Rossi out to make history at Assen.

Honda's Valentino Rossi, winner of four of the six 500 GPs run so far this year, wants to continue making history this Saturday, in the Dutch Grand Prix, at Assen.

Already this season he has become the first man to record success in all three classes, at Mugello and Catalunya, and now he wants to do the same at the Dutch circuit. A 125 winner in '97 and 250 winner in '98, Rossi loves the circuit and is looking good for the treble.

"It's a very, very difficult track but I like it a lot," said Rossi who finished sixth in his Assen 500 debut last year, a two-part race stopped and restarted due to rain. "Assen is very technical, especially on a 500. The straights aren't straight, so you're always changing from one direction to the other, so you have to be very much in control. Also, some of the corners are banked and the road is crowned, so we run stiffer-than-normal suspension settings to keep the bike more stable."

Assen also has GP racing's longest-standing lap record, set by Kevin Schwantz in 1991. The Texan's dizzying lap time has remained unbroken for various reasons: because the track had been newly resurfaced that year, because inclement weather has often interrupted Assen proceedings since then and because Schwantz was undeniably an Assen genius.

The '93 500 champ is also the latest in a long line of former GP kings to heap praise upon Rossi. The two have much in common: a lanky physique, massive natural talent, a deadly serious but joyful approach to motorcycle racing and global popularity.

"The big thing about Valentino is that he's having fun doing it," explained Schwantz. "He's out on the track every time wringing the bike's neck, trying to get everything he can out of it. Plus, he never moans about 'missing the set-up' and he seems like a guy who can say 'okay, we get beat on occasion, we're not superhuman'. That's all part of his secret."

After his fourth win of the year at Catalunya two weeks ago, Rossi stayed on at the Spanish track to test a new chassis which should further improve the handling of his NSR500s. He currently enjoys a 26-point lead over arch-rival Max Biaggi.