What's Yamaha Going to Do?

So by now we usually know what the big factory teams are doing next year for riders but there is one team out there that's kept us waiting. Team Tuning fork AKA Team Yamaha has not let us know anything as of yet. They just had their annual dealer meeting where they usually unveil the new models and also their racing teams. They unveiled a brand new R1 street bike but no racing team. Yamaha is pretty good at keeping secrets, when I worked there I didn't know who they had signed or were talking to, I had to read about on Racer X! Or maybe I was the only guy they didn't tell because they knew this writing stuff was what I really was good at.

We know that James Stewart will be riding blue next year for Team L&M (although that hasn't been announced yet it will happen as sure as the sun coming up tomorrow. Disregard that statement if it's noon when you're reading this and you're enveloped in darkness.) So they have Stewart and that's a good start for any team.

They have an option on Josh Hill and I'm sure they'll pick it up. Josh won a supercross this year, that's pretty damn impressive. The last half of the nationals he was very fast, his results don't indicate how good he was. He had some crashes, bad starts and small problems that held him back but he was very quick. I can't help but think how Hill's results and speed got better when he wasn't distracted on the weekends by you-know-who. I brought up this theory to a top Yamaha guy at Southwick and he looked and me and said "You think?" Josh was able to just concentrate on the races when he was there and it showed.

I can't help but think how Hill's results and speed got better when he wasn't distracted on the weekends by you-know-who.

Grant Langston is a wild card, we really don't know what the 2007 450 MX Champ is going to do, he was at Steel City and it doesn't sound good for the South African. His eye has arguably gotten worse and now it looks like he'll be taking 2009 off and he might even have to retire. If I had to bet, I don't think we'll see GL back on the track next year.

Sean Hamblin told me that his deal with Yamaha hinges on GL and whether or not he comes back. Sean hasn't ridden supercross for a few years but I think he'll be fine with a whole off season of training. Sean was rescued from the privateer pits and given a full ride this year and despite battling injuries, rode pretty good. He really impressed me at Southwick, charging hard and coming from the back. It's really good "carmel" for Yamaha to give a privateer a bike and put him on the whole team, you can go as far back as John Dowd in 1994 to see how it's paid off for Team Tuning Fork.

That leaves one spot and they had Broc Hepler and I think his season was a wash...again. We never saw B-Hep at full speed because he got hurt...again. He did get a podium in the 250 class and ran strong at some races before getting hurt. He moved up to the 450's for the outdoors and then got hurt...again. When he did come back, he was just ok and didn't show much. Well, he did podium Steel City and just reinforced my theory that he could ride a Vespa and podium there. Broc is fast and a cool guy, the assumption in the industry is he makes a lot of money and will have to take a pay cut if he wants to stay at Yamaha.

The guys they can pick up include Josh Summey, Antonio Balbi, Jeff Alessi to name a few (although I did hear that Andrew Shorts deal at Honda is held up) but I think Yamaha should give Hepler another shot or maybe they can leave the bike open and reward another privateer halfway through SX.

That would be some good "carmel"!