13 years of Valentino Rossi at the British GP

When Valentino Rossi fires up his Yamaha MotoGP bike tomorrow morning, it’ll be 13 years since he took his first win in the top Grand Prix class at the British GP back in 2000.

It’s a testament to the legendary Italian than he’s still competing at the top of the MotoGP field, even if he’s been slightly eclipsed by the Spanish battle between Jorge Lorenzo, Dani Pedrosa and amazing rookie Marc Marquez so far this season. Not only has the race itself moved from Donington, where he took his victory in damp and treacherous conditions, but the bikes were radically transformed by the switch to four-stroke engines. Through it all, Rossi is the only rider from that 2000 race still in the top flight of GP racing.

Annoyingly, Dorna don’t allow anyone to embed the videos they put on Youtube, so we’ll have to link to the video instead if you want to watch a classic battle involving British star Jeremy McWilliams. We’ll see you again in 50 minutes.

Interestingly, the fact Rossi is the only one of the class of 2000 still racing in the top flight may not look as impressive when you dig into the data a little bit. He was 21 at the time, 4 years younger than any of his competitors according to details found online. Here’s the evidence we found:

• Kenny Roberts Jnr, Born 1973: Won the 2000 championship for Suzuki, become the first son of a former champion to win the title. Retired in 2007.
• Jeremy McWilliams, Born 1964: Left GPs in 2007, having been Britain’s top GP star. He took the first win for a British rider in years in 2001 on an Aprilia 250cc GP bike at Assen. Strill works in development for manufacturers and developing young riders – and raced at the North West 200 in 2012.
• Loris Capirossi, Born 1973: Retired in 2011 after making more than 300 race starts. Now a Bridgestone safety advisor.
• Jurgen van den Goorbergh, Born 1969: The biggest name in GPs (Well, the longest), the Dutch rider has since raced in Supersport, tested tyres for Michelin and raced buggies in the Dakar Rally.
• Norifumi Abe, Born 1975: One of Rossi’s heroes, he switched to Superbikes in 2005, and then to All Japan Superbikes in 2007. Sadly killed in a road traffic accident in 2007.
• Alex Criville, Born 1970: The 1999 world champion retired in 2002 due to health problems.
• Sete Gibernau, Born 1972: Rossi’s big rival left GPs in 2007.
• Max Biaggi, Born 1971: After a problematic time in GPs, not helped by Rossi coming along, he went to Superbikes in 2007, winning the first WSBK title for an Italian, and for Aprilia, in 2010.
• Tadayuki Okada, Born 1967: Retired from GPs in 2000, and spent a year in Superbikes. Made one wildcard appearance in 2008.
• Carlos Checa, Born 1972: Currently riding for Ducati in World Superbikes.
• Regis Laconi, Born 1975: Moved to World Superbikes. Missed out on the 2004 title to James Toseland. Unlikely to return to racing following a massive crash in 2009.
• John McGuinness, Born 1972: Isle of Man TT and road racing legend.
• Alex Barros, Born 1970: Moved to Superbikes in 2006, returned to GPs in 2007 but retired that year.
• Anthony Gobert, Born 1975: The subject of the most spectacular self-inflicted career implosion in racing, the Go Sho bounced around various teams and race series before becoming completely unemployable.
• Nobuatsu Aoki, Born 1971: The eldest of the 3 Aoki brothers to compete in GP racing retired after the 2004 season, with occasional wildcard appearances for Suzuki.
• Garry McCoy, Born 1972: The wheel-spinning Australian left Gps in 2004 for Superbikes with mixed results.
• Sebastien Le Grelle, Born 1974: Largely competed (and won) Belgian Supersport titles.
• Tetsuya Harada, Born 1970: Retired at the end of 2002.
• Jose Luis Cardoso, Born 1975. Left GPs in 2006.
• Phil Giles, Born …. Competed in British Superbikes and now a keen cyclist according to his Twitter account (@philgiles_21).
• Yoshiteru Konishi, Born 1969. Largely completed in Japanese Superstock and Supersport classes.

 

So from that 2000 season, the riders still competing at a top international level are:

Valentino Rossi, Carlos Checa (WSB) and John McGuinness (IoM TT etc)

Looking at the next season, and the 2001 British Grand Prix competitors still racing at a top international level are:

Valentino Rossi, Carlos Checa (WSB), Anthony West (Moto2), Leon Haslam (WSB).

In 2002 the competitors who are still at the top level in 2013?

Valentino Rossi, Carlos Checa (WSB)

In fact it’s only in 2003 that Rossi is racing against people who will be on the grid tomorrow:

Valentino Rossi, Nicky Hayden, Colin Edwards,  plus Marco Melandri (WSB)

 

Interestingly, Australian Honda GP legend Mick Doohan took is first win in 1990 and retired in 1999 following an accident at the Spanish Grand Prix – the year before Jeremy Burgess became crew chief to Valentino Rossi in 2000.