   alentino Rossi may not have captured MotoGP gold at Laguna Seca this year, but he was the clear winner for a gathering of Parts Unlimited high-achievers who scored an intimate one-on-one session with roadracing’s premier pilot, courtesy of Rossi’s helmet sponsor, AGV. Trackside in the Parts Unlimited Turn 5 hospitality suite, the gathering kicked off with a spirited Q&A session emceed by mic master Rob Buydos. Ever the crowd-pleaser, Rossi was a huge hit with this group as well, and just as he does aboard his fire-belching #46 Yamaha, he took his audience from zero to 200 in a rapid Q&A exchange. The 28-year-old Londoner covered every topic under the sun, from his autobiography and his crash in the previous weekend’s German GP, to his relationship with his father Graziano (“that guy is f***ing crazy”) and the pre-grid “worship” he performs before every race. “For sure I do this every time,” said Rossi, “but I am not praying. It began when I was young and I had to wear ‘bad’ leather (read: ill-fitting), but now with the good leather it’s not a problem.” He went on to explain that even now with custom-tailored “good leather” he repeats the ritual due to the calming influence it provides before the chaos of the race takes over. “It’s the best place to start. When you are calm.” At one point during the session, Rossi invited his AGV teammate Steve Rapp to the stage and presented him with a personal congratulatory letter for winning the 2007 Daytona 200. It was a wonderful augmentation to an already memorable afternoon, and Rapp’s ear-to-ear grin signaled that he was just as caught up in Rossi-rapture as everyone else. Before he left for other commitments, Rossi took the time to meet each guest and sign a few autographs. As a reward for a year of great AGV sales, the top reps and a few top AGV dealers went home with limited edition AGV TiTech Rossi Replica helmets–signed of course by the man himself–a perk engineered by AGV’s U.S. honchos CONTACT _Con-408AC0221FF \c \s \l Paolo Bacchiarello and JH Leale. “The Parts Unlimited reps and dealers are vital partners for AGV, so this is one way to acknowledge their success,” said Bacchiarello. “In our eyes they are winners, so it’s fitting that AGV’s racing champions Valentino Rossi and Steve Rapp would be here to help us to say thanks for a job well done.” |
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