Rossi Celebrates Yamaha's 60th Anniversary at Goodwood Festival of Speed + Video

Dennis Chung
by Dennis Chung

Fresh off of his dramatic victory at the TT Assen, Valentino Rossi hopped aboard a plane to England for his first ever appearance at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. At Goodwood, Rossi rode his M1 in classic speedblock yellow to mark the 60th anniversary of Yamaha Motor Co.

“I was barely off the podium before immediately heading to the United Kingdom, but I’m very happy that I got to attend the Festival of Speed at Goodwood, it has been a real pleasure!” says Rossi. “I knew about the event because I saw videos of it, but I had never been there before and it’s even more impressive than I imagined.”

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Rossi took the M1 on a demonstration ride through Goodwood’s 1.16-mile course, a hill climb with a 300 foot rise.

The current MotoGP points leader was joined by other former Yamaha World Champions Kenny Roberts, Giacomo Agostini and Phil Read.

On display were Read’s 1965 RD56, Agostini’s 1975 YZR500 OW23, Roberts’ 1978 YZR750 OW31 and Rossi’s current M1.

“For Yamaha Motor to be a part of motorsport history for so long and to have achieved so many accomplishments is very special and something to be proud of,” says Rossi. “At the end of the day I also got to drive a historic Le Mans car and also a rally car, which was great fun as well.”

[Source: Yamaha]

Dennis Chung
Dennis Chung

Dennis has been a part of the Motorcycle.com team since 2008, and through his tenure, has developed a firm grasp of industry trends, and a solid sense of what's to come. A bloodhound when it comes to tracking information on new motorcycles, if there's a new model on the horizon, you'll probably hear about it from him first.

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