Thursday, July 30, 2009

1998 Helemts: 250 cc



1998 History

After winning the 125c World Championship in 1997, Valentino Rossi moved up to the 250cc Class and made an immediate impact on the Aprilia RSV250.

Rossi has stated in the past that he often holds the 1998 250cc season to be one of his toughest seasons as he was rapidly becoming a celebrity and felt under pressure from Aprilia (who were a team with a formidable record) to perform on a bike that he was still trying to learn. Despite this, Rossi finished in second place in the championship, only a mere 3 points behind the 250cc World Champion of that year, Loris Capirossi.

AGV Tricolore (Imola 1998)

Location: Gran Premio Cirio “Citta di Imola”, Imola
Date: Sunday, 6th September, 1998
Race position: 1st

imola1998front

Rossi managed to take the 250cc win at Imola in 1998 with Loris Capirossi coming in second and Stefano Perugini taking third place. 

imola1998side

The race at Imola in 1998 also marked the first special livery that Valentino Rossi would race in . The bike was decked out in a Tricolore design with the helemt matching the green, white and red colour scheme. The Drudi designed helmet was a simple but effective design that was a variation of Rossi’s main Sun and Moon helmet design, except it was decked out in Italian colours. Rossi had also dyed his hair red, white and green for the occasion.

Posted by GALXLOKK at 8:27 AM
Labels: , ,

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

About Vale

Valentino Rossi, (born February 16, 1979 in Urbino), is an Italian professional motorcycle racer and multiple MotoGP World Champion. He is one of the most successful motorcycle racers of all time, with 8 Grand Prix World Championships to his name. According to Sports Illustrated, Rossi is one of the highest earning sports personalities in the world, having earned an estimated $34 million in 2007.

Following his father, Graziano Rossi, Rossi started racing in Grand Prix in 1996 for Aprilia in the 125cc category and won his first World Championship the following year. From there, he moved up to the 250cc category with Aprilia and won the World Championship in 1999. He won the 500cc World Championship with Honda in 2001, the MotoGP World Championships (also with Honda) in 2002 and 2003, and continued his streak of back-to-back championships by winning the 2004 and 2005 titles after leaving Honda to join Yamaha, before regaining the title in 2008.


Random Pics

Rossi 46 black by valentinorossi.
 He has always raced with the number #46 in his motorcycle grand prix career. Rossi has stated that the original inspiration for this choice of number was the Japanese "wild card" racer Norifumi Abe whom he saw on television speeding past much more seasoned riders in a wet race. He later found out that it was the number his father had raced with in the first of his 3 grand prix career wins, in 1979, in Yugoslavia, on a 250c Morbidelli. Typically, a World Championship winner (and also runner-up and third place) is awarded the #1 sticker for the next season. However, in a homage to Barry Sheene (who was the first rider of the modern era to keep the same number, #7), Rossi has stayed with the now-famous #46 throughout his career. The text on his helmet refers to the name of his group of friends: "The Tribe of the Chihuahua," and the letters WLF on his leathers stand for "Viva La Figa," Italian for "Long Live Pussy." He has so far escaped any sanctions or ultimatums that he remove the letters because the "W" in "WLF" represents the two "V"s in "ViVa". Equally obvious is his success at escaping any disciplinary action from the FIM or Dorna for having the letters so brazenly on the front neck area of his leathers. He traditionally also incorporates his favorite color (fluorescent yellow) into his leather designs. Though Rossi won the MotoGP title six times he never put the number 1 on his motorcycle representing the World Champion, instead staying with his famous "46". But Rossi has worn the #1 reserved for the reigning World Champion on the shoulder of his racing leathers.