Yamaha Racing Heritage Club 2023
After a successful inaugural year, the Yamaha Racing Heritage Club is pleased to officially announce the four events it will attend in 2023 as it expands to celebrate the manufacturer’s history in the off-road racing world, plus the legendary riders, classic bikes and modern-day superstars who will take part.
Launched at EICMA in 2021, the Yamaha Racing Heritage Club (YRHC) was set up to safeguard and celebrate the manufacturer’s rich racing legacy by providing owners of classic race bikes a chance to become members, register their bikes on the official database, and receive advanced technical support.
The YRHC enjoyed an impressive first season in 2022, giving fans a chance to relive the two-stroke racing era at a number of events throughout the year with legends such as 15-time World Champion Giacomo Agostini, Yamaha’s first-ever World Champion and most successful rider of all time in terms of titles Phil Read, two-time 250cc World Champion Carlos Lavado, 1984 250cc World Champion Christian Sarron, and 1973 250cc World Champion Dieter Braun, to name but a few.
Alongside these heroes from yesteryear, Yamaha riders from the modern era like Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK Official Team’s Andrea Locatelli, 2012 Moto3 and 2018 WorldSSP World Champion Sandro Cortese, Yamalube YART Yamaha Official EWC Team Marvin Fritz, and 2021 British Superbike Champion Tarran “Taz” Mackenzie, also took part as they hit the track on some iconic two-stroke race bikes alongside their heroes.
One of the major highlights of 2022 was three-time 500cc World Champion Wayne Rainey emotionally riding his title-winning 1992 YZR500 up the hill at the Goodwood Festival of Speed for the first time since his career-ending accident in Misano.
It wasn’t just the riders who were the stars of the show, as at each event, the YRHC also proudly showcased a range of historic machines spanning Yamaha’s entire history, from the very first factory race bike, the 1957 250cc YD-A, all the way to Fabio Quartararo’s 2021 MotoGP World Championship winning YZR-M1.
For 2023, the YRHC is expanding its schedule and has a number of events planned to celebrate some significant anniversaries in the racing history of Yamaha.
The YRHC year starts with the Sunday Ride Classic at Circuit Paul Ricard in France this weekend, the 6th-7th of May, where the YRHC will begin the 50th-anniversary celebrations of the TZ series, and where Sarron will be joined by 1975 350cc World Champion Johnny Cecotto and 1977 Formula 750 World Champion Steve Baker.
From the 21st to the 22nd of July, the YRHC will be at the Yamaha Racing Experience in Mugello, Italy, honouring the 25th anniversary of the R1 with a bumper crop of past and present racers, including Locatelli and his Pata Yamaha Prometeon teammate, the 2021 WorldSBK Champion Toprak Razgatlıoğlu, plus the GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team duo of Dominique Aegerter and Remy Gardner. The rider list is also set to grow, with some very special guests, from both the past and the present, likely to make a surprise appearance during the event.
Next is the CRMC Classic Motorcycle Festival at Donington Park, England, on the 30th-31st of July, where the stars of UK racing will be out in force to celebrate both the previously mentioned anniversaries.
Then the YRHC will honour the 50th anniversary of the YZ series of bikes as it marks Yamaha’s long history of success in off-road racing at the Veterans MX of Nations at Foxhills in England on the 24th-28th of August. The event will feature three-time 125cc MX World Champion Alessio Chiodi, former Yamaha factory motocross team manager Michele Rinaldi, and several historic YZ machines from throughout its fifty years of racing.
With a packed schedule for 2023, the YRHC is growing from strength to strength, and now it is even easier to register to become a member. Click here for more information and to start the registration process.
Paolo Pavesio – Marketing and Motorsport Director, Yamaha Motor Europe
“It was fantastic to see the impact that the Yamaha Racing Heritage Club enjoyed in its first year. By bringing together Yamaha’s iconic race bikes, legendary riders who wrote Yamaha’s name large in the history books and our current professional racers, the project captured the imagination of young and not so young alike. In 2023 we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the R1 and the 50th anniversary of both the TZ and YZ series. To mark all of these milestones the YRHC will expand this season into off-road events, and we have a special surprise ahead of the Veterans MX of Nations, which will be raced by Alessio Chiodi under the direction of Michele Rinaldi. It promises to be a bumper year for the YRHC, and I’m looking forward to seeing our racing past connected to our racing present once again.”
