The Yamaha Owners Club

The opening round of the 2010 AMA Supercross/FIM SX World Championship at the Angel Stadium, Anaheim in Los Angeles was won in fine style by defending champion L and M San Manuel's James Stewart. The Floridian gave the new Yamaha YZ450F its first victory in a major series.

The 51st supercross race in Anaheim and the first of three visits in the 2010 schedule saw a tense beginning to the current campaign that runs almost every week across the US and into Canada until the beginning of May. Stewart was dominant in practice and took first pick in the gate for Saturday's main event that was attended by more than 43,000 people.

The 24 year old started in second place and hunted the rear wheel of rookie Ryan Dungey for 17 of the 20 laps before making his play for the lead in the closing stages. He crossed the line for his seventh win in Los Angeles by nearly four seconds from Dungey with Kevin Windham over thirty seconds adrift in third. Stewart's arch-rival, Chad Reed, retired on the second lap after a collision left him with broken wheel spokes.

"The first few laps, I was trying to settle in and see where everything was, checking out the bike and everything was cool, but I messed up a rhythm section and then he [Dungey] got a pretty good gap," Stewart recalled. "I looked up and it was like lap 13, so I had to put in another charge. I felt like I had a lot left in the tank and I was able to catch him, pass him, and then he ended up trying to pass me back, but I was able to hold him off until the end of the last lap and win the race."

"I feel like my endurance is really good, and that's what I really work for hard every week. I felt way better at lap 17 than I did at the beginning."

"It's going to be a long season," he added. "Unfortunately, Chad DNF-ed tonight, so there were a lot of crazy things going on but I'm happy to be out of here with a win and the points lead."

Stewart's success could start another Anaheim 'clean sweep' for Yamaha as the champion claimed two events last year and Joe Gibbs Racing's Josh Grant was another victor. Grant on this occasion did not start the Main Event after feeling the ill-effects of a practice crash on Tuesday before the meeting.

Other YZ450Fs were present in the top half of the leader-board with Stewart's new team-mate Josh Hill running to 6th place and being followed by Ivan Tedesco in 7th and Paris Bercy SX winner Justin Brayton in 8th.

Yamaha Monster Energy MX Team's Gautier Paulin made his AMA SX debut at Anaheim in the West Coast Lites class. The Frenchman, supported for the event by Yamaha Star Racing, made the first of three scheduled appearances as part of his winter build-up to the FIM MX2-GP Motocross World Championship and finished in 15th, the victim of two falls, the first coming through contact with another rider while holding 4th spot. "I felt good," he said. "It was my first time. But Trey Canard hit me and knocked me down, and then I fell again later. My speed was good, but I need to be more consistent next week." Broc Tickle was the highest YZ250F runner with 6th position.

Round two of seventeen takes place at Chase Field in Phoenix next Saturday.

The 2010 Dakar Rally has reached the half way point and Yamaha can count on some consistent and decent performances from the likes of Helder Rodrigues and David Fretigne on WR450Fs who currently hold lofty positions in the motorcycle class. The toughest Rally in the world is once more occurring on a different continent – South America for the second year in succession – but the 9000km, 14-stage route on a loop through Argentina and Chile, beginning and ending in the Argentina capital, offers a diverse and challenge topography worthy of the title ‘Dakar’.

The 32nd edition of Dakar is the first with a new regulation of cylinder size in the motorcycle division with the limit pegged at 450cc (bigger machines must be air restricted); allowing the potency of the WR450F to come into its own on a ‘level playing field’.

With almost 6000km negotiated, Rodrigues is currently second in the overall standings after 2009 winner Marc Coma was handed a six hour penalty on Friday. The Portuguese, who has only dropped out of the top ten in two stages, has notched best positions of 2nd and 3rd on Stages 2 and 6 respectively up until the mid-rally break of one day.

Rodrigues attempted his first Dakar in 2006 and won the 450 class in 2007. He now faces a margin of more than one hour to leader Cyril Despres who has been leading since Stage 3. The 30 year old Yamaha representative heads David Fretigne in 6th place overall. The French Yamaha stalwart is unlucky not to be higher in the classification after earning his eighth triumph on the second day. Fretigne tackled 626km through technical terrain and made the most of some familiar turf to surge ahead. “It was difficult to see at the beginning because of the weather but visibility became better later in the stage and thanks to the tracks being similar to those in which I have trained on in France I was able to increase my rhythm,” he said.

Sadly the next day Fretigne clocked in with 42nd place after an electrical problem cost him valuable time. “I remain motivated even if my position is not so favourable,” he commented at the time after being bumped outside the top twenty of the overall ranking “but this is the Dakar; you can laugh one day and be crying the next.” Since then Fretigne has been fighting his way back up the table, with 3rd position on Stage5 and 2nd spot through Stage 7 keeping him with a chance of a podium honour.

After Stage 7 Spaniard Jose Manuel Pellicer is 8th on another WR while 29th year old Frenchman Oliver Pain is 10th and the fourth Yamaha inside the leading group.

In the Quad category Yamaha-powered machinery is racing clear with the first five positions of the group of fourteen participants by Stage 7. Marcos Patronelli has a mammoth lead of almost two and a half hours over older brother Alejandro; the Argentines have taken four stages between them. In third is Spaniard Juan Manuel Gonzalez ahead of Rafal Sonik from Poland in fourth.

After working their way north and the highest point of the route in Chile, the competitors of the ’10 Dakar will now begin the path down the coast and through the Atacama Desert and dunes until swerving back across the border into Argentina on Wednesday. The Rally finishes with Stage 14 and the entry into Buenos Aires on Saturday 16th.

The perfect chance to hone your edge on the racetrack with Yamaha Racing Parts for the YZF-R6 and YZF-R1 is drawing nearer with the second ordering deadline for receiving these indispensible YEC kit sets to close on January 15th.

Forged through the efforts of world champions Ben Spies and Cal Crutchlow with their respective title winning teams in World Superbike and World Supersport, the high-performance engine and chassis components as well as the specialist tools are now in demand and any remaining orders must be received by the end of next week for delivery by late April. The total YEC line up consists of over 120 parts for the latest generation R1 and over 110 parts for the current R6 such as race camshafts, ECU units and wire harnesses, gears, valve springs and generators. Also available in 2010 are optimum selected sets of uniform weight production pistons and connecting rods and well balanced production crank shaft sets. As in previous years, the range includes a selection of race parts for former model year R1 and R6 machines too.

Yamaha's YEC Racing Parts are sold through the official Yamaha dealer network and are for closed-circuit use only. For further information on specifications and availability teams and riders must contact local Yamaha dealers or national distributors without delay to ensure priority on these essential tools for racing ambition and success.

The third and final ordering deadline is May 15th for delivery in August.

This weekend the sensational show that is the AMA Supercross/FIM Supercross World Championship gets underway at its spiritual home of the Angel Stadium, Anaheim in Los Angeles for its 37th edition. The first visit of three to the venue in the 17-race 2010 schedule will see defending champion James Stewart of the L and M Team wield the new Yamaha YZ450F into its maiden major international campaign.

Stewart will be backed by new team-mate and Yamaha mainstay Josh Hill while also being supported by brand-mates Josh Grant and Bercy SX winner Justin Brayton as members of the Joe Gibbs Racing squad.

Yamaha clinched the AMA/FIM title in 2008 and 2009 and with Stewart’s undoubted status as the fastest rider of the Indoor discipline they will be aiming for a hat-trick come the final round in May in Las Vegas. The Floridian missed the podium only twice from seventeen occasions in 2009 and collected 11 wins setting a new record in Blue colours. The story of last season was the current-24 year old’s duel with Chad Reed, and the arch-rivals are set to clash again on Saturday as the series then heads from West to East coasts with a visit to Toronto, Canada also part of the calendar.

With a total of 36, Stewart is presently third in the all-time winner’s list, needing two more victories than Reed for further promotion and has to accumulate thirteen triumphs to hit the number one spot ahead of Ricky Carmichael.

Yamaha has a long standing association with Supercross as Pierre Karsmakers won the inaugural championship on a DT250 in 1974, Jeremy McGrath ruled the class for three years in succession from ‘98 to ’00 and Doug Henry famously took the YZ400F to four podiums in 1998 introducing the wave of four-stroke technology that dominates the sport today.

A pacy track awaits the riders in Los Angeles and the priority for Stewart surely has to be to improve on his 2009 result in which he tangled with another rider and crashed out of the Main Event. Josh Grant was the surprise victor twelve months ago and the 23 year old followed up his achievement with some decent speed and a rack of top-five finishes.

The opening round of the championship will also witness the first competitive outing for Yamaha Monster Energy Motocross Team’s new rider Gautier Paulin. The French teenager – who finished 3rd in the 2009 FIM Motocross MX2-GP world championship – plans to contest the initial three meetings of the West Coast Lites series for further experience in the sport.