For milking your name, can anybody beat this fellow Italian's effort?: http://www.ducati.com/company/pud/pud.jhtml What next, Ducati branded condoms? BAD BAD year for Ducati, the one rider GP-Team is missing Stoner badly [Nicky might as well not even be there] and Haga has thrown away a huge lead in the SBK. On to 2010 i suppose, always tough to beat Rossi the donkey!
I truly believe that Rossi is just being himself. He loves what he's doing, and it shows. He has always been a prankster. How can one "overact" himself? You are who you are. I find his personality quite refreshing in the serious world of motorsports. I've been following MotoGP for a few years now, and I have never heard Rossi say anything towards others unprovoked. I have always found him to be professional in that regard. He always rides up to the winner (if it isn't him) and congratulates them. He always gives props to the winner in the after race interview. I do not see how you can make such a statement.
I don´t want to spoil the thread. I´ll just say that sometimes Rossi plays maybe not dirty, but way too hard and that he has said quite naughty things about his rivals ("Pedrosa won´t win a championship till I retire" said once, for example). In my mind, that clashes with all the jokes that he does when things go fine, and make me think that he´s somewhat playing a role. I´ll agree that, overall, he´s far from being the biggest tool in the world of motorsport.
You apparently are not a racing historian. It used to be that there was quite a bit of game playing. Examples: Roberts and Mamola, Spencer and Baldwin, etc. It was common for people to screw with each other in practice, etc., in order to cause them trouble. Some of the things that they did to each other are legend in the sport. A lot of us at the lower levels did similar stuff, I could keep you giggling for hours recounting the crazy stuff that occurred. Rossi is Rossi. Period. Rossi's comments are accurate about Pedrosa, and they were accurate about Sete & the Emperor. He is the best, and knows it, just like the greats before him, such as Roberts, Spencer, Lawson, Doohan, etc. In order to get that good, you have to know that you are indeed that good. Art
After watching BBC1 the other morning with Rossi showing his new helmet design for the race, watching him in prior races on tv, seeing him wearing the donkey ears on the podium initiated my interest to discover more about this motorsport great. I remember all the F1 races we attended at Imola and the circuit shop was always overflowing with #46 Rossi items. I agree with Dan, that I find his personality quite refreshing in the serious wold of motorsports. In doing some research about him, I think the more I read, the more he's becoming my hero. The caring for his best friend Guido and his rememberance of Guido and his new puppies says a lot about him as an individual. Guido died after the Australian GP and to pay tribute to him, the 2008 World Champion designed a special sticker made up of Guido sporting a pair of angel wings and floating on celestial clouds. The fact that he can say yes, I screwed up and did a donkey thing then win the following race wearing donkey ears on the podium and having the Donkey from Shrek on his helmet says to me he's got a great sense of humor and is not a stiff shirt like many others in motorsport. I've seen him congratulate someone else if he didn't win. Rossi tested the Ferrari in 2006 on January 31, February 1, and February 2 at Valencia, later in 2008. The first test saw him spin out on the damp track into the gravel trap, ending his day. On the second day, he posted the ninth fastest time of fifteen drivers, approximately one second behind Michael Schumacher, who himself was third fastest. He lapped faster than seasoned drivers Red Bull Racing's Mark Webber and David Coulthard and Toyota F1's Jarno Trulli. On the final day of testing, Rossi was just a little more than a half second behind Schumacher's best time. Schumacher hailed Rossi as having immense talent and said he would be perfectly capable of moving to Formula One and being competitive immediately. He's also quite good at rallying, far better results than some F1 drivers have attained. In the 2006 Rally New Zealand he competed in a Subaru WRC car finishing 11th out of 39. On November 26 2006 Rossi also won the annual Monza Rally driving a Ford Focus WRC car. He beat the 2005 rally victor Rinaldo Capello by 24 seconds, winning five of the seven stages on his way. He also managed to outpace former WRC Champion Didier Auriol by seven seconds in the head-to-head Master Show final. At the 2007 Monza Rally, Rossi again took first place. He seems to be a person who loves life and shares his love of his sport with others. Bravo Valentino Rossi. Carol Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
You'd probably really enjoy his book called "What if I never Did It", or something like that. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Also, I bought all of the season reviews of the years he won the Championship - some great classic stuff indeed.
Well, you were close - after a google search I found it ! ! ! "What if I'd never tried it?" http://www.realclassic.co.uk/books/books05121400.html After reading the intro about the book, I must find it. Thanks for the heads-up. Carol
G R E A T photos!!The cuccio was GOLD! Yes Tex [and all your alias's] THE GREATEST RIDER EVER, PERIOD, END-OF-STORY! Is it no wonder doohan ran off and hide when he knew Rossi was coming to the 500's? F1 needs Rossi, he is THE megastar of motorsport today!
Why do you want to push him off his pedastal? It'd be a steep fall... Apparently he has realized that himself. So he is much more realistic than some of his ardent supporters.
No it doesn't. What F1 needs is a few more years of real competition like this season with several different teams winning. That and several more REAL race tracks with actual passing and REAL live spectators present (unlike Turkey and many of the Asian/desert jobs). And especially the Canadian GP in Montreal.
Actually I don't mind having more personalities like Rossi in F1. He is colorful and that is always a good thing. But he is not fast enough.
Too bad they didn't give Badoer one more chance at Monza, to see if he really had any chance to compete. I think they should have given him one more race. After Badoer is gone, I really would have liked to see Rossi next.
Kimi is funny too but in his own way. I love Rossi, ''The donkey'' he had last weekend was absolutely brilliant. From wiki, I never knew this:
I´ve never said that old times were better. But in the old days they hadn´t the need of making a show of everything they did. I like Rossi, I just don´t want an overdose of him. End of Off Topic.
