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Thursday, 03 April 2008 |
Yamaha has long recognized that not only many women ride motorcycles, but that they like to ride fast on a race track too. The most recent proof comes in the shape of current Womens’ Road Racing European Champion in the 1000 class Nina Prinz, who will team up with Yamaha in 2008.
Twenty-five-year-old Nina, from Mannheim/Leutkirch in Germany, won all three 2007 European Women Championship races sanctioned by the UEM (European Motorcycle Union). This success landed her with the opportunity to defend her title on Yamaha’s YZF-R1 Superbike flagship, which she will race for the first time at Misano (I) on 13 April, then Assen (NL) on 15 June and the final Championship round will be held at Albacete (ESP) on 12 October.
Nina and her R1 will also be competing in the male-dominated IDM German Superbike Championship for Team Yamaha Motor Germany, riding alongside former 2000 World Supersport champion Jörg Teuchert and Polish rider Andrzej Pawalec.
On her signing Nina says; “I am very please to have signed with Yamaha for this season! During my first two outings on the R1 at Misano and during the Yamaha Race Training in Valencia last week, I was really impressed by the bike in terms of power and stability. The team has prepared a perfect bike for me and being part of this outfit hopefully enables me to progress further. With experienced riders as Jörg aboard, I can really learn a lot. Both championships are very competitive but my goal is to score as many points as possible in the IDM and consolidate my championship title status in the Womens Championship this year. The fact that Yamaha actively supports female riders is a very positive development for the sport and for us women in particular!”
Nina got into motorcycle racing via minibikes and got really serious when she entered the national ADAC Junior Cup in Germany in 2000. Since then she has graduated through National Supersport racing, improving all the time, before adding some IDM Superbike experience and European Womens’ Championship rides to her portfolio in 2006. Nina simply dominated the 2007 UEM series.
Nina is the second female star that is officially supported by Yamaha. Reigning FIM Motocross Women’s World Cup champion Katherine Prumm from New Zealand will race on a Yamaha YZ250F in the newly established 2008 Women Motocross World Championship. Both Nina and Katherine hope to continue their success with Yamaha and contribute to the increasing popularity of female motorcycle riding and competition. |
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Wednesday, 02 April 2008 |
The Grand Prix of the Netherlands at the Eurocircuit in Valkenswaard, close to the city of Eindhoven, opens the 2008 FIM Motocross World Championship this weekend and Yamaha’s strong arm faculty equipped with potent YZ machinery will go to the start-gate in earnest for the first time this year.
The first round of fifteen in an ’08 series that visits thirteen countries and two continents will see Yamaha once more fit the role of protagonists in the MX1-GP (premier class with 450cc four-stroke motorcycles) and MX2-GP (250cc four-stroke motorcycles) categories.
The Yamaha Monster Motocross Team bring their freshly painted YZ450FMs to Holland hoping to re-capture the title they narrowly missed out on in 2007 and add to their splendid tally of three championships from four years since the MX1-GP classification was established. Josh Coppins and new recruit David Philippaerts have had an excellent pre-season with four wins through events in Italy and France. Coppins, who won five Grand Prix, took nine podiums and led more laps than any other rider in his first season with Yamaha last year, has been recovering from two broken toes on his right foot after a freak accident while training two weeks ago.
“Things are coming along well, it should be OK to race although the weekend will be more about damage-limitation for the championship instead of setting myself any specific targets,” said the recently turned 31 year old who won In Valkenswaard to mark a memorable Yamaha debut twelve months ago. |
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Monday, 31 March 2008 |
The Fiat Yamaha Team's young Spanish rookie Jorge Lorenzo, who boasts an outstanding record of two pole positions and two podiums from his two MotoGP starts, put in more impressive work today during a one-day test in Jerez. After joining his team-mate Valentino Rossi as part of a Fiat Yamaha double podium yesterday, he posted the fastest time of the day and completed a total of 94 laps.
Another day of Andalucian sunshine today provided Lorenzo and his crew with the chance to work on general setting and their all-important tyre testing programme with Michelin amid slightly more relaxed surroundings. The Mallorcan continued to show his ability and fast rate of progress, not only topping the time sheets on a qualifying tyre but lapping consistenly fast on race tyres. His best time on a race tyre was 1'39.59, over half a second faster than the fastest lap record recorded in yesterday's race and he was the only rider to dip under the 1'38 mark on a qualifying tyre.
Danielle Romagnoli - Team Manager of Jorge Lorenzo
"It was a another really good day today; Jorge's progress is almost unbelievable for us to watch and every day is enjoyable. The most impressive thing today is that we were able to improve on Jorge's race pace from Saturday, which was the best pace of the whole weekend. We continued to work on set-up and improved the front feeling with the help of a new fork setting, and with race tyres today he was very consistent and very fast. We also refined some engine mapping and through this it seems that we've been able to obtain improvement with tyre wear. Michelin had planned a very interesting tyre test for us today with Estoril in mind and we found some good things, especially concerning the rear tyre. Jorge has done a great job at just his second race and today's test gave us a chance to check out some important things that will help us at the next race in Estoril. We're already looking forward to the next challenge but for now I want to thank all the team and Yamaha for their hard work; they deserve a good rest before Portugal!"
After claiming his 100th premier-class podium with a strong second place in the Spanish Grand Prix yesterday, it was straight back to work for Valentino Rossi and the Fiat Yamaha Team as they undertook a full day's testing at Jerez today.
With just two races under their belts since joing forces with Bridgestone, the primary focus of Rossi's crew still remains developing the union between the 2008 Yamaha M1 and the Bridgestone rubber. Yesterday's podium proves they are on the right track but today offered a chance to spend some uninterrupted hours concentrating on just this, with satisfying results all round. Setting was improved in general and Rossi was pleased with some of the new compound tyres he tried, both front and rear and including qualifying tyres. He completed 85 laps in total and his best lap, set with a qualifying tyre, put him second in a time of 1'39.117. His team-mate Jorge Lorenzo also had a good day after his third place yesterday, topping the time sheets with a best lap of 1'38.679. |
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Monday, 31 March 2008 |
Yamaha's Chad Reed got back to winning ways with his seventh victory of the 2008 AMA Monster Energy Supercross championship in Toronto last weekend. The Australian reengaged his title quest to claim the twelfth round of the campaign and lead the series by 20 points with just five events remaining.
After missing the podium for the two last races Reed was faultless across an extremely difficult, muddy and rutted terrain that saw many of his peers taste Canadian mud at some stage. Yamaha's Josh Hill was running as high as second before a mistake caused him to lose positions and he eventually crossed the finish line in fifth. Reed though cautiously led from start-to-finish for his ninth set of silverware this year. After the 'Monsoon' conditions at Daytona this was the second time the riders had to traverse a tricky circuit after the frozen dirt that was imported into the stadium began to melt and fall apart.
"The dirt was horrible! It was survival out there," laughed the recently-turned 26 year old former champion. "It was important to get that holeshot and try to get out front, and I just tried to control the race. I watched the pitboard and attempted to keep [the gap] at 10 seconds, and when it go to anything under that, I tried to pick it up a little bit. I think the key tonight was that slow was fast."
"I'm happy. It's going great. I've had some ups and downs, but I've got seven wins now, and like I said, I want to get this thing over and done with," added Reed who used the first break in the Supercross calendar to fly home to Australia for a holiday last week. |
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