This article was originally featured in the XXX 2013 issue of Roadracing World Magazine. Roberto Vargas was semi-retired. The Peruvian native, who had won at the ASRA level here in the U.S. and had competed in the AMA Pro Road Racing Series, hadn’t raced for nearly two years. “Then I got this call,” he says. Vargas, 36, of Jacksonville, Florida, knew what the call was about–road racing in Peru. His family had a lot of connections to the motorsport community in the South American country, and the promoter of the National Championship Speed Moto Series in Peru knew who Vargas was. The phone call from the series promoter asked a simple question–did Vargas want to race a Yamaha YZF-R6 in Peru? The answer was equally simple: Yes! So began an adventure that ended with the former BMX racer and Supermoto competitor finding fame and glory in South America. Vargas took his YZF-R6, supplied by Yamaha Motor Peru, to wins and the title in the 600 Super Sport class and the applause of the motorsport press in Peru. Born in Lima, Peru, Vargas began competitively racing bicycle motocross there at the age of seven. In 1994, he moved to the United States, and he kept racing bicycles while starting a new hobby–motorcycling. By the time 2000 rolled around, he was riding a 1999 Kawasaki ZX-6R way too fast on the street, he says, and a friend suggested he take it to the track. “I did a track day, and that was it – that’s what started me,” Vargas says. Vargas raced Supermoto until 2005, when a foot injury forced him to stop. After he recovered, he started road racing, and became an endurance specialist, racing in the Moto-ST series and in WERA and CCS competition. One high point of those endurance efforts came at Daytona in 2009, when Vargas won an ASRA Team Challenge race on his ZX-6R, running full race distance solo and ending up more than a full lap ahead of the field. During this period, Vargas was getting calls here and there from people involved in Peru’s motorsport community. Off-road racing was big business in that country, and the road racing contingent was pushing for its own share of the nation’s attention. Attracting a rider from the U.S. was considered a coup–it just took a few attempts to make it happen. “When I was racing over here, I had several calls from someone from the Federation there,” Vargas says. “They knew I was racing in the AMA here and there. They were looking for me to do the Latin American race–they invite all the best racers to do a one-race shootout, that’s what I understood.” But those calls never went anywhere. Vargas says his last race was in 2010, at the WERA GNF. Then this whole Peruvian road racing thing came up. For 2012, the National Championship Speed Moto series took place at a single track. Known as Autodromo La Chutana, it is a 1.5-mile paved circuit. While videos of the place show an unnerving lack of soft barriers and the equally unnerving presence of hard barriers like dirt embankments and steel guardrails, Vargas speaks positively of the place. “It’s the best track in the state. Very, very nice track. It compares well to anything we’ve got here,” Vargas says. “It’s got fewer turns than Jennings, and there’s only a little bit of elevation change, but it reminds me most of Jennings – with a hell of a lot more grip, that’s for sure.” Perhaps his experience with some of the other tracks in Peru made Chutana that much more tolerable in comparison. “We tested at another track, and it was so rough, so bumpy, that I went out for a session and I came back in and said, ‘Look, we’re probably gonna throw a couple of bikes away, so we better get out of here now,’” he said. The series is only four weekends long, with doubleheaders on each weekend. Vargas won his first two races, sealing the deal for him to ride the rest of the series, he says. The intense level of competition in the U.S. had prepared him well for what the Peruvians were ready to throw at him. “Their resources,” Vargas says, when asked about the biggest difference between racing in Peru and the U.S. “I knew it (road racing) was fairly new (in Peru), but I didn’t know they were going to have to re-invent the wheel. Most of the guys there are fairly limited in terms of suspension set-up and electronics. I used everything I’d learned over the years. And I remember the first time I went there were hardly any guys using tire warmers, and almost everyone had stock suspension.” Vargas hopes to put together an AMA Pro Daytona SportBike ride for 2013. But racing in Peru has given him another perspective on the sport. “Lots of racers look to come to the U.S., but you have to look for opportunities in other places as well,” he says. Learn more about Roberto Vargas on his profile on RoadracingWorld.com at https://www.roadracingworld.com/members/vvargas192/. 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