YART Yamaha: Racing and preparation

YART Yamaha – sixth overall and first European team past the finish line at the 2019 Suzuka 8 Hours – has built up a reputation for standout performance since the early 2000s. The team, who continue their quest for a second FIM EWC title after claiming their first crown in 2009, had to throw in the towel at the Bol d’Or, the season’s opening round, while battling for the win. Loris Baz’s crash after slipping on an oil spill, with the Yamaha #7 subsequently catching fire, threw a spanner into the team’s progress.

“YART has had to produce a brand-new bike for Sepang, because we lost the #1 bike in the fire at the Bol d’Or,” says YART Yamaha team manager Mandy Kainz. “We will race the same bike specifications as at Suzuka 2019, with a slightly different brake setup and gearing. Unfortunately, there’s no chance of testing before Sepang.”

At Sepang, YART Yamaha will field its traditional line-up comprising German rider Marvin Fritz, Italian Niccolò Canepa and Australian Broc Parkes, who was away in September competing in the Asia Road Racing championship. The Australian racer, who currently leads that championship, has returned from Asia with information that will come in handy for the team, since two of the ARRC rounds took place on the Sepang International Circuit.

May the best team win!The Austrian team has prepared several bikes for the 8 Hours of Sepang. Quite a few of the FIM EWC’s Yamahas have passed through its workshop, including the most high-profile machine of the upcoming race in Malaysia – the #21 run by Yamaha Sepang Racing, one of YART Yamaha’s main rivals at the 8 Hours of Sepang with a line-up comprising Franco Morbidelli, Michael van der Mark and Hafizh Syahrin.

“We’ve prepared the same bikes YART used at Suzuka for the Yamaha Sepang Racing team,” says Mandy Kainz. “The electronics will be only difference between the #21 bike at Suzuka and at Sepang. YART is a very big company, so it’s not a problem for us to equip a second team with crew and material, especially because in the wintertime, the YART staff who usually work in Moto GP and WSBK have finished their season. There’s nothing we at YART like more than watching a client team get a good result, and that’s already happened more than once (Penz13, Wójcik Racing Team, etc ). So it’s fine if Yamaha Sepang Racing beat us. May the best team win!”

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