Yamaha Motor Europe Hunt for Glory with Official 2015 Racing Line Up
Yamaha Motor Europe has launched a comprehensive challenge for 2015 racing victory across multiple classes and showcased their impressive 2015 road race line-up at a special launch event at the headquarters of the Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Team at Gerno di Lesmo in Italy. And the line-up has a distinctly Australian flavour!
The arrival of the all-new YZF-R1 and YZF-R1M have made it the perfect opportunity for selected road racing teams to collaborate further with Yamaha and aim to dominate their classes.
The European Superstock 1000 class finds The Morillas Racing School Team (MRS) ready to do battle with riders Florian Marino and Kev Coghlan eager to get on track with the YZF-R1M.
Defending Endurance World champions GMT94 Yamaha and fellow Yamaha endurance racers Monster Energy Yamaha (YART) will take the YZF-R1 for it’s toughest challenge of the year through the gruelling EWC season that includes the legendary Le Mans 24 Hours, The Suzuka 8 Hours and of course, the Bol d’Or 24 Hour race!
The YZF-R1 will be making a bid for glory on a national level as well, competing for British Superbike Championship honours with Milwaukee Yamaha and riders Joshua Brookes and Broc Parkes.
Back on the European mainland the IDM German Superbike title will be contested by Team Yamaha MGM (Michael Galinski Motorsport) with Damian Cudlin and local hero Max Neukirchner on the YZF-R1M.
The 2015 season sees also a revised racing infrastructure to offer the best support to Yamaha Motor Europe’s Official Racing Teams.
A new Racing Department has been established inside the Yamaha Europe Marketing Division, with Andrea Dosoli returning to Yamaha as Road Racing Project Manager and Erik Eggens promoted to the role of Motocross Racing Manager. Based in Yamaha France, Marketing and Communications Division Manager Alexandre Kowalski will add responsibility for Enduro and Rally operations to his remit.
On top of the road racing operations, Andrea Dosoli also takes responsibility for the new Racing R&D, established in Germany to support R1 development for the 2015 season and the ultimate goal to be ready for a 2016 come back in the WSBK championship.
The new structure is also in place to support both Yamaha Motor Europe national branches in empowering racing operations at national level and also customer programmes such as the R125 and R3 Cups.
“We head into the 2015 race season with an incredible sense of anticipation and excitement,” comments Yamaha Motor Europe Operations Director Eric De Seynes. “We have full trust in our new internal structure and in the job it will do together with our racing partners, who represent a comprehensive family of highly professional teams and motivated riders to complement the class leading motorcycles launched in 2015. We have very high expectations for the revolutionary YZF-R1 and YZF-R1M and we are confident we have the right ingredients to be key protagonists on every racetrack we compete on. We are impatient for the season to begin!”
British Superbike Championship – Milwaukee Yamaha
The Milwaukee Yamaha Team is headed up by Team Principal Shaun Muir. Muir joined forces with Colin Appleyard Racing to run a team in the British Superbike Championship in 2005. 2011 saw them clinch the British title with riders Tommy Hill and Michael Laverty taking ten race victories and a further 14 podium finishes. 2012 proved to be a tougher season, Hill was joined by Noriyuki Haga to battle for the title. The season ended with Hill taking third and Haga, having struggled with a collarbone injury for most of the season, eighth. In 2013 riders James Ellison and double Australian champion Josh Waters got to grips with the YZF-R1, Ellison taking three race wins and six further podiums on his way to fourth while Waters had a tougher year, finishing in 14th. Tommy Bridewell joined the team in 2014 alongside Joshua Brookes, the pair making a strong team and wrapping up the year in third and fourth respectively with five wins and 12 podiums between them.
For 2015 Josh Brookes stays with Milwaukee and teams up with Yamaha veteran Broc Parkes to challenge for the BSB title on the all-new YZF-R1.
British Superbike Championship rules mean entry motorcycles are derived from standard production models and differ only slightly from the sports bikes you see on the roads. This has led to the wellcoined phrase “win on Sunday, sell on Monday”. For a bike to be eligible, the manufacturer must first homologate the model and manufacture the required number of road going machines. In general the bikes must maintain the same profile as their road going counterparts, with the same overall appearance as seen from the front, rear and sides. In addition, the frame cannot be modified.
Joshua Brookes – 31yr old Australian rider Josh Brookes from Sydney is an experienced Superbike and Supersport rider. Entering his second year with Yamaha in BSB, Brookes claimed four of Milwaukee’s five race wins in 2014. He has been runner up in BSB twice, in 2010 and 2012 and third in 2013. He is a double national champion having won Australia’s Superbike and Supersport titles in 2005 and can claim the ‘Fastest Ever Newcomer’ title at the Isle of Man TT in 2013.
Broc Parkes – Broc Parkes is no stranger to Yamaha. The Australian from Hunter Valley in the New South Wales region of Australia was a protégé of former world champion Wayne Gardner, Broc winning an incredible 45 Australian national titles as a youngster. He raced for Yamaha in World Supersport from 2005 to 2008, finishing as runner up in the 2007 title fight. In 2013 He won the Australian National Superbike Championship with Yamaha whilst also making an appearance with the Yamaha Austria Racing Team for the Endurance World Championship. He was back for more with the team in 2014 and will continue as a key rider in 2015 alongside his role in the Milwaukee Yamaha Team in the British Superbike Championship.
Endurance World Championship – Monster Energy Yamaha – YART
The Yamaha Austria Racing Team (YART) was founded in 2001 by owner/ Team Manager Mandy Kainz with the intention of challenging for the Endurance World Championship. The team achieved their first podium with third place two years later, and repeated the achievement the year after in 2004. The following year in 2005 saw YART take third overall in the World Championship, starting a five-year run where the team never finished outside the top three. YART took third again in 2007 and 2010 and were championship runners-up in 2006 and 2008. In 2009, with riders Igor Jerman, Steve Martin and Gwen Giabbani, the team achieved the ultimate and took their Yamaha YZF-R1 to title victory, taking race wins in the 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans, 2009 8 Hours of Oschersleben, 2009 8 Hours of Albacete and 2009 8 Hours of Doha. In 2010 the team took second place podiums at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and 8 Hours of Doha to finish third overall. They continue to make regular podium appearances, scoring third and then second at the Bol d’Or in 2012 and 2013 respectively and were again third at last year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.
For riders and the motorbikes, Endurance is one of the toughest race categories in the world, not just because of its length, but also because of the weight of the bikes. The YZF-R1 used is heavier than the short-distance race bikes because of its lights for riding in the dark, a bigger tank that holds more fuel and heavier bodywork for extra sturdiness. The bike also uses some YEC Kit Parts and a special YEC ECU.
Broc Parkes
Ivan Silva – Ivan Silva is an experienced Spanish racer with a broad career covering international racing in the MotoGP Championship as well as national experience in the Spanish Formula Extreme class, taking 3rd in the 2005 and 2008 championship. Ivan is also no stranger to World Endurance racing as part of the team that took the win in the 2008 8 Hours of Oschersleben, one lap ahead of the YART team! He took title victory in the 2010 Spanish Superstock Extreme Championship and in 2011 title victory in the European Superstock Championship.
Max Neukirchner – Max Neukirchner raced in the World Superbike Championship from 2005 to 2013, with a two-year interruption to compete in the Moto2 World Championship. In 2008 the 31-year-old German captured two victories and ten podiums in the World Superbike Championship and finished fifth, making him the most successful German Superbikerider. In 2014 he started riding in the International German Superbike Championship (IDM) and finished the season as the runner-up, having won four times and finished 13 of 15 races on the podium.
Endurance World Championship – GMT94 Yamaha Team
The GMT94 Yamaha Team started as a private independent team under the management and ownership of French rider Christophe Guyot. A partnership developed with Yamaha France in 2003 has led to GMT94 becoming an official Yamaha Racing team competing in the Endurance World Championship. GMT94 has a strong record; they are the current defending EWC champions after title victory in 2014 and can claim a previous EWC title with victory in 2004. Championship runners up in 2013, the team has an incredible tally of two world titles, 11 race victories and 31 podiums in the Endurance World Championship. GMT94 will challenge the 2015 Endurance season with the all-new YZF-R1.
David Checa – Spanish rider David Checa is an integral rider with GMT and key in delivering many of their racing successes. In 2003 he had his first Yamaha experience, racing an R1 in the Spanish championship and winning the Oschersleben 24-hour race with the GMT94 team. The introduction of the third-generation R1 in 2004 saw him dominate the Endurance World Championship to capture the title. In 2005 he won at Le Mans and finished second at the Bol d’Or. In 2008 and 2009 he raced in the World Superbike Championship, also with GMT94. He has been part of the team for every World Endurance season contested by GMT94.
Kenny Foray – Kenny Foray has been racing motorcycles since 2002. He entered and took title victory in the 2007 French Supersport Championship and took his first World Endurance race wins in 2008 with the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Bol d’Or. He went on to win the 2009 Polish Superstock Championship the next year before joining GMT94 in 2010 as a key member of their team for numerous race wins and of course the 2014 World Title.
Mathieu Gines – Mathieu Gines is the youngest rider of the team, born in 1988. He was runner up in the 2008 French Supersport Championship with GMT94 Yamaha on the YZF-R6 and again in 2010. He took title victory in 2009 with another manufacturer and then delivered the Supersport title for Yamaha in 2013. 2014 was his first year in World Endurance with Yamaha, taking the title with Kenny Foray and David Checa.
IDM – International German Championship Team Yamaha MGM – Michael Galinski Motorsport
Michael Galinski, owner and team manager for MGM has a long history of success with Yamaha. A rider himself, he won the German Superbike Championship for Yamaha Germany in 1986 and was runner up in 1989. As team manager he took the IDM Superbike title in 2005 with Stefan Nebel and in 2009 with Jörg Teuchert. For 2015 MGM Yamaha lines up with Michael’s sights firmly on title victory with the all-new Yamaha YZF-R1M in the capable hands of local hero Max Neukirchner and IDM regular Damian Cudlin.
Max Neukirchner – Neukirchner raced in the World Superbike Championship from 2005 to 2013, with a two-year interruption to compete in the Moto2 World Championship. In 2008 the 31-year-old German captured two victories and ten podiums in the World Superbike Championship and finished fifth, making him the most successful German Superbikerider. This year he started riding in the International German Superbike Championship (IDM) and finished the season as the runner-up, having won four times and finished 13 of 15 races on the podium.
Damian Cudlin – Damian Cudlin is no stranger to the IDM Championship. The Australian won the Supersport Championship on a Yamaha in 2010 and challenged for the Superbike Title in 2011 and 2013 in between his MotoGP commitments. He spent 2014 focusing on the Endurance World Championship, where he finished second, along with making some IDM appearances, the highlight being when he was victorious at the Nurburgring.
Superstock 1000 – Team MRS Yamaha
Adrien Morillas’ Team MRS Yamaha is back with Yamaha for the 2015 race season in the Superstock class and challenging with the next generation 2015 Yamaha YZF-R1M. Morillas has a good record with Yamaha, coaching Loris Baz to success in the Yamaha France Junior Racing team to take the European Superstock 600 Championship title in 2008. This provided the incentive to create the MRS Team, which then went on to take the European Superstock 600 Championship title in 2010, again with the YZF-R6 in the hands of another young Frenchman, Jeremy Guarnoni. For 2015 the MRS Team will challenge for Superstock victory with riders Florian Marino and Kev Coghlan.
FIM Superstock 1000 motorcycles are allowed modifications more aimed at safety and crash survivability/repairability than outright performance such as fiberglass silhouette bodywork with fluid retention capabilities and improved hand and foot controls. FIM Superstock 1000 motorcycles are allowed performance modifications such as brake pads and discs, chaindrive systems, exhaust systems, fork internals and rear shock absorbers.
Florian Marino – 21-year old French rider Florian Marino from Cannes moves to the European Superstock 1000 class for 2015 with MRS. Marino had a brief stint in Moto2 in 2014 whilst competing as one of the main protagonists in the World Supersport Championship. The young Frenchman wrapped up last year’s Supersport Championship in third overall with four podium finishes. Marino is also a multiple European Superstock 600 class race winner.
Kev Coghlan – Kev Coghlan steps up to join Marino in the Superstock 1000 class for 2015. The 26-year old Scottish rider wrapped up last year’s World Supersport Championship in 5th place aboard the Yamaha YZF-R6. Coghlan has previous experience in the Superstock 1000 class having competed in 2012, whilst also competing in the British Supersport Championship on the R6! Coghlan has numerous titles to his name including the 2008 European Junior Supersport Championship winner and in 2009 taking the Spanish Supersport Championship and the European Supersport Championship.
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