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Monday, 11 February 2008 |
Yamaha owned the top steps of the podiums in both the AMA Supercross and Lites West Coast classes last Saturday in San Diego. Chad Reed clinched his fourth victory in succession on the San Manuel YZ450F, and fifth from the six rounds of seventeen held so far. Jason Law steered the Yamaha of Troy YZ250F to his third win on the trot and of his career.
In front of more than 64,000 fans in the Qualcomm stadium Reed edged his lead in the standings of the AMA series (also an FIM World Championship) to 35 points while Lawrence leapt to the top of the Lites table for the first time and has a margin of 2 points over Ryan Dungey.
Australian Reed continued Yamaha's splendid record in San Diego, notching the 12th win for Yamaha in a history that stretches back to Mike Bell's first success in 1980. It was Reed's fifth personal triumph in the southern Californian city and forged a landmark 100% ratio for the racer across the state.
The 25 year old took part in an entertaining 20 lap main event with Honda's Davi Millsaps. The pair traded the lead in the opening circulations before Reed assumed control for nine laps but then he slipped off the Yamaha and handed the initiative back to Millsaps. Showing calmness and determination Reed reeled off a steady four laps to draw the American back to his front wheel and regained the advantage with only a few minutes of the race remaining. |
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Monday, 11 February 2008 |
The 25th edition of the Starcross International at Mantova in Italy kick-started the 2008 European motocross calendar last weekend and it was a positive meeting for the Yamaha Motocross Team as David Philippaerts took his first overall victory on the YZ450FM and Josh Coppins filled second position. The inaugural race of the year saw factory representation from all the manufacturers and a large quota of world championship riders line the gate.
Across the three 20 minute and 2 lap motos on the rough and hard-pack sandy Italian terrain, Philippaerts rode strongly and did not drop out of the top three to post finishes of 2nd, 1st and 3rd. Coppins suffered from a spill in Saturday’s qualification heat that left the New Zealander with a sore shoulder. The 30 year old slipped off again on a chaotic first lap of the opening sprint but recovered to obtain a set of 7th, 4th and 4th positions.
Philippaerts was a convincing winner in Moto2 and should have perhaps won the first race also if he did not need to briefly slow while in second place to sort out a brake concern. In the final outing he was unable to chase Jonathan Barragan but the Spaniard had mechanical trouble early in race two and was physically fresher than his peers.
The team were testing for two days this week prior to their first competitive appearance of 2008 and will be clocking up kilometres again on the YZ450FM in the days after Mantova. The new Kayaba suspension units have had a benefit, and the improvement in the front end feeling of the chassis - helping the bike turn quicker - has been met with all-round approval from both riders. |
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Friday, 08 February 2008 |
As the first ever winner of both MX1 and MX2 Grand Prix there is a lot of hope for new Yamaha Motocross Team recruit David Philippaerts as the 24 year old opens the ‘blue’ chapter of his career this weekend at the Starcross International at Mantova in Italy.
The first Italian representative for the crew since the inception of the MX1 category in 2004, Philippaerts is ideally placed to continue his impressive climb in world championship motocross since bursting onto the scene with a volley of MX2-GP podiums in 2005.
The Tuscan has spent the winter working with the Rinaldi-helmed squad in preparation for the 2008 MX1-GP season, only his second in the premier class since entering the competition in 2007 and after adapting immediately to the demands of the 450cc four-stroke with six podiums, two moto victories and a single Grand Prix success at the Teutschenthal circuit in Germany. |
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Thursday, 07 February 2008 |
Valentino Rossi rounded off a successful three days in Malaysia with another impressive day's testing at the Sepang International Circuit today. The high point of the Italian's day was his race simulation, when he lapped consistently under lap record pace and improved on his time from the January test, as well as on last year's race time.
Rossi was pleased both with the performance of his 2008-spec M1 and with his Bridgestone tyres, today's results indicating that he and his team are on target with their pre-season development. His best time of 2'01.190 was set on a qualifying tyre on his 23rd of 48 laps, putting him second in the standings behind team-mate Jorge Lorenzo.
The Fiat Yamaha Team will reconvene closer to home at Jerez in Spain on Saturday, 16th February for the three-day Official MotoGP Test, the penultimate test before the season kicks off in March.
Valentino Rossi - Position: 2nd Time: 2'01.190 Laps: 48
"I'm really happy about today's race simulation and about the overall balance of this test. Everything has gone well and the race-simulation was an improvement on the one from last time; this is the real test of where we are. We've worked on various different items in many different areas but we've had positive feedback throughout. It's given me the chance to better understand the tyres and today's simulation has given me even more information about how they behave. We've worked more at this test on the set-up of the bike to enable it to work as well as possible with the new tyres and we've also continued to work on the new engine, which will be the standard one for this season, and on the electronics. We've still got a lot to do but so far everything is progressing well. Now we're looking forward to Jerez and seeing where we are at a new track alongside all of our competitors."
Davide Brivio - Team Manager
"This test has been very positive; all the hard work that the Yamaha engineers have put in over the winter is now showing in our good results so I would like to say a big thank you to all of them. We've seen improvement in all the different areas in which we've worked in this week and so we hope that these results will help us to create a competitive package. Today's race simulation was good and an improvement on January, plus the individual lap times within it were fast and consistent. This is a very important indication of our level. We've only done 50% of our pre-season testing, we have two more to go before the first race but we hope to continue improving like this and arrive at the first race in good shape and ready to commence our challenge." |
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