Press Release

Yamaha To Continue With Future MX2 Title Contenders

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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