P104
CN
III TRACKSIDE
BY MICHAEL SCOTT
I
f it was 20 years ago today
that Sergeant Pepper taught
the band to play, then they
would have been able to pro-
vide the musical backdrop to a
remarkable racing era that is still
continuing, long after their last
Beatle-blown fanfare died away.
It was the realization that
Valentino Rossi is about to
embark on his 20th season of
Grand Prix racing that prompted
the thought. And that he has
been winning races every year
from his first to the most recent.
Except during his two years with
a deadbeat Ducati. A blemish
he was able to eradicate with his
subsequent rebirth with Yamaha,
with better results each season
up to his all-but successful title
challenge last year.
This gives him easily the lon-
gest career of (almost) continu-
ous race wins. Making him, at
least in one sense, clearly the
Greatest Of All Time. Yet goat
curry is a dish of many parts.
There are at least two other
candidates just by total statis-
tics; and that's not even count-
ing shorter-lived superstars
like Geoff Duke, John Surtees,
ROSSI'S BIG TWO-ZERO
