When Yamaha announced that they would be pulling out their factory team from the World Superbike championship at the end of the season, World Supersport Championship leaders Yamaha ParkinGO stepped up and offered to take over the team, however it seems that team manager Giuliano Rovelli’s request has been turned down.

Apparently Yamaha is in negotiations with some Anglo-South African marketing agency willing to manage the entire operation, lock, stock and barrel for the 2012 and 2013 seasons and the decision deadline is tomorrow Wednesday September 21st.

Rovelli, is a proven manager and his team that switched last season from Triumph to Yamaha and riders Chaz Davies and Luca Scassa have won seven of the nine races so far and Davies could be celebrating the championship title this Sunday at Imola, is at loss of why Yamaha won’t consider his offer.

Speaking to Motosprint.it Rovelli said, “Our plan for next year’s World Superbike championship was to field Marco Melandri and Chaz Davies, who we believe is an emerging talent, but Laurens Klein Koerkamp (Yamaha Motor Europe racing manager) told us they were already in talks with this South African group that I read about in the newspapers. He told us that in our business plan regarding Superbikes there were errors and then he wished me luck with another manufacturer. Too bad, we are in contact with another manufacturer, but it seemed logical and natural that we make this switch to Superbikes with Yamaha.”

Continue reading: Yamaha refuses ParkinGO offer to run WSBK team

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Since Yamaha’s announcement on Monday that they would be withdrawing their World Superbike factory effort, there’s been talk that Yamaha could do a Ducati, that is give their bikes to a private team to run (privateer Carlos Checa isn’t a faring so bad with 10 wins) and that team could be World Supersport team ParkinGO.

The Yamaha ParkinGO team is currently dominating in World Supersports with Chaz Davies (4 wins) and Luca Scassa (2 wins), taking home six out of the eight races so far this season and Giuliano Rovelli who runs the team was already thinking of making the switch to Superbikes as he revealed to La Gazzetta dello Sport.

“We are working on it from April,” said the Italian manager. “Yamaha Europe did not seem convinced, but that scenario has changed.”

Rovelli is also in talks with Ducati and Aprilia, if Yamaha should decide not to give him the R1’s at a decent price, but according to the British press it seems that Shaun Muir could represent Yamaha if he should decide to take his Swan Yamaha BSB team into the international scene, now that the World Superbikes are going for the one bike rule and limited testing time.

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Now this is a bombshell along the lines of the Ducati factory team pullout from World Superbikes, because now Yamaha has issued a statement that they are withdrawing their official Yamaha World Superbike team at the end of the season, which will leave Marco Melandri and Eugene Laverty high and dry despite having contracts for 2012.

The reason is the usual downtrodden economy and slow sales stating they will continue to supply YEC kits for its R1 and R6 models to private racing teams.

Press release:

Continue reading: Bombshell! Yamaha to pull out of World Superbikes at the end of 2011

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When Yamaha USA released their comical video of Supercross champion James Stewart trying out new jobs when he was thinking that his last year’s injury could have been a career breaker, but no one thought that being a police officer would be part of his curriculum.

Stewart was arrested by the Florida Highway Patrol on the charge of impersonating a police officer and his passenger for tampering with evidence.

Apparently Stewart with his passenger, tried to stop another vehicle which unfortunately for him was driven by two off duty highway troopers. Using flashing red and blue police lights, they pulled the vehicle over, but when the driver identified himself as a law enforcement officer, Stewart sped off. He and his passenger were later arrested at the Orlando International Airport.

Stewart was released and his passenger was booked at the Orange County Jail.

Source | orlandosentinel.com

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Yamaha rider and reigning World Champion Jorge Lorenzo finished third during the first day of testing and despite being 0.481s from rival Casey Stoner, he was happy with the improvements on his M1 having found that elusive traction that he lamented during the previous test at Sepang and he also finally received the new chassis that Yamaha had promised.

“Today was a good day for me, we worked on the traction to improve it from the previous test which helped us a lot in the set up, I’m now very satisfied with it,” said Lorenzo. “We have our chassis for 2011 now and we are working on it as well as our engine spec. With the improvements we’ve made we can now brake a little later and enter the corners a little more quickly as well so I was able to do some good fast consistent lap times this afternoon when it was still very hot on the track.”

Lorenzo’s team mate Ben Spies took the sixth spot today and as usual the Texas Terror was happy with his lap times on used tires.

Continue reading: Jorge Lorenzo finds the traction he was looking for, Spies fast on used tires

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Yamaha’s Masao Furusawa may be retiring in a month and half, but the driving force behind Yamaha’s MotoGP racing effort has revealed that the Iwata company has started a Moto3 project.

Moto3 will be replacing the present 125cc class next year with 250cc four stroke engines and with big manufacturers like Honda and KTM getting into the game and small outfits like Ioda Racing, ADV and the latest from Sherco/Moro Racing that already have a head start with prototypes in the competing phase in national championships or already available to teams for testing, and Yamaha doesn’t want to be left out the door, and are developing a bike based on their YZ250F engine configuration.

Their interest according to Furusawa is to help groom upcoming riders, but Yamaha isn’t new to the lower classes with their World titles in the 125cc and 250cc classes back in ‘67 and ‘68.

Source | mcn.com

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Despite last year’s rash of riders who hurt themselves while motorcross training, Jorge Lorenzo hasn’t given up on this type of training that almost all MotoGP and Superbike riders find necessary and complementary to their own type of racing.

Last year Lorenzo broke his right hand in a pre-season training accident that kept him out of the Sepang tests and he rode the season opener in Qatar, still not fully fit, but able to take the second spot on the podium and naturally win the championship title.

Check out Lorenzo (naturally in Yamaha blue) training with former MX3 rider Javi Garcia Vico, also present at the playground was Lorenzo’s BFF Ricky Cardus, and trial world champions champions Toni Bou and Albert Cabestany.

Source | JorgeLorenzo@facebook.com

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As we reported yesterday, MotoGP World Champion Jorge Lorenzo was at the EICMA Show and after attending the opening ceremony with Italy’s PM Berlusconi, visited the Yamaha stand and his helmet manufacturer Nolan to meet fans and sign autographs.

Lorenzo talked about his win at Estoril, the title the upcoming season finale at Valencia and Yamaha. “It was a great day, particularly because I am sure Valentino gave it all.” said the new World Champion talking about his devasting win over Rossi at the Portoguese GP.

Lorenzo will be looking to win at Valencia, which isn’t known as a friendly track for the M1 and try to take Valentino Rossi’s record of number of points in a season. “It is important to finish on a high note, but I am really looking forward to take a break and re-charge my batteries for 2011.”

Talking about the 2011 season said “It is too soon to talk about next season, but I would have loved to face Valentino on a Yamaha once again. On the same bike, you don’t have an excuse, the stronger takes all, the loser cannot appeal to a technical deficit.” and about his team, “It is an amazing team, that gave me plenty of support from the very first moment” and whether he feels like the strongest rival of the Rossi era: “He should answer this question, not me…”

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James Toseland may be out of the Yamaha Sterilgarda after his disappointing season, with rumors have him heading to his former Ten Kate Honda team, but this hasn’t stopped Yamaha from dedicating a special and limited edition of James Toseland-replica guitars from its musical instrument division.

Only 52 RGX-A2 JT guitars will be made, bearing Toseland’s #52 racing number and the Yamaha Sterilgarda livery colors of which one will go to the piano playing British rider and four will be used as competition prizes.

Source | mcn.com

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Why isn’t Yamaha using the new Öhlins forks that were introduced and tested during the Brno test? According to William Favero, Yamaha’s Communications Manager the decision was based on the fact that Öhlins is unable to supply more that two sets per team this year.

Speaking to Giovanni Zamagni of moto.it Favero said that Masahiko Nakajima Yamaha’s M1 Project Leader has a list, which is basically the “minimum technical requirement” which defines the number of parts that his riders need to have to race.

Yamaha according the their specs needs six sets of forks, three for each rider, while Öhlins is currently able to supply only two sets of the new forks and cannot guarantee a minimun allocation to satisfy Yamaha’s requests, so the Japanese manager decided not to have Lorenzo and Rossi use the new forks this season and put them on the 2011 materials list.

Jorge Lorenzo did try the new forks during the Brno test and said: “I don’t like so much at the moment. But maybe we will try again.” while Valentino Rossi did not, which upset the Italian who said, “I didn’t try the fork because Yamaha didn’t give me to try. I was very upset about this because we have eight races to go, not two or three. They said to me that they don’t use this fork in the next races because it is a fork for 2011.”

Now this story has been finally laid to rest.

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The third worst kept secret of the MotoGP paddock (the first was Stoner in Honda, the second was Rossi in Ducati) has been confirmed by Yamaha, that Ben Spies will replace Valentino Rossi at the factory Yamaha team in 2011.

Spies already had a two year contract with Yamaha Japan at the end of 2009 and an option to ride for the factory team if Jorge Lorenzo or Valentino Rossi were to leave the team and with Rossi going to Ducati in 2011, the Texas Terror with his current seventh place in the world championship and the only privateer rider and a rookie at that, to stand on the podium (Silverstone) so far this year will be making the big switch.

Read the press release after the jump and take note of the phrase ‘my mechanics’ (crewchief Tom Houseworth and Greg Wood who followed Spies through the AMA, WSBK and in Tech3) that Spies mentions and which could mean that at least two of Rossi’s crew is making the jump to Ducati with him and we expect that Jorge Lorenzo, who is still playing coy saying”For my side, I still haven’t signed with Yamaha, but we all hope that it comes very soon.” will probably be announced at the Motorland Aragon GP in Spain next month.

Continue reading: No Kidding, Yamaha confirms Ben Spies in factory team

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Most rider contracts end December 31, but riders are usually released immediately after the final race so they can begin testing their new bikes. One exception was Valentino Rossi. Honda HRC at the end of 2003 refused to release him early to test and it looks like Yamaha is heading in the same direction.

Valentino Rossi in an interview after Monday’s Brno test said: “I expect that Yamaha will let me try the Ducati in Valencia, because our story is a different story, and I give more to Yamaha from 2004 to now, I improve a lot the bike and all the team, so if they are fair, they have to say yes for my test in Valencia.”

The so called gentlemen’s agreement where Rossi instead of announcing his switch to Ducati at Laguna Seca, because the US is one of Yamaha’s key markets and making it a Brno should have guaranteed that the Italian would be allowed to test the Ducati Desmosedici GP11 at Valencia, however Masao Furusawa, Executive Officer of Engineering Operations at Yamaha speaking to motogp.com from Brno has indicated however that this is now unlikely due to contractual agreements.

Continue reading: Yamaha to deny Rossi Valencia test?

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