Yamaha Announce 2014 Global Racing Program

Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), 4th February 2014 Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. held the “2014 Yamaha Motor Sports Press Conference” today at the Sama-Sama Hotel in Sepang, Malaysia. In it, Yamaha Motor announced the newly established basic policies and positioning of its motor sport activities, the race series for the 2014 season and the Yamaha riders and teams that will be competing in them. As well as outlining this season’s direction for MotoGP, the pinnacle of motorcycle road racing, Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi from the YAMAHA FACTORY RACING team and Bradley Smith and Pol Espargaró from the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 team were in attendance and conveyed their ambitions for this season and their impressions of the 2014 “YZR-M1” machine. Also, as part of the initiative to bring more constructors to the grid and more excitement to MotoGP, Yamaha Motor introduced its YZR-M1 engine leasing agreement. Leasing will begin this season in what is a first for Yamaha Motor, and lessee Team NGM Mobile Forward Racing also made a guest appearance at the event. Takaaki Kimura - Representative Director and Senior Managing Executive Officer “Motorsports are in Yamaha's DNA, and challenging ourselves through them has been an integral part of our corporate culture for over 50 years. Motorsport participation is also a direct embodiment of our brand slogan ‘Revs your Heart.’ The three basic policies of our racing activities are: branding, feedback of technology and promotional activities, and we will put them into action on a global level. To that end, we will aim for success in the premier class of MotoGP to bring Kando* to fans around the world, and work together with our group companies in each region in promotional activities, strengthening race environment and infrastructure, and nurturing the next generation of riders by providing them with more opportunities and putting in place a tiered structure they can work up through to reach greater heights. We hope that everyone will look forward to the results of Yamaha Motor’s ongoing challenge to ‘Rev your Heart’ through motorsports.”