Yamaha to succeed in 50th anniversary year?

pic SportsPics.co.za
By blue2bikes
December 28 2004

The 50th anniversary of Yamaha is upon us, as 2005 comes all too quickly, and the efforts of the Japanese company are going all-out to attack every series, with top riders in every event to make a giant assault at all levels.

photo by www.SportsPics.co.za

The new MotoGP M1 from Yamaha is proving that even a slower bike with the correct rider combination can and will win world championships - as Valentino Rossi so easily proved this year.

The crew that Rossi bought with him from Honda has proven yet again to be a winning combination: a combination that Yamaha were not going to let slip through their fingers. Rossi and his pit crew manager Jerry Burgess are a formidable force, and Yamaha are well aware that the combination of the two was unbeatable even though the 2004 bike had less power on top end. The turning speed and acceleration was to prove the undoing of the Honda factory.

Will the Honda factory come back to the 2005 season with a combination as strong as the Rossi-Burgess duo? I very much doubt it, and I can see Rossi equalling Mick Doohan’s record of five consecutive championship wins. Yes, Honda do have the capabilities of taking the championship, but they don’t have the all-important ingredient of Rossi and Burgess, who go all out to win - proven this year time and time again.

Although the practice season has now ended, you can be sure that the Yamaha engineers are already working to gain that all important career victory in their 50th anniversary year.

The World Superbike scene is promising to be an all-out attack, with crowd pleaser ‘Nitro’ Noriyuki Haga aboard the new Yamaha looking more and more evident - although as yet it has not been officially reported that Nori has signed for Yamaha.

Haga’s present manager Mark Griffiths - owner of the Renegade team - has announced that there would be no point in stopping Haga going where he wanted to go. The deadline for Haga’s decision is 31st December 2004. Should Haga sign for Yamaha, it is looking more and more possible that the World Superbike crown may well be heading Yamaha’s way.

What of the British Superbike series? Well, with no less than eight Yamaha R1s in the series - with the likes of Sean Emmett aboard - anything could be possible. Along with the fastest man in the history of the Isle of Man TT aboard a Yamaha - again another likely candidate to take the Yamaha to a win.

The 50th anniversary win for Yamaha in the MotoGP series is a more likely proposition, but could they be so bold as to take all three major championships? What a turn of events that would be, with the likes of Honda in their wake - their biggest rivals at the top of the sports arena.

You can be sure that Yamaha and Honda will not be resting on past wins, and will be making an all-out attack in every series next year - making it a year for all race fans to relish...