Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

By Michael Scott Photos by Gold & Goose her e a rc all ty pes, sha pes and sizes of people in th e mul tin a tion al Grand Prix commu nity . They ran ge from sin ist er-look ing Mafia types in des ign er shad es an d sharp-cut sponsor jackets to crazed little Ja panese kid s wit h s ta r tli ng o rangedyed hai r; from brawny Aussies wit h ou tback eyes to somber yet swaggering Spaniards. And sauntering among them all , one stands out - a lanky, androgynous figure, sk in ny and stooped. iwlth pipe-cleaner arms and leg s which arc way too long fo r hi s bod y, a curious Alice-band blunt-cut hairdo, and invariably wear ing a ho ge a nd infectio os ..... rJJ ;:l s m ile. He ab o stands out on a motor cycl e. Somehow he squeezes all this body on to 0.0 a tiny 125, bits poking out all over the ;:l <:( 40 pl ace. It' s all so inco ng ruous that you s uspect he is laug hing insi de his sunan d -moon cras h-helmet. An d the n this clownish figu re starts racing and suddenly the joke is over. All knees and elbows, he scy thes his way throu gh the 125cc es tablishment, s ingle-han ded ly brea ki ng u p 10-bike battles for the lea d so they tu rn int o fragm ent ed pursuit as the blue-and -yellow Ap ril ia cu ts away for yet an o the r chec kered flag. For this is Valentino Rossi - an as tonishing yo ung ma n, a~d an extraordinary > racer. The name of Rossi is not new to GP racing. In the late 70s, as Kenny Roberts won his trio of titles, Graziano Rossi was having his run - a "sudden rise" in the 250cc class gave him three sparkling wi ns in a row an his Morbidel1i; the next yea r, he was fifth wi th two rostrums on a 500. His caree r ended abruptly, but he was rem embered not only for his highl y ad ven turo us ridi ng s tyl e, but also fo r the then still remarkable fact that he had hair flowin g way below his sho ulders just like a girlie. "Like father , like son," you must remark . Valentino is Graz iano's proge-- ny, and cle arly a -re al chi p off the old block in man y ways, includ ing the girly hairstyle. Only more so, if his res ults in his first year on a works 125 mean any thing. Val en tino fir s t brought hi s m erry wa ys intn the GP padd ocks last yea r. He made a big imp ress ion, but fell off more o fte n th a n he wo n, endi ng u p n inth ov.all. But he was already a star, handpicked b y th at finis hing school fo r yo u ng Ita lia n ri de rs with super s ta r potenti al-the Aprilia factory team. That first G P yea r was th e m o st enjoy able in rac ing fo r the tee nager, w ho had rocketed to sta rdom in an asto nishingly short space of tim e. The young Ross i wa s born in Urbino, and grew u p in the ad jacen t city of Cattolica, both of which are near Misano, the face track on the Adriatic holid ay coas t. His parents se parated, and he was raised by his mo ther, thou gh his fath er was close at hand . Unlike those precocious 6- a nd 7ye ar-o ld Americans and Aus tralian s, Valentino star ted racing at the age of 11, a fte r he had , by hi s own a d m iss io n, pest ered his fa the r without mercy to buy h im a minibike so that he could take part in tha t liveliest and least formal of all road racing di sciplines, Italian Minimoto racin g, o n the many go- kart tracks that serve the long strip of coas tal res orts. He was good, it goes withou t sayi ng. Th ough if he's too big for a 125, how he ever fit on board one of the shoe box rac- ers beggars the ima gination. He started in 1990, and by 1993 had moved to the crucible of the Ita lian 125cc Spo rt Prod uction Championshi p, w hic h he wo n i n 199 4 . In '95 he w on th e National Cham pionship on a r acin g 12 5, and came in third in the European Champion shi p. And in 1996 he came to the GPs . Speaking at the German G P, shortly befor e tak ing his seventh win o f this season, he put an unus ual slant o n the way he sta rted . "Minimotos are like 5005/' he says. "T h ey " r e good training . Th at much a power in such a short wheelbase means you do very long w heelies all the time, and slide in the comers."

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