Track test: Endurance factory Yamaha YZF-R1

Track test: Endurance factory Yamaha YZF-R1

Marathon machine

The invitation came just as surprising as the victory of the Yamaha Austria Racing Team (YART) at the famous Le Mans 24-hour race: YART boss Mandy Kainz asked a week after the endurance classic whether we wanted to ride his winning motorcycle. MOTORRAD did not miss the chance of a rendezvous with the famous endurance runner.

Thursday, April 30th, around half past ten. In the semi-darkness of box nine at the race track in Oschersleben, Mandy Kainz presses the start button Yamaha R1. The four-cylinder starts in a flash and babbles enterprisingly through the mufflers of the Akrapovic exhaust system, as if it weren’t the least bit tired. He definitely deserved a break. The Frenchman Gwen Giabbani had switched off the engine just twelve days earlier, shortly after having crossed the finish line of the Le Mans 24 Hours as the winner. After exactly 24 hours and 47.964 seconds, after 3,042.495 kilometers at racing speed, after a cold night, after 20 hours in the rain. It was nothing less than a historic victory: the first for the Yamaha Austria Racing Team in a 24-hour marathon, the first for a non-French team since 1984, the first for a Yamaha since 2005. The triumph of his trio of pilots Giabbani, Steve Martin and Igor Jerman brought a few tears of joy to team boss Kainz’s eyes.

Track test: Endurance factory Yamaha YZF-R1

Marathon machine

Single components

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Pictures: Track test: Endurance factory Yamaha YZF-R1

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