James Nelson "J. N." Roberts is a semi-retired off road motorcycle racer from Southern California. In the 1960s and 1970s he was a top desert racer on two wheels in the United States.
Roberts won the Barstow to Vegas race four times in a row. He also won the Mint 400 three times and the Baja 500 and the Baja 1000 twice each. He teamed with Malcolm Smith to win the motorcycle division in the 1967 Mexican 1000, later to be known as the Baja 1000.
Roberts also represented the United States at the 1971 and 1972 International Six Days Trial, a form of off-road motorcycle Olympics. After his racing career, he became a stuntman in the American Film industry. Roberts appeared in the 1971 film On Any Sunday in the 2005 film Dust to Glory, and in the 2008 film, Full Circle, The Legend Lives On, playing himself.
He was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1999. In 2009, Roberts was inducted into the Off-road Motorsports Hall of Fame.
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