DeeKnow’s Grotto

Its gotta be official now. Monkey boy Valentino Rossi really is a living legend. After a twelve year void Yamaha won a Motocycle Grand Prix series today when the Italian took the Phillip Island Australian leg this afternoon NZ time and clinched the series without needing any points from the final round

Thanx to Yamaha NZ and PrimeTV we got to see some live coverage of the aussie leg and jeeze it was a great race. The start was frantic, the two Dukes muscling into the top three along with hard-charging 2nd-placed Sete Gibernau. Rossi managed a freekish pass on the two Italian machines and pursued Gibernau for about 20-laps before he made a late breaking manouver to take the lead.

Gibernau wasnt taking it lying down, he tailed Rossi and managed a similar move on the back-straight to take the lead back before Rossi ultimately snatched it agan a couple of corners before the end of the race. Kym was rooting for Rossi (so to speak) and I was yelling in support of Gibernau's antics as the two of them battled over the last couple of laps. Amazing close fighting between the two of them, great to watch and a fitting end to the race for points.

Not sure what Rossi will do from here, its assumed he'll stick with Yamaha for another year, but he's obviously interested in 4-wheel racing and with his impressive progression through the MotoGP over the years he's pretty much covered it on two wheels on tarmac.

Check this out for an impressive history:

1996: World Championship 125cc debut. position: 9th
1997: 2nd youngest ever 125cc Champion
1998: Moves to 250cc class riding Aprilia, finishes 2nd
1999: youngest ever 250 World Champion
2000: Moves to 500cc class riding Honda, finishes 2nd
2001: Takes the 500cc World Championship
2002: Wins revised format riding four stroke Honda RC211V
2003: Wins his 2nd MotoGP World Championship for the Repsol Honda Team
2004: Moves to Gauloises Fortuna Yamaha and wins again

10:52:22 PM