1982 Yamaha Xj5 (grove City) on 2040-motos

Moto blog

Cyril Despres Signs with Yamaha

Five-time Dakar Rally winner Cyril Despres has signed on with Yamaha Motor France to race on the Yamaha YZ450F. Despres won the Dakar Rally in 2005, 2007, 2010, 2012 and 2013 with KTM but parted ways with the Austrian manufacturer in March. For 2014, Despres is trading in KTM Orange for Yamaha Blue, riding with support rider and fellow Frenchman Michael Metge.

Movistar To Be Yamaha MotoGP Title Sponsor For 5-Years

Finding sponsors for U.S. racing might be next to impossible, but this isn’t the case elsewhere, as Movistar, a telecommunications arm of Spanish company Telefonica, has signed on to be the title sponsor for the Factory Yamaha MotoGP team for the next five years. Short of the 20-year relationship between Honda and Repsol, this comes as one of the more significant sponsorship deals in recent memory.

Last Year’s Surprise Podium Finisher Katsuyuki Nakasuga to Wild Card at Japanese GP

Katsuyuki Nakasuga, the surprise podium finisher at last year’s MotoGP finale in Valencia, will have the chance to catch lightning in a bottle once again, after being granted a wild card entry to the 2013 Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi. Nakasuga shocked the racing world with a second-place finish at the Valencian Grand Prix last November as an injury replacement for then-Yamaha factory rider Ben Spies. Nakasuga made the cagey decision to run slick tires in the wet race.