James van Rossen

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James van Rossen is a Grand Prix motorcycle racer. He was born in Johannesburg, South Africa on January 30, 1986. He is the 2008 125cc champion.

Early Days

Van Rossen was interested in motor racing by the age of four, wanting to race in Formula One. He started karting by age six and was one of the fastest riders in the area. By the time he was nine, he discovered motorcycle racing and took an interest in the 500cc series. He then made the switch from karting to motorcycling by age 13 and was also very good at racing motorcycles, winning the national junior championship when he was 17, in 2003. He rose through the ranks in his country until in 2007 he won the national motorcycling championship when he was only 21 years of age.

125cc

Van Rossen was signed by the Bancaja Aspar Team, who was short one driver from meeting the standards met by engine supplier Aprilia, who wanted two riders on the team at one time.

What ended up happening was that van Rossen won seven out of the first eight races of the season, and wound up taking 11 wins in total during the 2008 season, easily winning the title. Van Rossen quickly became known as a great qualifier and a stable racer, only going down during the race in Indianapolis, a track that van Rossen considered a "farce." Even with that, van Rossen quickly rose through the ranks of racing.

MotoGP

2009: Alice Team

His very dominant season in 125cc made many teams in 250cc and MotoGP very curious about van Rossen. Although he got a lot of offers from 250cc, van Rossen signed with the Alice Team, which is the support team for the Ducati works team, in MotoGP. He raced to 11th place in his debut race in Qatar, but it was affected since a struggling Marco Melandri punted van Rossen off the track. He had a better race in Jerez, placing 8th. He had the race of his career in Portugal, fighting in the upper midfield, ending up finishing fifth. When asked about his potential for a podium this season, he said, "we can only hope, can we?"

In China he was up to sixth but technical problems dropped him to ninth. Then, in a very wet race in France, van Rossen qualified 11th but raced very well, finishing on the podium in second place, and before the race was red-flagged, was catching up to race winner Dani Pedrosa. In Italy, van Rossen collided with John Hopkins on the opening lap and crashed, spraining his wrist. He was declared fit to race in Catalunya, however. He crashed again in Donington, though this was caused by a mechanical problem more than anything else.

After a superb sixth at TT Assen, he followed up with a spectacular second place at the Sachsenring, surprisingly in dry weather. He acclaimed his success to the newfound pace found in the bike and to the hard efforts in the team, though journalists everywhere were saying on how well Van Rossen had ridden during the race, given his spectacular talent. Points finishes in Laguna Seca and Brno soon followed. After Misano, he had a bad race in Indianapolis, which ended quickly when he went into the barriers during the wet weather. However, van Rossen rebounded with a 3rd place in Motegi, battling with big names Jorge Lorenzo, Dani Pedrosa and Valentino Rossi through the whole race. He finished off the season with four straight points finishes, and placed a surprising 6th in the championship.

2010: Suzuki

Van Rossen signed a one year deal with the manufacturer, with both sides having an option for a second season. He had been rumoured with Ducati after newcomer Marco Melandri had performed terribly during the 2009 season, but Ducati decided they would only have one main rider for the season. He was also courted by Yamaha but the team decided to stick with Rossi and Lorenzo.

In the first race, van Rossen ran well but he appeared to lose a brake test to Lorenzo, though the stewards decided not to take any action. In Jerez, van Rossen drove his way through the field to place second in the race, behind what would be the championship leader after the race, Dani Pedrosa. After a tougher than usual race in China, van Rossen ran well in France, fighting with the leaders who were very close. Rossi won that race, van Rossen was in second but was passed at the last corner by Pedrosa. He still placed third, but was just barely ahead of Casey Stoner. He would make up for all of this, however, as he placed himself on pole position, ran fastest lap and won the race in Mugello, leading all the laps very comfortably. It was the first win for Suzuki since 2007, with current teammate Chris Vermuelen.

The next race in Catalunya was marred by torrential rain in practice, and the chance of even more rain on Sunday. The race was moved to Saturday in anticipation of the sunday race being rained out. Van Rossen had a tough race, placing 7th, as his bike was sliding around in the wet conditions. "I hadn't seen anything like this since France last year," said van Rossen after the race. After that, he placed fourth at Donington and third at Assen, battling with race leaders Pedrosa and Stoner. He had a tough qualifying in the Sachsenring, but recovered from 15th place to finish 4th, nearly setting the fastest lap in the process.

Races by Year

Year Class Team Manufacturer 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 WDC Points
2008 125cc Bancaja Aspar Team Aprilia QAT
1
ESP
1
POR
1
CHN
7
FRA
1
ITA
1
CAT
1
GBR
1
NED
5
GER
5
CZE
1
RSM
1
IND
12
JPN
1
AUS
1
MAL
5
VAL
2
1st 341
2009 MotoGP Alice Team Ducati QAT
11
ESP
8
POR
5
CHN
9
FRA
2
ITA
Ret
CAT
7
GBR
Ret
NED
6
GER
2
USA
5
CZE
8
RSM
6
IND
Ret
JPN
3
AUS
9
MAL
5
VAL
5
6th 164
2010 MotoGP Suzuki Team Suzuki QAT
6
ESP
2
POR
3
CHN
4
FRA
3
ITA
1
CAT
7
GBR
4
NED
3
GER
4
USA
1
CZE
Ret
RSM IND JPN AUS MAL VAL 4th 176