Last week at a sunny Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia on Spain’s east coast, a gathering of Yamaha racing teams and riders from thirteen countries occupied thirty-one pit-boxes at the MotoGP venue to take part in the sixth edition of the distinguished YRT (Yamaha Race Training) programme.

Fifty teams and one hundred and one riders from national Supersport standard to FIM Superstock 1000 level meant that over three hundred personnel filled the site. The objective was to improve the participant’s understanding in terms of the technical set-up and tuning of the 2008 YZF-R6 or the 2007/2008 YZF-R1 for Supersport, Superbike and FIM Superstock competition.

The tuition was geared to helping racers and their teams learn about their machinery and how to optimise set-up with the use of the latest range of Yamaha’s YEC racing parts. Racing engineers from Yamaha Motor Corporation and Yamaha Motor Europe and specialists from Ohlins and 2D were on-hand to lend their expertise and advice.

At the flat and twisty Spanish track every rider was able to count on at least seven hours of testing over the three day period to apply the theory to practice. For the practical elements of the course a full tyre service was available and the only time that the action ground to a halt over the three days was when the group paused to take-in the second round of the 2008 MotoGP championship occurring that same weekend further south at Jerez (in which Fiat Yamaha M1 riders Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo obtained podium positions).

The other hours in the programme were filled by workshops dealing with:

- Fuel Injection Matching System: How to use the possibilities of fuel injection mappings, ignition mappings, altering engine braking, gear-shift timing, throttle opening speed and other characteristics via a YEC ECU and laptop
- YEC Tools: The correct working procedure and how to use the tools for piston and piston ring installation, camshaft attachment, valve timing adjustment and other alterations
- YEC Racing Parts: What was new and how best to use the valuable components found at www.yamaha-racingparts.com

Funded by Yamaha Motor Europe and Yamaha Motor Corporation, once again YRT proved to be a big success and with the participating numbers continuing to grow annually, the gathering has now become an integral fixture on the pre-season schedule for many European campaigners. “The Yamaha Race Training again has been a very successful event and we were lucky with the weather this year as all of the track sessions were dry and clean,” commented Yamaha Motor Europe’s Racing Communications Manager Leon Oosterhof. “We have been organising this unique occasion since 2002 and this year we had more participants than ever before; this is very rewarding for us.”

“As with every year we wanted to offer the YRT to a select group of our racing customers to help them become more competitive for the 2008 racing season,” he continued. “During the intensive three-day test, our race engineers were able to impart their experience and knowledge to the teams to help them reach better performance, with a special focus this year on how to utilise and benefit from the tuning options that our 2008 YEC ECUs offer.”

“The 2008 YEC ECU set permits us to adjust many parameters to achieve the best engine set-up and maximum control, and the workshops at the YRT helped us to refresh our technical knowledge and that was very welcome, it was a great event,” remarked the Peko Racing team from Switzerland.

“YRT is important for us to reach maximum performance for the highly competitive Spanish Championship,” commented local crew Laglisse. “The three days were very busy with the track sessions and workshops, thanks to Yamaha for investing in this!”

“We owe big thanks to Yamaha, we learned how to reach a better set-up of the bike by adjusting our mappings with the laptop,” said the Yam74 set-up from France. “The overall feeling of the bike after the three days is better.”