I was thinking about the career of Yamaha racings Valentino Rossi today. In a sport where most riders only last a few seasons, he has managed to compete since 1996, when he entered the 125cc class as a rookie at the age of 17. He has now been racing grands prix for 18 years! He won his first grand prix in 1996 and his first championship, the 125cc championship, the following year at the age of 18, winning 11 more races along the way.. He moved to the 250cc class as a 19-year-old, winning a total of 5 races on his way to 2nd place in the championship. He then won 9 races the following year, while winning the 250cc championship as a 20 year old. In 2000, as a 21 year old, he made his debut in the premier class - 500cc at that time - and won 2 races on his way to 2nd in the championship. The following year, the last for 500cc two-strokes, he won 11 races and the last ever 500cc world championship, at the age of 22. 2002 saw the advent of the 990cc four-stroke racers, and Valentino claimed 11 more victories on his way to his second premier class championship. He repeated the feat again in 2003 on the Repsol Honda, claiming 9 more victories on his way to the championship. 2004 saw him switch teams from Honda to Yamaha - a move called crazy by many insiders, because the Yamaha had been uncompetitive since the switch to four-stroke engines - and collected another 9 race wins along with another premier class - MotoGP - championship at the age of 25. 2005 saw the now 26 year old Rossi collect another 11 race wins, and another MotoGP championship. At this time, he had collected 79 wins along with 7 world titles in an already long 10 seasons. In 2006, the 27 year old Rossi won an additional 5 races, but finished second in the championship to American Nicky Hayden, who won only twice. The following year, due to safety concerns brought on by the brute speed of the 990cc machines, the premier class bikes where reduced in size to 800cc. Rossi won an additional 4 races, but only finished third in the championship. In 2009, at the age of 29, and without having won a championship for two seasons, Rossi became only the second rider to regain the premier class title after losing it two seasons in a row, taking another 8 wins along the way. But the competition was only getting stronger. At the age of 30, when most MotoGP riders have called it quits, Rossi won his last championship, and an additional 6 races, by the end of the 2009 season. He now had 102 grands prix wins - only the second rider in history to achieve 100 victories, and held the most premier class victories - 76 - in the history of the sport. But he wasnt quite done. He raced one more year with Yamaha, at the age of 31, and collected another 2 wins - including his 46th for Yamaha - along the way. This was also the year that he suffered a compound fracture of his lower leg, forcing him to miss his first race in his 14 year grands prix career. In 2011, he parted ways with the YAMAHA FACTORY RACING TEAM and switched to Ducati. He suffered through his worst two seasons in the sport, finishing 7th in 2011 collecting 0 wins and struggling to finish in the top 6. For the 2012 season, the capacity of the motorcycles was raised from 800cc back to 1000cc, however, this didnt help Rossi any, as he finished in 6th, and again failed to win any races. .In 2013, he returned to Yamaha in a bid to regain lost form. He finished the championship in fourth place, and won a single race that year. But he managed to get back to the front, and finished in the top three occasionally. This year, 2014, Rossi has been consistently strong, finishing on the podium several times, and collecting an additional 2 race wins so far. This makes the 35 year old Italian the oldest premier class grand prix winner, and he has collected - in his incredible 18 year career - an amazing 108 grands prix wins - 82 in the premier class alone - and leaving him shy of the all-time win record - held by fellow Italian Giacomo Agostini at 122 races - by a tantalizingly close 15 races. He has a contract for an additional 2 years with Yamaha, I hope he finds a way to collect those 15 race wins. It would seem a shame to get this close and not achieve it.
Posted on: Mon, 27 Oct 2014 23:01:27 +0000
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