In 2007 Yamaha is enjoying again a very successful world championship motocross season. Joshua Coppins controls the MX1 class with a healthy 89 points margin halfway though the year, while Antonio Cairoli is in a league of his own ruling over the MX2 opposition with eight GP wins out of the nine rounds contested sofar.
Although Cairoli will stay in the small capacity class for 2008, Yamaha is already grooming the next ‘blue’ generation for GP success and therefore are pleased to announce that Frenchman Nicolas Aubin has signed for two more years, while his teammate Davide Guarneri has also extended his Yamaha Team Ricci contract for 2008.
Since the motocross world turned to four stroke machinery Yamaha’s blue machines have been favorite with many top GP riders and the competitiveness of the YZ’s have given Yamaha an edge into retaining some of the hottest GP talents. Nicolas Aubin certainly is a member of that small group of potential winners and despite his young age of 19 he is already contesting his third season in the MX2 class, with 2007 being his breakthrough season. He came very close to victory when he finished runner up in the second moto of the Portguese GP in Agueda and currently holds seventh position in the standings.
At first glance some of Davide Guarneri’s past results might not categorize him in that same group of potential title contenders. Yet Davide has already tasted GP success when he won the second moto of the European GP held at Teutschenthal in 2005. The following year further progression was on the cards, but due to a virus infection Davide missed most of the second part of 2006. This season he missed the first three rounds due to an ankle injury, but since then Guarneri has come good, showing better finishes round after round. His speed now is on par with Cairoli’s top challengers which will see him hopefully enter the top 10 of the standings soon.
Yamaha Team Ricci owner Ilario Ricci has been an important partner in Yamaha’s GP motocross efforts and he is obviously very content being able to continue with these riders; “Nicolas Aubin has proven this year to be even quicker then many expected. We started with him only this year and were not sure what level he could reach. I believe he exceeded expectations and he has proved his podium potential already. I'm very happy that he wants to ride with us for the next two seasons.
Davide Guarneri is going into his fourth year with us for 2008. For years he has been one of Italy’s big talents, but his progress has been hampered with some injuries. However he has made a very strong comeback, recently finishing in and close to the top five. With these two high-potential youngsters on the improved 2008 YZ250F with YRRD (Yamaha Rinaldi R and D) performance parts we have a strong base for further improvement."
Yamaha Motor Europe’s racing division manager Laurens Klein Koerkamp shares Ricci’s buoyant mood for the future; “With Cairoli being the unrivalled number one in MX2 today, there will come a moment where he needs to find a new challenge in MX1. So we are working to prepare the next generation of riders who can potentially take over from Antonio. We believe Aubin and Guarneri are two of such riders that have the capacity to keep Yamaha at the top of the charts. It is great also that we can work towards this goal with both the French and Italian Yamaha distributors who represent us in the two biggest off road markets in Europe”.
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