BEER MONSTER!

2021 is a landmark year in Grand Prix history, poignantly so with the retirement of Valentino Rossi, after contesting a massive 423 GP races, resulting in 115 victories, 235 podiums and nine world championships, no less than seven of them in the iconic 500cc/MotoGP class.

Surely this is a record which gives him a strong claim to the title of GOAT or ‘Greatest Of All Time?’ 2021 is also the 20th anniversary since the 500cc V4 monsters were on the grid alone: they would be joined by the 990cc four-strokes from 2002, with only independent teams fielding the two-stroke 500s in 2002, before they disappeared altogether – albeit making the odd comeback in 2003 in the hands of the Proton team, run by Kenny Roberts when they fielded their KR3 500cc two-stroke triple when they had to run it as the KR5 four-stroke was not ready in time.

Of course, the 500cc two-stroke is now nostalgically recognised by many as the ultimate race machine of the modern era, with 2001 being the pinnacle of development or the end of the line, depending on your point of view. These machines delivered a level of performance, and especially a power-to-weight ratio, which in that pre-electronic rider aids era made them so hard to handle, and so spectacular to watch. It’s an era epitomised by the bike on which Valentino Rossi won his first-ever major league title in 2001, in the last-ever 500GP World Championship – the Honda NSR500.

Its 18-year career at the head of the total 500GP points table made Honda’s V4 the all-time top two-stroke ever. Appropriately, Valentino’s victory in 2001’s season-ending Brazilian GP in Rio on his NSR500 being the last victory for a two-stroke 500cc machine.

Developed and honed over a number of years, Valentino’s 2001 title-winning Honda had the same essential 54 x 54.5 mm single-crankshaft V4 crankcase reed-valve engine format as the first of the NSR500