The Marco Simoncelli Foundation hosted a supermoto event last weekend, which was attended by many star racers, including but not limited to Valentino Rossi, Max Biaggi and Andrea Dovizioso. Each roadracing star was paired with a supermoto star for the 58 lap (the same number as Simoncelli’s race number) main event.
The pre-race hype surrounded “Valentino Rossi vs. Max Biaggi, one more time.” The main event was held on a wet track, and was won by Dovizioso and his teammate with Rossi’s and Biaggi’s finishing positions separated by several riders.
The focus of this article is not the race results. It is the risks famous racers take when they are out play riding or practicing. Most of the top roadracers have been injured while playing on their motocross bikes, for instance.
These guys ride hard, and take risks no matter what they are riding. The perfect illustration is the video below, which shows Rossi overtaking Italian motojournalist Federico Aliverti on a damp track at the “Sic Supermoto Day”. You can see Rossi gaining quickly on Aliverti (Rossi has the yellow number plate), but Aliverti nearly sideswipes Rossi as the multi-time World champion dives underneath him in a left hander. A close call, but no impact. As a side-note, in the video, Rossi perfectly demonstrates “looking through the corner”.
Interestingly, Andrea Dovizioso won this race shortly after being sidelined at a Ducati MotoGP test due to a neck injury. Although we are unaware of any serious injuries at the Simoncelli supermoto event, we understand several riders took spills.
Why is it so hard to find the full race results for this race? Dovi and team mate won but what about Second? Third? Rossi’s position and Biaggi’s position? This article seems focused on a standard overtake.
“The Doctor finished third, while former archrival Biaggi finished eighth.” That’s from superbikeplanet.com.
I wouldn’t call the above an ‘article’ it’s more like a short collection of words that someone pooped out to frame advertisements around.
0:27, human DRS…!!!
It looked to me like Rossi waited to go through until he could do so safely. The point is still valid, when you’re a motogp racer racing supermoto and motocross is likely to result in some injuries, but thought we’d see Vale do something crazy.
Yea, I’ll agree with that too. That was just a more or less typical pass made in any road race, or short track as far as that goes. I made passes like that and closer yet when I used to race short track.
He’s Rossi. He may not be the fastest anymore, but he’s still faster than you, so just get out of the way
Close pass? I didn’t see one.
Journalistic Drama, get to the track!
Da Boys gots balls bigger than their brains, no matter how big their billfold is. They can’t get enough, just like Uncle Ramrod at dinner, eating too much and not caring what will happen in the end.
What kiind of bike is he on, that’s no Yamaha?!
Looks like a TM.
Yamaha makes an XT 660 single supermoto for Europe with twin pipes. Perhaps it’s one of those
Doubt it.
The XT-660 engine alone weighs as much as his competitors’ bikes.
Doesn’t look like an XT-660, anyway.
thnanks!
No, its a TM (smaller Italian manufacturer of offroad bikes and kart engines). You can clearly see the logo on the radiator shroud. IIRC he has ridden TMs before during his Ducati days ase they are not direct competitors. Is Rossi still (officially) under contract to Ducati until the end of the year? That could explain why he isn’t promoting Yamaha even if he is testing the MotoGP bike.
Thanks for the info John A. K. and v!
we really need more supermoto’s available in our market… i know they don’t sell in huge #’s, but they look absolutely the funniest bike on the planet… 😉
I bought a DRZ400SM last year it has been the most fun I’ve had on a bike. I’ve been riding almost 30 years, and this thing is a blast. Not much top speed, but around town it is sweet. Just no road trips 🙂
Dovi living up to the Italian stereotype: play hard, work…. not so much.
Looks like a polite and safe pass to me.
I agree.
And a lot safer than any MotoGP race pass. I’m glad that the teams in MotoGP realize this and the fact that the racers need to practice and have fun somehow, unlike in Formula One where the drivers get hurt “playing tennis”.
+1
Only dangerous if the other guy isn’t paying attention… You could probably say that about any pass…
That’s assuming the rider in front knows he’s close to being passed. You have no rear view mirrors and if you don’t hear the other rider coming you don’t know he’s coming.