Valentino Rossi was born in Urbino, then the family moved to Tavullia. Son of Graziano Rossi, a former motorcycle racer, he first began riding at a very young age.[4]

Rossi's first racing love was go-karts. Fuelled by his mother, Stefania's, concern for her son's safety, Graziano purchased a go-kart as substitute for the bike. However, the Rossi family trait of perpetually wanting to go faster prompted a redesign; Graziano replaced the 60cc motor with a 100cc national kart motor for his then 5-year-old son.[5]

Graziano attempted to forge documents in an attempt to get Valentino's junior kart licence one year before he was legally allowed (he was nine at the time), but ultimately failed.[citation needed]

Rossi won the regional kart championship in 1990.[6] After this he took up minimoto and before the end of 1991 had won numerous regional races.[4]

Rossi continued to race karts and finished fifth at the national kart championships in Parma. Both Valentino and Graziano had started looking at moving into the Italian 100cc series, as well as the corresponding European series, which most likely would have pushed him into the direction of Formula One. However, the high cost of racing karts led to the decision to race minimoto exclusively[citation needed]. Through 1992 and 1993, Valentino continued to learn the ins and outs of minimoto racing.

As Rossi soon started to outgrow minimoto, a proper motorcycle was required. In 1993, he acquired a Cagiva Mito 125cc motorcycle, which was damaged in a first-corner crash no more than a hundred metres from the pit lane.[citation needed] He finished ninth that race weekend.

Although his first season in the Italian Sport Production Championship was varied, he achieved a pole position in the season's final race at Misano, where he would ultimately finish on the podium. By the second year, Rossi had been provided with a factory Mito by Cagiva team manager Claudio Lusuardi and managed to win the Italian title.

In Rossi's youth one of his heroes was the late former WRC Champion Colin McRae. Rally legend McRae taught Rossi the basics of driving a rally car.[7] The two competed against each other at Monza in 2005, with McRae driving a Skoda Fabia WRC and Rossi winning in a Subaru Impreza WRC.[8]