MotoGP Season Draws to the Close
By Emeli Dean
There are still two races to go in this year’s Moto GP season and the world champion is already known. The possibility for anyone to catch up with the Italian racing motorcyclist, Valentino Rossi, is zero since he already has an advantage of more than 100 points. With his lucky and starting number, which his father Graziano Rossi used in old times, whom also as well as the 29-year-old won eight World Cup titles.
Rossi started his young career in the kart racing sport. With only 11 years he won his first title at the regional Go-Kart-Championship in Marken, Italy. Since he became too big and heavy for his small car and there was no money to buy a bigger one, his father decided that he should switch to the mini-bike in 1990. In the very first season he achieved his first Regional Championship title, then in 1993 started to drive on the bigger motorcycles.
After the third place at the ‘93 Italian Sport Production Championship on a 125 cm³ Cagiva Mito, he won his first championship title in 1997. Over the 250cc class and a second World Cup title, Rossi came in 2000 to the 50cc class and won the World Cup title in that category one year later.
The 500cc class existing since 1949 was replaced by the now known Moto GP class. After four successful years in the new class, Rossi had to deal two seasons with many ups and downs. In the first race of the season 2006 he couldn’t achieve any points after he was eliminated from the race due to a collision with the Spaniard Toni Elias. In some of the following races he had to abandon the continuation of the races due to technical problems.
Because of all these circumstances he fell back sharply in the matter of the point system. Shortly before the end of the season it seemed like there was still a chance for him to achieve his sixth consecutive title, but a self-induced fall averted this dream.
In the following season he fall behind the first-placed Australian, Casey Stoner and the second-placed Spaniard Dani Pedrosa and he had to be satisfied with the third place.
But now he is back! Despite the strong competition the Yamaha driver could win through and stands two races before the ending of the season, already firm, as the World Champion 2008. As a small gag he let “Scusate il ritardo” (Sorry for the delay) imprint on a t-shirt and it obviously refers to the two years without a championship title.
With his ninth World Champion title, Rossi cannot only be happy about a championship triumph, but also about a new record. Besides the former Italian motorcyclist Giacomo Agostini, Rossi is the only one who has won six or more championship titles in the premier class of GP racing.
Besides the positive result from Rossi, the team Fiat Yamaha has a second reason to celebrate, because they are standing on the top of the team classification as well. The interaction from Rossi and his team seems to be perfect and that is the reason why he wants to extend his contract with Yamaha for another two years after being with them already for five, he will stay until 2010.
About the Author:
Emeli Dean is a high-ranking writer on sports for the
football betting industry. You can also find more of his work at www.instantactionsports.com/uk
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