopkins on Joe Roberts moving into MotoGP

The self-belief Hopkins was able to instill into Roberts over the winter was on display for all to see during the Qatar weekend. But more so it is evident in how he now conducts himself.

The pressure exerted on a racer to succeed is huge, but perhaps even more so for an American rider given the country's storied grand prix history now stands as nothing more than ever-distant memory. As the only US rider in the entire paddock, Roberts alone carries the weight of a nation's expectations on his shoulders - not helped by pushes from MotoGP promoter Dorna Sports to try and boost its profile in a region it has fallen out of favour with since the heady days of the series making at least two Stateside trips a year.

"I think that's something I thought about more at the beginning, in my first season and last year," Roberts says of that pressure. Though very much aware of what success for him might do for American motorcycle racing, his new state of mind has allowed him to cast that pressure aside and focus on himself.

"To be honest with you, after the year I had last year I kind of put all of that aside, it's not really important to me," he adds. "It's all about myself now. I think I definitely thought a little bit too much about what everyone thought on the outside, about what my results were like and about why my results weren't there.

"Now that I have the validation from the people that are important, from the people in the team, those are the people that I really want to impress rather than everyone else around me on the outside."

If anything, the flag behind him is now a key asset. Dorna is desperate to have an American representative in MotoGP. Hopkins believes Roberts doesn't even need a stunning campaign to put himself in a prime position with a number of rides up for grabs in the premier class next year. He's even been in touch with his contacts in MotoGP about sitting down with his man - though insists the decision is ultimately down to Roberts.

"It's entirely up to him," Hopkins says. "It's a steep learning curve. It's something you have to take step by step and you have to make realistic expectations, especially if you do make that kind of a jump.

"Ultimately, it's up to him and I've mentioned that to him, but I think he has the ability to do it if that's what he chose to do."

No one knows when racing will resume in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic, and it will have been a long time since Qatar when it does. But talent doesn't desert the gifted, and now Roberts' potential has been unlocked, he will be a hard rider to stop.

Sensibly, Roberts wants to "really prove that I belong" in MotoGP before considering a step up. Qatar, for a number of reasons, proves he is quickly heading on the right path. Should he get there in the next couple of years, the bridge between America and the rest of the world will open for business again.

Taking a punt in the incredibly volatile paddocks of Europe, uprooting your entire life to do so, is a massive gamble that has pretty much blocked young US riders from such a move in recent years - with no really strong examples in grand prix racing or in Superbikes proving that it's a worthwhile endeavour.

But led by an affable 22-year-old Californian, and guided by one the country's fastest former racers, the long-awaited American revolution in MotoGP has now been set in motion.