Valentino, Covered
Two Wheels magazine devoted more pages to Valentino Rossi than any other GP racer because he was a superstar of the sport. Only Hailwood and Agostini had that same quality, and if you’re looking for the GOAT, it’s got to be a contest between these three, with Marquez a work in progress. As a tribute to mark Rossi’s retirement, here are ten Two Wheels covers from his glory years in the 2000s, each with notes from that issue’s Racing Lines column, in which the magazine’s racing writer Don Cox chronicled the career of a rider we are privileged to have seen doing his brilliant, beautiful thing. Grazie, Valentino.
“It’s well documented that Max (Biaggi) and Valentino are on different planets in the way they think,” says Rossi’s team manager, Jerry Burgess. But it seems more personal than that, like that line from the famous Westerns: “This town ain’t big enough for both of us.” Valentino’s last three starts at the Island have produced two wins and a 500 podium. Added to that, Valentino makes it look enjoyable.
“With the 500, when you turn the throttle a quarter it does not mean a quarter more power, but rather the power increases as though it was a turbo,” Rossi says. “However with the four strokes there is a greater relation and better balance between the accelerator and the power transmitted to the back wheel, and with the four strokes it is very easy to make the back wheel skid. This makes the RC211V a very amusing bike to ride!”
What a year! Valentino Rossi confirmed that he and Honda’s RC211V are the top dogs, recording nine victories en route to his third successive premier class championship, and the RCV won 15 of 16 races. “It was an incredible improvement since 2002,” Rossi said. “Basically the bike is the same, but the engine has improved a lot and the engine brake. The tyres also. And the rider had to learn to ride another way. Last year was the first with the four stroke. The bike always had great potential.”
Jerry Burgess: “Getting the bike to work wasn’t going to be that difficult with a rider of Valentino’s ability and determination. I know the challenge with moving from Honda to Yamaha was that he’d watched the glory days of Mick Doohan sort of rolling from one championship to another without a great deal of change to the motorcycle, and for him to do that he couldn’t maintain his concentration and determination as much as he would have liked.”
As FIM Technical Director Mike Webb said the day Rossi clinched the 2004 crown, “Every time I think Rossi is brilliant, he goes and does something even more brilliant!”
Kevin Schwantz: “Rossi is head and shoulders above the rest right now, and the reason he’s there is because he always seems to be in control.”
Casey Stoner is the fastest man in Moto GP. No rider gets on the gas as hard. He’s relentless, on it out of every corner. There are no half-arsed laps. Against that we have the record of a now 30 year old Rossi, with 58 wins since the new four-stroke era began. Compare this with the others in this year’s field: Stoner 16, Gibernau 8, Capirossi 7, Pedrosa 6, Hayden 3 then Elias, Lorenzo and Vermeulen one each. No wonder Jeremy Burgess says his team shouldn’t waste the talent that is Valentino Rossi.
Brave and breathtaking in Barcelona, inch-perfect through the fastest section of the truncated Assen circuit. In the space of 13 days, Valentino Rossi recorded his 99th and 100th GP victories. Rossi’s 100th win is rare history. Giacomo Agostini with 122 victories is the only other rider who scored a ton”…
After winning his home GP at Misano, Valentino Rossi said: “This victory was more important than normal, because I make a bad mistake in Indianapolis.” He had a donkey painted on his helmet for the meeting and wore donkey ears on the podium. Not every multiple world champion could carry that off.
Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi wants a tenth world championship and to close on Giacomo Agostini’s all time record of 122 GP victories. He’s currently on 103. Rossi starts favourite on the basis of incumbency, but as Valentino’s right-hand man Jeremy Burgess has said, once the first race starts, you’re not defending anything. You have to win it all over again.
It was meant to be the Italian dream team but 2011 was a nightmare first year for Valentino Rossi and Ducati. The best-known rider in the sport has had some paint knocked off his aura. He hasn’t won since Sepang in 2010 but, more than that, he’s lost the aura of lording it over his rivals. “First Dani but especially Stoner and Lorenzo are faster than me, in better shape and riding in a better way. Also, the other problem is the bike,” he said, and predicted it wouldn’t reach the level of the Honda and Yamaha by the end of the season.
Circus Life is Don’s account of the exploits of a bunch of young Australian motorcycle racers who followed the GP circuit as privateers through Europe in the 1950s. It’s beautifully written, forensically researched and accompanied by some amazing photographs. Don discusses Circus Life with Jay Leno on Jay Leno’s Garage here, and you can order a copy of Circus Life here.
