Cycle Torque Jan/Feb 2017

RACE TORQUE
cycletorque.com.au JAN/FEB 2017 I 21
Rossi turns 21
WITH Valentino Rossi entering his 21st year in grand prix
racing, Race Torque looks back on one of MotoGP’s most
stunning and controversial careers.
What’s in a name?
Oct 2015: When Valentino Rossi was rocketing up the grand
prix ranks he adopted several nicknames, the first ‘Rossifumi’
for his admiration of the late Norifumi Abe after the then
18-year-old’s incredible 1994 500 race debut at Suzuka. Rossi’s
interim by-line was ‘Valentinik’, a reference to the Italian
Donald Duck superhero ‘Paperinik’. But his most enduring
nom de plume has been ‘The Doctor’. It was the nickname he
adopted after he began to get the hang of his V-four Honda
500, noting that in order to master the gnarly NSR “one must
be calm, like a surgeon.”
Rider of the Decade
Apr 2011: Every ten years or so a special rider emerges
who either defines or dominates an era, and for the period
from 2000 to 2010 that accolade can only go to one man –
Valentino Rossi. With nine world titles and becoming the
last rider to win the world 500cc championship and the
first to secure the inaugural MotoGP title, it seemed almost
pre-ordained that the mercurial Italian would become the
most famous motorcycle racer since Giacomo Agostini. In
addition to his brilliant record on the track, Rossi’s genius to
generate global publicity for himself
and motorcycle racing will be his lasting
legacy.
Email us your
feedback
feedback@cycletorque.com.au
No-man’s land
Jun 2012: Five-time world 500cc
champion Mick Doohan claims
beleaguered Ducati MotoGP rider Valentino Rossi has lost
confidence in his bike, and says plucky teammate Nicky
Hayden is likely to drive the Ducati GP12’s development into
the future as a consequence.
Doohan made his comments prior to Rossi finishing seventh to
Hayden’s 11th at Estoril. “Valentino will be hating the position
he’s in,” said Doohan, who watched Rossi struggle to finish
ninth at Jerez. “He doesn’t have any confidence in the bike,
and with nine world championships behind him, he’s not
prepared to push the bike and that’s a problem. You can only
develop the bike if you push it, and Valentino isn’t doing it,
which leaves him in no-man’s land.”
Scapegoat?
Feb 2014: In November 2013 Valentino Rossi made the
shock decision to sack his long-time crew chief Jeremy
Burgess. The fact that the news went public before JB had
been officially informed left many fans angry at the Aussie’s
shabby treatment. JB said he was totally “blindsided” by
the decision. After two disastrous years at Ducati, Rossi and
Burgess returned to Yamaha only to not only find that the
development of the M1 had unsurprisingly focused on the
wishes of number one rider Jorge Lorenzo, and that certain
methods of doing things had also changed in their absence.
That made Rossi’s return much more difficult, since Burgess
has always stressed that it was always vital that his rider
become the number one rider in order for the factory to
follow his needs and wants.
Looking good in 2015
Aug 2015: Two-thirds into the MotoGP season and 36-year-old
Valentino Rossi has spent the summer break basking on top
of the championship standings. Considering Rossi made his
grand prix debut aged 16 and 22-year-old Marc Marquez was
at un-backable odds to make it a hat-trick of MotoGP titles
in 2015, the Italian’s staying power is incredible. Not only has
he been fast, Rossi is by far the most consistent of the top
runners.
He blew it
Dec 2015: “Of all Valentino Rossi’s ten world championships,
his 2015 MotoGP title will stand as his crowning achievement.
At an age when some ex-champions tend to the garden on
warm Sunday afternoons, 36-year-old Rossi made the most
of his opportunities to claim the most brilliant championship
of his incredible 20-year grand prix career. He wasn’t the
fastest rider out there, but he was the most consistent and the
smartest, and he won when it counted. The Greatest Of All
Time? Without doubt.”
That should’ve been the opening paragraph of this column.
Instead Valentino Rossi did not win the 2015 World MotoGP
Championship and the only one to blame for that calamity is
Rossi himself. He led the championship by a healthy margin
at Phillip Island where it all started to come undone. He
concluded that forces were arraying against him, so the only
way to rescue the situation was to take the battle off the track
and into the media centre and accuse his rivals of an incredible
conspiracy to deny him his tenth championship.
When Valentino Rossi does eventually retire, it goes without
saying that grand prix will never see the likes of him again.
– Darryl Flack