timent that echoed long-ago multi
champion Geoff Duke. The great
innovator and stylist of the 1950s
had an outing or two in the factory
Aston Martin sports car team but
found the toffee-nosed snobbery
of the incumbents outweighed any
pleasure he felt in being able to
translate his racing gifts and intel-
ligence to four wheels.
Rossi's previous car outings
have been mainly on the dark
and dirty side: a couple of long-
ago top-15s in World Champion-
ship rallies in Wales and New
Zealand, plus serial success at
the year-end "for fun" Rally of
Monza series. Which is "for fun"
only in name, since top drivers
from several World Champion-
ship series vie for glory, and big
reputations are on the line. Val-
entino has won it seven times,
F
our into two won't go.
Works okay the other way
around, often as not, as at
least two of bike racing's previ-
ous GOATS aptly demonstrated.
Now the most recent Billy the
Superkid sets out on a similar
journey.
Matter of fact, Valentino Rossi
threw away the chance of re-
peating the Motorbike/Formula
1 glory of his great predecessor
John Surtees, despite entreaties
from Ferrari after highly promis-
ing test outings back in 2006
and again in 2008. The offer
was there, but Rossi knew he
had more races and titles to win
on two wheels, while the risk of
failure in deep-end car racing
was less attractive.
In any case, he preferred "the
taste" of motorcycle racing. A sen-
P108
CN
III IN THE PADDOCK
BY MICHAEL SCOTT
FOUR
WHEELS
GOOD.
TWO
WHEELS
BETTER
Valentino Rossi
recently testing the
Team WRT Audi R8.
