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Yamaha Motor Italia has signed Australian Troy Corser to ride alongside Noriyuki Haga in the 2007 Superbike World Championship. The spectacular line-up demonstrates Yamaha’s commitment to a series they returned to in 2005. Haga has won races on the R1 in each season – ending the 2005 and 2006 campaigns third in the standings. Corser is a two-time world champion with 33 race wins to his credit. He won the series with Ducati in 1996 and became the first rider to win the world superbike champions

Five years to the week since he won the MotoGP World Championship for the first time, Valentino Rossi heads into the penultimate round of the 2006 season at Estoril in Portugal next Sunday aiming to finally overthrow Nicky Hayden from the top of the standings and set-up his sixth premier-class title in a row. After an amazing run of form for the Italian, who has made up 39 points over the last four races, he is now just 12 behind and on course to catch the American by the final round at Valencia

It may 'only' have been the battle for second place in the 2006 Superbike World Championship, but Yamaha Motor Italia's Noriyuki Haga and Honda rider James Toseland certainly served up an end of season thriller at Magny Cours today. Along with outgoing world champion Troy Corser (Suzuki), Haga and Toseland gave the fans probably the best racing of the year as they traded positions corner after corner in the day's opening race. Haga did a remarkable job to even catch the leading group after run

Yamaha Motor Italia riders Noriyuki Haga and Andrew Pitt will start tomorrow's final round of the 2006 Superbike World Championship from fifth and ninth places respectively. Both men made small mistakes on their superpole lap to slip down the order from their positions in regular qualifying and, despite not qualifying as well as hoped, the Yamaha Motor Italia riders are primed for action in tomorrow's 22-lap showdown. A damp circuit, caused by overnight rain, meant that superpole positions wer

Yamaha Motor Italia's Noriyuki Haga topped the timesheets in today's opening practice session at Magny Cours, while team-mate Andrew Pitt also impressed with the fourth fastest time of the day. In a close qualifying session that saw the top ten riders covered by less than one second, the Japanese rider topped the timesheets for virtually the whole session. Haga set a best time of 1:40.474 just six minutes into the session and was never to be topped. The Yamaha man went on to work at finding the

The Yamaha Motor Italia squad travels to this weekend's final round of the 2006 Superbike World Championship with Noriyuki Haga looking to take the runner-up slot in the championship from Honda rider James Toseland. While Troy Bayliss (Ducati) celebrated his second world title in Imola last weekend, the British rider overtook Haga in the battle for second place and holds a two point advantage going into the final race. Haga had a difficult time in Imola, where set-up problems restricted him to

Andrew Pitt continued his rich vein of form at Imola today, scoring a podium finish in the day's opening race to move up to fourth in the championship ahead of next weekend's final round of the season. The Yamaha Motor Italia rider backed up his hard fought third place in race one with a tremendous fourth around the demanding Imola circuit in race two. Meanwhile team-mate Noriyuki Haga fought set-up problems to post a fourth and sixth place finish, keeping his hopes of finishing second in this

Yamaha Motor Italia's Andrew Pitt rode a super-smooth lap during today's superpole session to take a front row start for tomorrow's races in Imola, with team-mate Noriyuki Haga on the second row after making big improvements to his machine set-up. Having worked methodically on finding a good race setting throughout the four one-hour practice sessions, Pitt demonstrated his ultimate pace with a blistering 1:49.433 lap time to take third on the grid for tomorrow's races. Despite being almost half

Yamaha Motor Italia's Andrew Pitt was the top R1 rider in today's first qualifying session for Sunday's penultimate round of the 2006 Superbike World Championship in Imola, ending the day seventh fastest in a close session that sees the top 14 riders covered by just over a second. The Australian gunned his Yamaha around the long and demanding circuit in best time of 1:50.502, just 0.463 behind the day's fastest rider James Toseland (Honda). Pitt, who lifted the 2001 world supersport crown at th

Poland's Bartosz Oblucki and Frenchman Marc Germain shared top honours in the Enduro 1 class at the eighth and final round of the 2006 World Enduro Championship, the GP of France held in Boussac. With conditions far from ideal following heavy rain during the days leading up to the race, as well as during the event itself, the last round of the 2006 WEC series proved to be extremely challenging for all competitors. Performing at his best in the slippery conditions Oblucki placed 14 seconds ahead

The penultimate round of the 2006 Superbike World Championship takes place this weekend at the famous Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in the town of Imola, the championship's third visit of the year to Italy. The technically demanding circuit is steeped in heritage thanks mainly to its history as a Formula One circuit but it is also famous as a bike venue too, having hosted the classic Imola 200 events during the Seventies and, more recently, Grand Prix and superbike racing. The circuit's surface

Poland's Bartosz Oblucki and Frenchman Marc Germain shared top honours in the Enduro 1 class at the eighth and final round of the 2006 World Enduro Championship, the GP of France held in Boussac. With conditions far from ideal following heavy rain during the days leading up to the race, as well as during the event itself, the last round of the 2006 WEC series proved to be extremely challenging for all competitors. Performing at his best in the slippery conditions Oblucki placed 14 seconds ahead

MX1 World Champion Stefan Everts and vice-World Champion Antonio Cairoli gave Yamaha a 100% score in the MX-des-Nations event. MX1 World Champion Stefan Everts ended his career by guiding Team Belgium to second place today at Matterley Basin in Great Britain for the 60th Motocross of Nations. The 33 year old finished the year in typical fashion by winning both of his races ahead of USA’s Ryan Villopoto and James Stewart in front of a record-breaking 85,000 people (weekend figure). The track w

Camel Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi now trails MotoGP World Championship series leader Nicky Hayden (Honda) by just twelve points with two rounds remaining thanks to his fourth consecutive podium, his eighth from the last ten races, in Japan today. Rossi took second place in a race dominated and won by Loris Capirossi (Ducati), with Marco Melandri (Honda) completing the podium in a carbon copy of the front row order. The 20-point reward for Rossi moved him another nine closer to Hayden, who

Camel Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi delighted his legion of local fans with a sensational final lap in qualifying practice for the Grand Prix of Japan this afternoon. Rossi continued his excellent progress with another day of hard work on the race setting of his YZR-M1 before heading out to challenge Loris Capirossi (Ducati) for pole. Unfortunately Rossi's first attempt on qualifying tyres was baulked when a rider crashed in front him, forcing the Italian to make a last-minute pit-stop. It m

Camel Yamaha Team racers Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards began their preparations for the Grand Prix of Japan in ideal fashion today, lapping at the top end of the time sheets throughout both free practice sessions and ending the day with the first and fourth fastest laps overall. Both riders were able to work on their race setting, adapting the machine configuration from the fast and flowing demands of Phillip Island to the stop-start nature of Motegi, before fitting a softer compound rear ty