Of all the motorcycle racing greats there is just one person who has shone beyond any motorbike legend such as England’s Geoff Duke, or USA’s Kenny Roberts who held the world 500cc racing championship. However, none have excelled as much as Italian, Valentino Rossi!
Of Rossi's nine Grand Prix World Championships, seven were in the premier 500cc/MotoGP class. He holds the record for most premier class victories, with 89 to his name. He won premier class World Championships with both Honda and Yamaha. He is also the only road racer to have competed in 400 or more Grands Prix.
However, to go from two wheels to four is no easy feat, especially when you’ve been racing at the world’s circuits with the most powerful motorcycles for more than 25 years. During scrutineering, Valentino Rossi said, "I always knew I wanted to try my hand at motorsport after my MotoGP career. Le Mans is the most famous race in the world, so of course it was an objective."
Seen here with my student, a legend in the making, Palmeiras Football Coach Abel Ferreira at the new LMGT3 category of the FIA World Endurance Championship in Interlagos last Saturday whilst he was preparing to dispute the 6-hours race in his BMW M4. By the way, Abel is also passionate about racing cars. Who knows: maybe he’ll try his hand in the foreseeable future.
The legendary driver has represented BMW for the Belgian team, Team WRT since 2022, when he participated in the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. Last year, Valentino Rossi made a real foray into Endurance and raced again in Spa, as well as other famous races such as the Dubai 24 Hours and the Bathurst 12 Hours in Australia, in addition to taking part in the Le Mans Cup in GT3. The preparation preceded the confirmation of Rossi's name in the BMW lineup for the FIA WEC in the LMGT3 class.
Sunday’s race was high-pressure and Valentino who raced for Team WRT with Al Harthy and Martin came in 23rd position out of over thirty teams. However, in the LMGT3 class they came in 5th. They completed 212 laps in six-hours whilst the winning team from Toyota Racing were in their Hypercar and completed 236 laps. Full results
Hypercar is the top class in the Le Mans 24 Hours race, which also includes slower LMP2 and LMGT3 cars. These race at the same time as the Hypercars, but have no realistic chance of winning, and are competing for victory within their own category.
Have a great day!
Prof. Carl Boniface
Vocabulary builder:
Scrutineering (gerund verb) of a scrutineer (also called a poll-watcher or a challenger in the United States) is a person who observes any process which requires rigorous oversight. Scrutineers have the tasks of preventing the occurrence of corruption and of detecting genuine mistakes.
Foreseeable (adj) = predictable, probable, likely, imaginable, conceivable, (ant) unforeseeable
Foray (n) = raid, incursion, venture, sortie, expedition, attack, assault
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