t seems that just about every motorcycle publication in the United States has given him some form of high honor. He is the 2004 Cycle News “Rider of the Year” and
Cycle World recently called him the best-ever. That’s pretty impressive for a racer that has never raced in this country. Do I even have to say who I am talking about? Valentino Rossi,
of course.
     Most of us in America know Rossi best by what we’ve seen him do on Speed Channel’s television coverage of MotoGP. If you follow Grand Prix racing, you know the story: he came on the scene in 1996, a skinny little Italian kid riding for the Aprilia factory in the 125cc class. Nothing unusual about that. The next year he won the 125cc World Championship and people began to take notice. In 1998 the Aprilia factory bumped him up to the 250cc class and the winning continued. In 1999 he added the 250cc World Championship trophy to his collection.
In 2000 Honda came calling. They saw the potential of the rider now known as “The Doctor” and signed him to its Repsol Honda team. Valentino was small in stature, but big in heart and winning fans everywhere he went. He took a back seat that year in the 500cc class to America’s Kenny Roberts, Jr., but in 2001 he won the 500cc World Championship to go along with his 125cc and 250cc accomplishments.
     When the FIM switched the legendary 500cc class to the new MotoGP format in 2002, it was Rossi on the five-cylinder Honda RC211V adding that title to his previous three. As he pummeled his Grand Prix competitors through 2003, it seemed at times that Rossi was not really riding at 100%. Some charged that he was sandbagging so as not to take the excitement out of the sport. With Honda’s money and technology and Rossi doing his job, it seemed that wins and championships could go on for years.
     Then, at the end of the 2003 season Valentino stunned everyone when he announced that he was leaving Honda to ride for Yamaha. The new Yamaha M-1 MotoGP race bike showed potential, but its top rider Carlos Checa was only ranked 7th in the 2003 points. Leave Honda for a bike that had never won a race? What was Rossi thinking?
     Then it happened. Welkom, South Africa, the opening race of the 2004 Grand Prix season. Years from now that race will be remembered as one of the most dramatic motorcycle races ever run. Going into that event there really were two questions: Which Honda rider would emerge as the series leader? Rossi’s “replacement,” if you will. And also: Where would Rossi finish on his new ride? Could he possibly put the new blue and yellow Gauloises Yamaha on the podium? Going into that race even his team was saying that 2004 was just a development year and 2005 would be when they would really “go for it.” But someone forgot to tell Valentino that and when the day was done in South Africa it was Rossi on the top step of the podium. The world was shocked. Valentino Rossi showed up to win and we now had a whole new ball game
Honda pilots Sete Gibernau, Max Biaggi, Makoto Tamada and others put up a valiant battle for much of 2004 season. First it was a battle, but as the season progressed they were just trying to stay alive mathematically as Rossi and his ever-improving Yamaha M-1 wore them down. Time finally ran out for the Honda camp in Australia, the second-to-last round and Rossi clinched his fourth straight world title. This one, though, was for Yamaha.
     Now he is coming to America. July 8-10, to be exact, in the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Parts Unlimited recently joined Red Bull and Yamaha Motor Corporation as sponsors of the first motorcycle Grand Prix in the United States since 1994. The Doctor will be in the house. We’ll be there and hope you will be too.