Yamaha Motor De Brazil
Valentino Rossi was met at the airport by a special delegation
from Yamaha Motor de Brazil before being escorted to his hotel. After a chance
to freshen up, MotoGP’s biggest hero got straight to work, enjoying his first
interview of the day with Playboy magazine to talk about racing, Yamaha and in
particular the new T-Max scooter. A quick signing session followed then it was
time for the next activity.
Valentino was transported to Fazenda Capuava, a beautiful
private racetrack situated in the middle of the Brazilian countryside for a
very special ride out. He was joined on the track by two other superstars, TV
Globo’s Leandro Mello and the legendary footballer Cafù. Cafù is the most
internationally capped Brazilian player ever and the only player ever to have
appeared in three World Cup finals, having won two, in 1994 and 2002.
The three stars hit the track together on Yamaha YZF-R1s for
some high-speed fun before swapping the superbikes for a football for a quick
game of soccer. There was no rest for Valentino as he then left behind his
footballing friends to join another Brazilian legend, Alex Barros for an
interview for Brazilian TV’s Linha de Chegada show. Alexandre is Brazil’s
greatest international motorcyclist, a multiple national champion and a veteran
of Grand Prix racing.
After a quick break for lunch the Doctor was straight back
to work, firstly with another TV interview, this time with TV Globo’s MotoGP
SporTV Channel and then secondly a group interview with 16 selected journalists
There was just time to return to the hotel for a signing
session and a meet & greet with selected Yamaha dealers and winners of a
social contest then it was time to head to the airport and catch a flight for
Austin, Texas!
"Coming to Brazil is always special and I always get
surprised by the fans and their passion for me and for MotoGP," said
Rossi. "Today I enjoyed a lot all events, I had fun and it was a nice way
to have some rest and fun before heading to Austin. Meeting Cafù was a
surprise. I had a lot of fun with him on track on our R1s although later he had
more fun when we played soccer. He is still strong, even stronger than me! My
special thanks today go to Yamaha Motor de Brazil for arranging another
unforgettable event and to all the Yamaha dealers, customers and fans who
followed me from this early morning, when we arrived, to late evening when we
left. I look forward to coming to Brazil again next year and meeting all my
fans on track, on the occasion of the Brazilian MotoGP."
Kouichi Tsuji, YMC Motorsport Development Division, General
Manager, commented: "It’s Valentino’s second time in Brazil for
promotional purposes and the passion and the warmth from the fans is even
bigger than it was last year. My special thanks go to Yamaha Motor de Brazil
for arranging such a big event and for welcoming our MotoGP star Valentino
Rossi in such big style.
Today’s activities Valentino was involved with, joined by TV
Globo, Cafù, Alex Barros and hundreds of fans will definitely give a strong
boost to YMDB business. These type of events are part of Yamaha’s DNA and are
made even more worthy by the depth of our riders, Valentino and Jorge, who have
thousands of fans around the world. Yamaha’s core objective and mission is of
course to develop new technologies but we have a duty to share our properties
with the market and with our customers, that’s why events like today’s are
invaluable.
Finally, I would like to thank both Valentino and Jorge for
making themselves available to make their Austin trip a little longer, visiting
Brazil, Colombia and Mexico. Latin-American countries will never forget this
year’s events and hopefully we’ll be back next year."
