Graziano Rossi
Classic Racer’s Jeffrey Zani sat down with the racer-in-his-own-right – and father of Valentino - Graziano Rossi – for a Q&A session.
It seemed all beautifully wrapped up for Graziano Rossi, but in reality it wasn’t. A few corners to go and the Italian had the lead of the 1979 250 British Grand Prix at Silverstone comfortably in hand. Sitting more than a second ahead of Kork Ballington, who was chasing hard on his own Kawasaki, it looked like nothing could possibly go wrong for Rossi Senior...
There were some brilliant technnical minds working with Italian racer Graziano Rossi in 1979. The owner of the team he was riding for was Giancarlo Morbidelli. This was at a time when Morbidelli was a small manufacturer that in the mid-1970s had won an incredible four world titles in the 125 and 250 classes. Those successes came from a tiny racing department made up of just a few guys. Lack of manpower aside, Morbidelli himself had flown in from Italy to assist Rossi with this round of Grand Prix action in the UK, such was his desire to get an Italian racer on top of the podium with an Italian bike. Morbidelli, an Italian businessman with a deep love for motorcycle racing and a huge technical knowledge, often declared racing was for him a hobby, and brought along his young son. He wanted to enjoy the day and see if the long-haired racer was really in with a chance of the championship. The season had started badly due to a technical gamble by the team – they had chosen to go
down the design route of American Philippe Delespinay, building a bike with a front suspension system that didn’t use the traditional fork but did use (for the time) unconventional aerodynamics and sited the fuel tank under the engine. It sounded strange and, when the racing started, it wasn’t what you’d call succesful. Indeed, a lack of time and immediate results forced the team to revert to a more traditional layout, and from that moment on the 25-yearold Rossi delivered brilliant results. With the
‘standard’ layout of the Morbidelli in use, Rossi had won three races and progressively cut the gap in the championship between him and leader Kork Ballington. That set the scene for the closing laps of the British 250GP in 1979. Graziano himself picks up the story: CR: It was 40 years ago, the year your now world famous and nine-time world champion son, Valentino, was born. But let’s talk about you. How did the lap develop? GR: I had to lap a rider, who was Paolo Pileri – the first to win a championship for Morbidelli, back in 1975. Anyway, I had Ballington behind me for the whole race, not giving up, with the gap staying between 1.8 and 2.5 seconds, more or less, if I remember well. I felt the pressure. So I wanted to overtake Pileri as quickly as possible. I tried to do it on the outside. But I crashed.
CR: What a shame.
GR: But in my opinion the 1979 season was a great success, despite the third place in the final standings. We did a great job, the level was high, considering the speed of the Kawas. We showed we were competitive. CR: Can you explain what happened at the start of the season with the Delespinay chassis layout? GR: He had designed some innovations that I considered very positively. Mr Morbidelli was on our side too, while others on the team had some doubts. When I initially tested the prototype, mainly due to a lack of experience myself, I did not understand that there was a problem with the bike going wide out of the corners, which prevented me from opening the throttle and accelerating like my opponents, or better. It was possible we could have overcome the problem, maybe working on a different weight distribution. Those ideas, with work, could have proved themselves successful. But we had no time, we could not develop the new chassis so we switched to a more traditional layout. The bike worked immediately and I rode it at my best. CR: Which was your best race that season? GR: Probably the Swedish GP. It rained five minutes prior to the start. I think I started from the front row, but in the first lap I briefly lost the front going into a corner, I did not crash but I went straight, in the mud. When I rejoined the race I was probably in 15th position or lower. I passed all the riders and won. What a feeling! You know, I’m very proud about being among the riders that have won in grand prix racing. It’s an exclusive club. You’re not just a rider, you’re a race winner. CR: Other sweet memories, beside winning? GR: Once, we were invited to an event in Spain and I put on a great show making wheelies. You know, they didn’t have a 500 class there and the 125 bikes did not have enough power to lift the front wheel. In the 250 I was the only one who had an engine with enough torque to do it, the fans were amazed, they loved me!
CR: Did fans boost you in general?
GR: Oh yes. I’m thinking about Assen, more than 100,000 people, maybe 200,000, and it often rained... so from the track you saw more than 100,000 umbrellas. In Imola, more than 100,000 people again. Amazing! CR: Do you think Morbidelli played a key part in your career? GR: For sure. When Giancarlo offered me a ride, I was honoured. We were from the same area of Italy, the towns of Pesaro and Tavullia, which are very close, less than a 30 minute drive. On his bikes during the 1979 season I put myself in a good light and it got me noticed. I did not only ride the 250, but also Morbidelli’s first 500. CR: This was not the version with the stunning monocoque chassis, right? GR: Exactly, that came later. Mine, in 1979, had a tubular frame, which was a little heavy, because totally the bike’s weight was about 25 kilograms more than the competitors – the factory Yamahas and Suzukis. But the four-cylinder square-engine pushed a lot, it was great, immediately close to the level of the Japanese manufacturers. It was an ambitious and marvelous project. CR: In that season you didn’t achieve great results with the Morbidelli 500, but in 1980 you somehow signed to race in the top class with the Olio Nava Fiat Suzuki managed by Roberto Gallina, alongside future world champion Marco Lucchinelli. Tell me about that. GR: During the winter I went to Japan and tested the bike, doing very well. I took part in an international pre-season event in Imola, based on riders from different countries, with teams from Italy, the USA, the UK and so
on. I won all the races and was seen as one of the four top riders who could battle for the championship. But I had a nasty crash with my car a few kilometres from Tavullia. I spent some time in a coma. That ruined the season. CR: What do you remember in particular of the Suzuki 500? GR: At the Paul Ricard circuit, in France, there was a very long straight where the bike could reach more than 186mph. There was about 130bhp at my disposal.
CR: Scary?
GR: No. The Nurburgring, that was something, I’m talking about the nearly 14 mile-long track. What an experience, you couldn’t say you were a real rider if you didn’t race there. But you did it once, and then… never again! It was like racing here in central Italy, on regular roads, but with an average speed of 125mph or so!
CR: Which was your favorite track?
GR: Imola. The Tamburello corner: you entered at full throttle in fifth gear or slightly closing the gas in sixth. Touching the ground with the fairing. Every time, after the corner, you thought: ‘WOW, I made it! Lucky!’. It was a critical corner. CR: In 1981 you were back on the Morbidelli 500. GR: With the monocoque chassis, yeah. Besides being beautiful and sexy, the bike weighed more or less like the best competitors. The problem was: mechanical failures. It was a particular time in the Morbidelli racing department. Giancarlo was very busy because, besides his business – which was producing woodworking machinery – he was following his son Gianni, who was racing with go-karts and in the future had a bright career, reaching F1. I think that if he had the possibility to spend some time working on the bike he would have solved the issues. That did not happen. On my side, I could ride and test, giving feedback. My comments were always positive, because the bike handled well and had good power. About mechanical failures, I could do nothing. CR: You were among the first riders to consider the impact of how your helmet and leathers looked.tell us about that. GR: It happened because of my close friendship with Aldo Drudi, who designed the graphics of all Valentino’s helmets, from the mid-1990s till now. In the late1970s his brother had a club called Scorpio and I used to hang out there. He was capable of beautiful sketches, so at one point I asked him to design a helmet for me, and he came up with a fairlytale castle and a rainbow around it. Then he made one that, in the back, had the drawing of a visor like I had really on the front, and my smiling face behind it. We could also do something with the leather suits. One was like dressing-up with a shirt and blue jeans, very funny.
CR: The best moment of your career?
GR: The first win, in Rijeka, Yugoslavia. The fifirst one is always magic.
CR: The worst?
GR: Well, that car incident before the 1980 season. On one side, I think that it compromised all my career, it was an unlucky event. On the other side, since I almost died, I must say I was lucky, because I was still alive!