Rossi leaving Honda

Look at this. ----------------------------------------- Most of the Italian newspapers and web sites today are carrying stories about a possible split between current 500cc world champion Val Rossi and Honda. Reportedly, Rossi and HRC/Honda Europe bosses met this week in Rome to sign his contract and iron out some difficulties while they were sitting across from one another. (Rossi is said to be refusing to run the # 1 plate in 2002, etc) Reportedly, the meeting ended with Rossi and his manager slamming the door and leaving. Without signing the contract. Now Rossi will not be going to the next HRC test because Honda says if he isn't signed, he's not insured through their insurance company and if he's not insured, he does not ride. Aprilia, where Rossi made his bones in GP racing, is reportedly ready with an offer for Rossi to ride their bike but sources close to that Aprilia scene say it's not true. ----------------------------------------- Go Rossi! :lol

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: To be continued............ Maybe I´ll find a offer from Honda in the mail tomorrow:rolleyes: NOT!!

jalle, will you slam the door as well ?

'Lot of tension on the Rossi team....first the GP season turned into the WWRF (World wrestling/racing federation) between Rossi and Biaggi - now the team is picking fights with their own sponsors? besides, it's bullshit - he's gonna sign with honda -Rossi is a magician on the 500- look how fast he developed (remember when he used to put the machine into the wall every other week when he first switched from 250 500?) besides, Aprilia doesn't even make a 500, or at least one worht mentioning. what would really be funny though, is if he ended up riding for yamaha!!!

Scud, what about the RS3? You think it´s not worth mentioning?

It's funny to think back to the days of Mick Doohan and Schwantz - some of my favorites, to the days when the 500's were simply the most inspiring, dangerous, downright evil-beats. Mick Doohan is my favorite for sure - I mean he pioneered an engine design so let him ride more aggresively to avoid spinning up the rear tire and crashing, THEN when the competition copied and caught up, he went back to the old-school engine and taught himself how to ride it and not crash!!! AWESOME When I first saw Valentino take on the NSR, I really appreciated watching the kid struggle - you could see his fustration - having mastered the 125 and 250 - now coming to grips with a beast of a 500 - it takes so much to master these amazing machines... I feel like bending the rules to allow 4 strokes could be a wonderful thing or maybe a bad thing..Personally I like the 500 2 stroke class - and if anything, perhaps would have rather seen an entirely new class for 4 strokes, rather than integrating the two. In any event, the RS3 looks amazing - and if anyone could ride it sucessfully it would be Rossi - but to just give up all the work he put in to learn the NSR500? I just dont' know

Rossi is a GOD!!! Of course............. We do talk to Oscar Rigio and Giaccomo quite a lot on email ( not ME, but the team owner ) since we run Aprilia's and get our parts from them. The team owner is going to Italy next week to pick up 1 ex-works 250 and some spares. i'll ask him to email over there and get the scoop on what's what at Aprilia. It's cool....... we new 6 weeks before it was announced that they were signing Haga-san. Also new that Corser was gone gone for a long while before it was official. I'll see what I can find out. OD

Olddog: Awesome! Get some some pre-official news. Always cool to know stuff before anyone else does. :D Back to Rossi... has he decided to go with Aprilia? I heard the deal with Honda is over... and that he needs a new team.

Rossi has signed with Honda. Check http://www.motogp.com for more on this. Our swedish GP hope, Johan "Stiggy" Stigefelt almost had a done deal with Aprilia Germany but it seems to hav eturned into sh*t now, do you know anything about his,Olddog? Rumours are flying that he´s about to sign with MZ to ride their new fourstroke GP bike alongside José-Luis Cardoso. If you can get me some inside information, I´d be a happy man. BTW, twostrokes will NEVER die... I want an Aprilia RS250 street bike, but that would mean I´d have to sell my R1. And that won´t happen for at least... oooh, a week. :p

I do agree with a previous post though, I can't see ANY WAY that honda would let Rossi walk. Afterall, as soon as he came to 500's he got Burgess and all of Doohan's old crew, honda demoted Creville to # 2 rider ( in reality ) and started doing all the factory changes around Dr. Rossi.......... Nah, he'll stick, if he hasn't already signed. I WILL try to find out what they were thinking @ Aprilia, and I'll enqire about Johan. What I do know is that Aprilia is really cutting back on their 2 stroke programs. There will be no inhouse 250 gp teams this year. They've all been farmed out to satellite teams, Telephonica and such, and obviously there will be different levels of factory support and grades of parts availability, but 2 strokes won't be around that much longer ( heavy sigh...... ) Aprilia has a 600 4 stroke they are developing hard, and they are already inqiuring quietly about riders. Because they cut back the 2 stroke program, we had a hard time coming up with newer machinery this year. The European teams for the most part are just updating their 00, 01 bikes with kit parts, rather than selling and getting new machinery. We have 3 RS 125's that have all won championships and a 97' RSV 250 that has a completely different motor ( rotax) compared to the updated 00' models that we'll run this year. Oh yeah, My kids first name is Jonah, so sorry about not giving you his name. I don't know any other Jonahs rracing over here. I've also got links to several newspaper articles on him, and he's been in one of the japanese mags with Ito Tadadaka, their 00 125 national 125 champ who Jonah trained with last season. Actually, Ito has a 12 man race team in Japan and has extended an offer for Jonah to ride one of his Yam 250's at Suzuka sometime this next season....... we'll see. Cya

By the time I got off here last time everyone had the story that Rossi had signed. No surprise. Jalle, I talked to the team owner, who's now going over on the 13th. I asked him to inquire about Stigefelt. He said that Giacomo ( Haga's boss) is hardly noticing the GP guys now, which has been a little bit of a problem for us since there are a couple of different factions within Aprilia racing, but OUR guy is Giacomo, who's in charge of the WSB stuff. Interesting , huh? I will tell you if I hear anything back, you have to understand my position in the scheme of things. My kids one of the 2 riders, and basically I'm a sad old git who follows them around mixing fuel, pulling bodywork and top ends off for the mechanics, or whatever other other task they wish....... Sort of like a groupie I suppose, just an old hanger onner, but it IS FUN to meet a lot of these guys AND to have them know who your kid is. It's actually DRY out today, so I'm off to check tire pressures, check the oil and chain and boogie! Been about a month now, I NEED A FIX! Cya