Why would a man who has just won his third world championship leave the team that had brought him such dominance in favour of an inconsistent, underachieving operation that had not produced a world champion in 11 years?<\/p>\n
The most recent time a Yamaha rider had dominated the tracks was back in 1992 (Wayne Rainey), and in the ensuing years, a succession of Hondas, ridden first by Mick Doohan and then Alex Criville, and finally Rossi himself, had taken the championship.<\/p>\n
The only interruption to the Honda reign was Kevin Schwantz’s 1993 title and Kenny Roberts jnr’s triumph in 2000, both riding a Suzuki. Roberts’ victory came in the year that a then 20-year-old Rossi was making his debut in the 500cc class, then motorcycling’s top category.<\/p>\n
Rossi finished second in the title race that year, but never again was Roberts, or anyone else for that matter, to give him much trouble as he became the last 500cc title winner in 2001 and the first man to take out the new four-stroke 1000cc MotoGP category in 2002 and 2003.<\/p>\n
At the time of his departure last year, Rossi simply said he was bored with the domination he had achieved on his Honda, and needed a fresh challenge.<\/p>\n
Some believed he was chafing at the demands being made on him by Honda. Others — including his former mentor and boss of Honda Racing Corporation, Doohan — suggest the reportedly $17 million a year pay cheque had prompted his desire to switch camps.<\/p>\n
Rossi disagrees. In an interview on his personal website, he said: “There was nothing to prove. It was just that the motivation riding for Honda had finished, we won three world championships in a row, we won at favourite tracks, at my least favourite tracks, and in all conditions, so what was left to do?<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Hemingway made a simple distinction between sports and games; a sport can kill you. I have a more than healthy respect for the risks racers like Rossi take; but to me the sportsmanship shown in his latest decision – to walk away from a sure thing and give himself a new challenge – is really far more wonderful than the daring he shows on the track.<\/p>\n
Now for the Good News. Last weekend, the teams had a final shakedown before the first race of the season. April 17 in South Africa. On the track at Catalunya, Spain, all the leading teams came out to test their machines and setup.<\/p>\n
The final results?<\/p>\n
1. Valentino ROSSI, Yamaha, 1:44.571
\n2. Alex BARROS, Honda, 1:44.631
\n3. Nicky HAYDEN, Honda, 1:44.634
\n4. Colin EDWARDS, Honda, 1:44.653
\n5. Sete GIBERNAU, Honda, 1:44.669<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Motorcycle racing supremo Valentini Rossi exemplifies flair, sportsmanship, and daring. And this year, he’s done the wildest thing of all. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}