Yamaha Motor UK Ltd hosted the fifth Biennial Yamaha Technicians’ Grand Prix at their head office in Weybridge on 15th of February, where top Yamaha technicians competed for this prestigious award. All were from authorised Yamaha Motorcycle Dealerships and competed in this challenging event testing their practical and theoretical technical knowledge and skills to the limit.

The competition kicked off last autumn with more entrants enrolling than ever before.  First round test papers were sent to the contestants and were followed up with a second round paper to really put the entrants through their paces.  After all the papers were returned and marked, the top six contestants were invited to Yamaha’s HQ to compete in the UK Final.

Lasting a full day, it consisted of a comprehensive and very tough hand written paper, followed by five separate and challenging practical exercises.  These were designed to test their problem solving skills and technical knowledge on a range of Yamaha Motorcycles.

On the evening of the competition, all six finalists were treated to a presentation dinner, attended by YMUK’s Managing Director, Andrew Smith, when the results were announced. The atmosphere was tense as the results were read out.

First place was earned by David Ball from Fowlers of Bristol who not only becomes the new Yamaha UK Technician Grand Prix Champion, but also goes forward to participate in the European Final to be held at Yamaha’s European headquarters in Holland this April. 

As the U.K. winner, David was delighted to have won, and was presented with, his first place prize of a brand new Yamaha XT660R and the all important winner’s trophy.  He has also secured a £1500 prize for his dealership, Fowlers of Bristol, that will be spent on specialised service equipment for their workshops.

Second Place went to Stephen Hauxwell of Bill Smith Motors at Bangor.

Third place went to Julian Cameron of Infinity Motorcycles at Farnborough.  Julian was in fact the very first winner of the U.K. Tech G.P. back in 1998.

The runners up were :
Laurie Smith from Webbs of Lincoln,
Nigel Cartwright of Alf England Motorcycles (who won the title in 2005)
John Wild of Sheffield Motorcycles

Photo: Yamaha Motor UK’s Managing Director, Andrew Smith (L), presents Yamaha Technician GP 2006/7 winner David Ball (Fowlers of Bristol) with his well earned trophy.