Rossi Races One Last Time at Home - Two Races Left

Gretzky. Jordan. Maradona. Jeter.

There comes a time that all great athletes step away from the sport that defined them and they, in turn, refined.

That time is rapidly approaching for Valentino Rossi. ‘The Doctor’ as he’s known to MotoGP fans is in his 26th season.

The outpouring of love for this spirited and supremely gifted racer has been long and pronounced since he told the world back in August that this was his final season on the track. His latest Facebook post had over 1,200 likes as of this writing with many comments using the word “hero.” On Instagram, his latest post was liked 954K times with more than 10,000 comments, and if that doesn’t speak to the impact he had on the sport and his legion of fans, then nothing does. And that doesn’t even count his 5.5M Twitter followers.

In his final race at his home track at Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, The Doctor raced his way to a top 10 finish in front of his fellow Italians.  

"I'm very happy about today, especially because I did a decent race and it's the best way to say 'ciao'," Rossi said. "So, it's the best way to say 'ciao' to all the crowd, because there was a fantastic atmosphere around the track and a lot of fans on Sunday. It was very emotional."

Rossi and his Petronas Yamaha sit 21st overall in the standings with 35 points. Fellow Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo has clinched the title. He has amassed 267 points and five wins, so far.

Rossi’s next race is November 7 at Algarve International Circuit in Portugal and the final race of his amazing MotoGP career will be at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit in Valencia, Spain.

Rossi, 42, has won nine world championships and this was his 26th season. He finished first in an amazing 115 races overall and started from the pole 65 times. He is the only rider to win 125, 250, 500, and MotoGP world championships.

There’s an old saying that “a picture is worth a thousand words.” That’s my way of saying I’m going to shut up now and let the pictures speak for themselves.