Valentino Rossi
Valentino Rossi was born in Pesaro, Marche, and grew up in the town of Tavullia. Son of Graziano Rossi, a former motorcycle racer, he first jumped on a bike at the age of two, and his astounding career progressed in leaps and bounds.
Rossi’s first racing love was actually go-karts. Fuelled by Rossi’s mother, Stefania’s, concern for her son’s safety, Graziano purchased a go-kart as substitute for the bike. However, the Rossi family trait of perpetually wanting to go faster prompted a redesign; Graziano replaced the 60 cc motor with a 100 cc national kart motor for his then-5-year-old son.
Although Valentino showed interest in such things as his guitar and playing football, his interest in school and study waned. Shrugging off his mother’s attempt to get him to attend football school, he found more interest in the gravel pits and various motorcycle GPs.
Graziano attempted to forge documents in an attempt to get Valentino’s junior kart licence one year before he was legally allowed (he was 9 at the time), but ultimately failed.
Valentino won the regional kart championship in 1990. At the time, a new craze had taken over. The minimoto had now become his weapon of choice, and before the end of 1991, he had won 16 regional races.
Although minimoto was for fun, he continued to race karts and finished fifth at the national kart championships in Parma. Both Valentino and Graziano had started looking at moving him into the Italian 100 cc series as well as the corresponding European series, which most likely would have pushed him into the direction of Formula 1. However, the high financial burden of racing karts led to the decision to race minimoto exclusively. Through 1992 and 1993, Valentino continued to learn the ins and outs of minimoto racing, steadily racking up win after win.
With Rossi growing in talent, it became abundantly clear that a proper motorcycle was required to further his progress. In 1993, Rossi acquired a Cagiva Mito 125 cc motorcycle, which was damaged in a first-corner crash no more than a hundred meters out from pit lane.
The bike was repaired, giving Rossi an opportunity to correct his first-corner mistake, only to crash it going into the second corner. It was an amusing yet trying moment for Rossi, who was hoping to decide whether motorcycles were really for him.
Valentino ended up finishing ninth that race weekend. Although his first season in the Italian Sport Production Championship was varied, he consistently improved his skills, leading to a pole position at the season’s final race in Misano, where he ultimately would finish on the podium. By the second year, Rossi had been provided a factory Mito by Cagiva team manager Claudio Lusuardi and cruised to the Italian title.
Credit : Wikipedia
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