Two unlikely names saved Valentino Rossi in his first 500cc test
Rossi reveals how two unassuming names hel💖ped him in his first premier class test
MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi revealed that his first 500cc test in 1999 was a🎶lmost a disaster had it not been for two unlikely names at the tim🐻e.
Rossi si♕gned for Honda to race in MotoGP from the 2000 campaign for what was ostensibly a satellite team, having won the 125ccꦍ and 250cc titles in 1997 and 1999.
Read more: Remembering Valentino Rossi's 'culture-changing' Yamaha MotoGP move
His first test of the NSR500 he would ride in 2000 and 2001, the last of MꦍotoGP’s 500cc era, came at Jerez at the end of his 250cc title winning year.
Speaking with Andrea Migno’s podcast last year, Rossi’s manager agreed wit𓄧h Aprilia for him to🌄 use its suits in the test - but he left them at home, before also finding out that he had no helmet to use.
“The first 500cc test was beautiful,” he began.
“When I arrived to Jerez at the end of 1999, I had ඣtwo Honda suits. My manager🎀 had agreed with Aprilia that I would use their suit.
“I got to Jerez with two Honda suits, brand new🃏, but I couldn’t use them. I left the Aprilia suit at homౠe.
“I borrowed Marcellino Lucchi’s suit. I called a friend in Tavullia an♑d said ‘we will put you on an aeroplane, bring us the Aprilia suit!’
“I opened my bag. There were eight visors but⛎ no helmet! I already had a moment of panic because I didn’t bring the suit."
Rossi and his inner circle came up with a small lie to get themse🅰lves out of trouble.
He sa𓂃id: “We had a moment of genius - ‘they stole my helmet!’ So, I wꦆas saved like this. But I didn’t have a helmet.
“In my first 500cc test I wore Marcellino Lucchi’s suit, and Gregorio Lavilla’s helmet. He was a Kawasaki Superbike rider who had his own helm𒈔et.
“I said to Lavilla ‘can I borrow ౠa helmet because mine was stolen?’
“The first time I tried the 500cc is a moment in any r🦋ider’s career you never forget. Fuck, when you give it gas…
“I remember the feel of the track was getting tight🐎er, smaller, a niಞce feeling. You get used to the speed.
🅘“On the second day, when my suit and helmet came to me, I also went fast. At Phillip Island I was also fast.”
Lucchi was active in grand prix racing from 1982 to 2004, scoring a sole victory in 1998 in the 250cc Italian Gra♓nd Prix.
Lavilla was British Superbike champion in 2005 for Duไcati, and now acts as Dorna’s World Superbike executive director.
