Set within several hundred acres of green rolling hills, just outside the town of Tavullia,
there’s a special track almost two miles in length.
It curves, weaves and invites.
This is The Ranch, and the preserver of much of Valentino Rossi’s verve, and obsession
with motorcycling.
My father Graziano buy this land.
The first idea was to try to do one track for the drifting,
but after we decided to make a track for the motorcycle.
This is our style, you know,
we concentrate very much on the track, for something very fast and very wide, something interesting.
And for the rest we try to conserve the taste of this place, you know.
This house is very, very old, so we try to modify, to improve, but remain more or less the same.
The Ranch grew from the Rossi family’s curiosity
with American dirt track racing and a generation of hot shoes that entered, and then dominated
Gran Prix racing from the late 1970s to the mid 1990s.
Every rider around the world, have this dream; to build and to have a private track, where
you can enjoy, and where you can train.
I bought it because I thought: ‘Who knows if one day Valentino would think of
creating his own space like for example, are popular in the US.
Like the one Kenny Roberts, who we heard for a while talk about the Kenny Roberts ranch in America.
But I didn’t. I didn’t know
that Valentino would think of doing something like this.
The first time I ever went dirt tracking, was at Kenny Roberts’s Ranch in 1992 on little bikes.
And it was just a way to train.
I mean road racing is not something you can go out and do once a week, twice a week, like motocross guys.
So it was just a way to keep the bike loose underneath you, stay ride fit
and learn at the same time.
The Ranch is a little bit American, because
we growing up hearing the Ranch of Kenny Roberts, the ranch of Kevin Schwantz are very much American style.
We always train at the “Cava”,
so we try to rebuild more or less a similar feeling with the bike,
for try to understand the skills of the slide.
At the end arrive the Ranch that is a particular track – something special.
Now the flat the track is very famous.
Not all, but a lot of riders make the flat track.
Because you improve the skills of the sliding and control the bike, with the rear and also with the front.
And especially, it’s not very dangerous,
you know it’s always dangerous because when you go with the bike it’s dangerous,
but compared to motocross, compared to supermotard, it’s less.
You gotta be a good rider.
I mean if you’re gonna go there, and ride a big bike, you can’t be some squid or some novice, and go there
and think you’re gonna roll.
My place is for everybody, you know what I mean, we have
small bikes, low speed, not much real danger involved.
But Valentino place, you’re hooking em’, I mean you’re holding mail.
And I went there in motocross pants and jersey.
You don’t wanna fall. And I knew if I fell it was gonna rip everything off,
and at the same time as soon as we showed up, he pulled the back of his pants down, and he got this
humongous bruise around right side of his but cheek, I’m like aww man.
So he goes; yeah now we’re wearing full leathers.
And I’m like; oh thanks, I could’ve taken that tip last week, before I packed!
The world of Moto GP lives through 18 weekends
and a handful of tests.
For the athletes it means little time spent at 350 km/h and riding
on the very edge, finding the limit of physics.
Riding is crucial, and for keeping a sharp throttle hand.
So for us it’s very important because we need to train,
but we cannot risk too much.
MotoGP racers boast acute feeling, balance and sensitivity, honed though countless hours on two wheels,
infinite laps, and a never and a never ending fight against the chrono.
The list of riders, who have trained at the Ranch,
is a “who’s who” of motorcycle racing.
A lot of riders come here, from Kevin Schwantz, that was my hero.
A lot of American riders, a lot of riders from Moto GP, Moto 2, Moto 3 coming.
For me this is good, and a lot of people a lot of riders are very curious, because
it’s my track you know, and a lot of time in paddock in the weekend, they say to me:
“I wanna come to The Ranch, try to organize…” And they think a lot of people come here.
It’s very nice to hang out with the kids, watch them learning.
I love it because they look so young,
but the guys training with us
they are professionals already.
They work hard and they are only 16 or 17 years old.
In the Ranch with all the small riders working with him,
he can keep power with that people, and this is still keeping him young you know.
For Rossi, the Ranch is more than a training facility.
It is a hangout, a place to combine his love of motorcycles,
and a drip feed of adrenaline, with friendship, food, laughter and good times.
Yeah, the Ranch is very important, it includes lots of aspects.
The first, is being together,
and share the same passion in a wonderful place, it’s a dream to ride in a place like this
And all this turns into something functional as well for Valentino and the riders,
because the Ranch means challenge.
Challenge and technique.
It means progression and competition.
But as said before, the real secret is
the friendships, the human relationships;
the Ranch is a vehicle for all this.
Valentino Rossi has moved through different eras, machinery and styles in MotoGP,
by refining his handling of a motorcycle and plenty of the work has been done right here, at The Ranch.