Valentino Rossi: The Doctor Series Episode 3/5 — Transcript

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1. 0:15Set within several hundred acres of green rolling hills, just outside the town of Tavullia,
2. 0:20there’s a special track almost two miles in length.
3. 0:23It curves, weaves and invites.
4. 0:26This is The Ranch, and the preserver of much of Valentino Rossi’s verve, and obsession
5. 0:32with motorcycling.
6. 0:52My father Graziano buy this land.
7. 0:56The first idea was to try to do one track for the drifting,
8. 1:00but after we decided to make a track for the motorcycle.
9. 1:05This is our style, you know,
10. 1:07we concentrate very much on the track, for something very fast and very wide, something interesting.
11. 1:15And for the rest we try to conserve the taste of this place, you know.
12. 1:38This house is very, very old, so we try to modify, to improve, but remain more or less the same.
13. 1:45The Ranch grew from the Rossi family’s curiosity
14. 1:49with American dirt track racing and a generation of hot shoes that entered, and then dominated
15. 1:54Gran Prix racing from the late 1970s to the mid 1990s.
16. 1:59Every rider around the world, have this dream; to build and to have a private track, where
17. 2:07you can enjoy, and where you can train.
18. 2:12I bought it because I thought: ‘Who knows if one day Valentino would think of
19. 2:21creating his own space like for example, are popular in the US.
20. 2:28Like the one Kenny Roberts, who we heard for a while talk about the Kenny Roberts ranch in America.
21. 2:35But I didn’t. I didn’t know
22. 2:38that Valentino would think of doing something like this.
23. 2:47The first time I ever went dirt tracking, was at Kenny Roberts’s Ranch in 1992 on little bikes.
24. 2:52And it was just a way to train.
25. 2:55I mean road racing is not something you can go out and do once a week, twice a week, like motocross guys.
26. 3:01So it was just a way to keep the bike loose underneath you, stay ride fit
27. 3:07and learn at the same time.
28. 3:33The Ranch is a little bit American, because
29. 3:37we growing up hearing the Ranch of Kenny Roberts, the ranch of Kevin Schwantz are very much American style.
30. 3:45We always train at the “Cava”,
31. 3:47so we try to rebuild more or less a similar feeling with the bike,
32. 3:54for try to understand the skills of the slide.
33. 3:57At the end arrive the Ranch that is a particular track – something special.
34. 4:23Now the flat the track is very famous.
35. 4:27Not all, but a lot of riders make the flat track.
36. 4:30Because you improve the skills of the sliding and control the bike, with the rear and also with the front.
37. 4:37And especially, it’s not very dangerous,
38. 4:40you know it’s always dangerous because when you go with the bike it’s dangerous,
39. 4:45but compared to motocross, compared to supermotard, it’s less.
40. 4:49You gotta be a good rider.
41. 4:51I mean if you’re gonna go there, and ride a big bike, you can’t be some squid or some novice, and go there
42. 4:56and think you’re gonna roll.
43. 4:58My place is for everybody, you know what I mean, we have
44. 5:00small bikes, low speed, not much real danger involved.
45. 5:05But Valentino place, you’re hooking em’, I mean you’re holding mail.
46. 5:09And I went there in motocross pants and jersey.
47. 5:14You don’t wanna fall. And I knew if I fell it was gonna rip everything off,
48. 5:20and at the same time as soon as we showed up, he pulled the back of his pants down, and he got this
49. 5:25humongous bruise around right side of his but cheek, I’m like aww man.
50. 5:30So he goes; yeah now we’re wearing full leathers.
51. 5:32And I’m like; oh thanks, I could’ve taken that tip last week, before I packed!
52. 6:03The world of Moto GP lives through 18 weekends
53. 6:06and a handful of tests.
54. 6:07For the athletes it means little time spent at 350 km/h and riding
55. 6:13on the very edge, finding the limit of physics.
56. 6:16Riding is crucial, and for keeping a sharp throttle hand.
57. 6:26So for us it’s very important because we need to train,
58. 6:28but we cannot risk too much.
59. 6:32MotoGP racers boast acute feeling, balance and sensitivity, honed though countless hours on two wheels,
60. 6:40infinite laps, and a never and a never ending fight against the chrono.
61. 6:45The list of riders, who have trained at the Ranch,
62. 6:48is a “who’s who” of motorcycle racing.
63. 6:50A lot of riders come here, from Kevin Schwantz, that was my hero.
64. 6:58A lot of American riders, a lot of riders from Moto GP, Moto 2, Moto 3 coming.
65. 7:05For me this is good, and a lot of people a lot of riders are very curious, because
66. 7:10it’s my track you know, and a lot of time in paddock in the weekend, they say to me:
67. 7:14“I wanna come to The Ranch, try to organize…” And they think a lot of people come here.
68. 7:29It’s very nice to hang out with the kids, watch them learning.
69. 7:33I love it because they look so young,
70. 7:37but the guys training with us
71. 7:40they are professionals already.
72. 7:43They work hard and they are only 16 or 17 years old.
73. 7:49In the Ranch with all the small riders working with him,
74. 7:55he can keep power with that people, and this is still keeping him young you know.
75. 8:01For Rossi, the Ranch is more than a training facility.
76. 8:04It is a hangout, a place to combine his love of motorcycles,
77. 8:08and a drip feed of adrenaline, with friendship, food, laughter and good times.
78. 8:14Yeah, the Ranch is very important, it includes lots of aspects.
79. 8:17The first, is being together,
80. 8:20and share the same passion in a wonderful place, it’s a dream to ride in a place like this
81. 8:29And all this turns into something functional as well for Valentino and the riders,
82. 8:36because the Ranch means challenge.
83. 8:41Challenge and technique.
84. 8:43It means progression and competition.
85. 8:49But as said before, the real secret is
86. 8:53the friendships, the human relationships;
87. 9:02the Ranch is a vehicle for all this.
88. 9:28Valentino Rossi has moved through different eras, machinery and styles in MotoGP,
89. 9:34by refining his handling of a motorcycle and plenty of the work has been done right here, at The Ranch.