Misano Rossi Helmet: Time to Wake Up

At Misano this morning, Valentino Rossi debuted another of his famous helmet designs for his home crowd. Adorned with a painted clock on the top of helmet, Rossi will use a different helmet for each session during the San Marino GP. The time on the clock is set to five minutes before the session’s start, and labeled with “wake up and get going,” which for Rossi is both a literal and figurative reminder.

Critical of his results lately, Rossi is acknowledging that he needs to start turning around his season at Misano, and once again ride at the front of the pack. Hopefully these helmets (last year Rossi was the donkey) will be a reminder to the Italian rider, who has struggled since returning from a compound fracture to his leg.

At Indianapolis Rossi said the fault rested on him, and that his physical fitness was to blame for not only his poor results at Indy, but also for many of his crashes. With only a few days time to make the trip from the US to San Marino, it’s unlikely Rossi is feeling better about his condition, but we think the nine-time World Champion will dig deep in front of his local crowd.