MotoGP World Champion – ‘Chicken′ Helmet (Sepang 2009)
Location: Grand Prix of Malaysia, Sepang
Date: Sunday, October 25, 2009
Race position: 3rd
Rossi secured his 9th World Championship title with 1 race remaining (Valencia) by taking 3rd place in a wet Malaysian GP.
In order to claim the Championship, Rossi had to finish in 4th place (in order to keep 25 points between him and his nearest rival, Jorge Lorenzo). The race began badly for Rossi – starting from pole, he went wide at the first turn and ended up being swamped and dropping back to the middle of the pack. From this position he shadowed Lorenzo until they were in 4th and 5th position respectively. With 14 laps remaining Rossi made his pass on Lorenzo and moved up into fourth spot (Rossi took 3rd position when Dovizioso crashed out of 3rd) and cruised to the finish line in 3rd behind Stoner and Pedrosa.
Rossi celebrated with members of his fan club, by dressing up in a celebratory T-Shirt and helmet with the number 9 on and the words “Old Hen Makes Good Broth”. Rossi then had his photo taken with a live chicken and nine eggs, before putting on the new helmet and riding off to celebrate. The significance of the chicken was a joke at Rossi’s age and is based on “Gallina Vecchia!” an Italian saying that states that the old chicken makes good soup, but it’s no use for laying eggs. Despite being 30, Rossi had laid yet another egg by claiming his 9th World Title
The helmet had a cartoon chicken on the top, laying an egg with the number 9 on it.
Valentino Rossi said:
“It’s great to be World Champion again, I am very proud to have done this nine times in my career. I want to thank everyone in my team, Furusawa-san, Davide Brivio, Lin Jarvis, Jeremy…everybody! This season has been very hard and Lorenzo especially has pushed me to new limits, but I think it’s been a great duel for everyone to watch.
The t-shirt and the celebration is called the ‘Gallina Vecchia!” In Italian we say that the old chicken makes good soup, but it’s no use for laying eggs. I am old now, 30, but this old hen has made another egg today and now we have nine! As usual I thought it up at home in Tavullia, together with my fan club, and we had great fun designing the t-shirt and the helmet.”
