Yamaha Owners Club

The 28th edition of the Dakar rally will take place from the 31st of December to
the 15th of January 2006. After the rally had already started in France and
Spain, it will this time take off from Lisbon, Portugal to end nearly 10,000
kilometres later at the coast of Dakar, Sénegal. In only his second Dakar
participation this year David Frétigné finished fifth overall. He was the only
rider to have won three specials in 2005 and he repeated his 450 class win of
last year.

David Frétigné (Yamaha WR450F - Yamaha Moto France Ipone) - overall winner
"Above all I have used the Shamrock to prepare for Dakar. It's nice that I have
won with an advance of more than 2 hours over the second, but for more it's even
more important to know that we have done our homework for the Dakar. I have
concentrated on getting the right setting for my suspension over the past week
and everything turned out great. Apart from that we did the usual stuff with a
new bike: adjusting pedals and handlebars, learning to work with the new GPS and
so on. We have not touched the engine, but even under demanding situations the
WR450F engine behaved brilliantly. In general the bike gave me even more
confidence than before, and we will keep the bike as it is for the Dakar. The
next step in my preparation is to rest and perfect my physical shape till the
end of November, after that I will start studying the maps to get my mind set
for the 2006 Dakar. I will also have the bike with me to continue to ride and
practice my navigation."

FINAL STANDINGS SHAMROCK RALLY 2005
1. David Frétigné (Yamaha), 2. Thierry Bethys (Honda), 3. Christophe Meillat
(Honda), 4. Olivier Cubaynes (Yamaha), 5. Patrick Moreno (Suzuki), 6. André
Lenoble (Suzuki), 7. Christophe Rougeot (Yamaha), 8. Philippe Pennarun (Yamaha),
9. Jean-Michel Redal (Polaris), 10. Eric Beaudoin (Kawasaki)