Press Release –

Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. announces its team program for competing in the 2006 MFJ All-Japan Snowmobile Championship series. As with last season, Yamaha will compete in the pinnacle “Super Class” of the 2006 series using machines powered by 4-stroke engines.

Snowmobile racing is a type of winter motor sports that is very popular especially in North America and other markets. Yamaha is the only domestic maker of complete-built-up snowmobiles and an active participant in the All-Japan championship series with the aim of promoting the development of snowmobile racing in Japan.

What’s more, with the cooperation of our owner support organization “Club YAMAHA MOTORCYCLE,” a new program was begun in 2005 that entered Yamaha 4-stroke machines in the “Super Class” which until then had been strictly the domain of 2-stroke machines.

Last season, our “Club YAMAHA RACING” worked aggressively with the primary aims of (1) taking on the challenge of developing and proving the potential of 4-stroke machines, (2) becoming a team that is a platform for riders seeking to reach the top level in the sport, and at the same time to work at the race venues to (3) conduct service programs aimed at increasing the number of race fans.

The above-mentioned concepts and aims will be continued during the 2006 season establishing a new “Yamaha Racing Team” aimed at (4) becoming a team that can reach the pinnacle of snowmobile racing in Japan with 4-stroke machines.

From this team, Yuji Nakazawa and Shinji Tozawa will compete on the “RSVector SP.” Meanwhile, “Club YAMAHA RACING” will enter Kiyotaka Kawagoe, Sho Inaba, Masafumi Terasaki and Nobuaki Eikura as four representative Yamaha user riders with the aim once again of promoting the sport of snowmobile racing.

The new 2006 ISR rules limit Open class engines to a maximum of 600ccs for Mod snocross which foreshadows the future in the stock class as well.

A possibility for next season is Snocross racing will consist of two classes: Stock and Modified. The Stock class will use a 600cc (minimum 500 build) carbureted, single pipe engine based entirely on a production 600cc motor in each OEM’s line-up.

There’s an upside to this deal with snowmobile manufacturers now able to ditch expensive, finicky 440 engines which have no basis in the real world thus eliminating huge costs to maintain technology not applicable to production snowmobiles.

It’s hoped the 600 Stock Class will include a rule banning racing fuels as these engines will produce about 118 to 120 HP out of the box. That’s about 10 more ponies than current 440s running racing fuel. With the broader power afforded by a bigger displacement mill, traction, clutching and long term reliability will be improved for competitors.

With the Open Class moving to 600cc’s this season, HP may drop from 160-170 ponies in current 800 Mods to about 135-145 HP in a hot rodded 600. This will not affect the quality of the Mod Classes in any way as the biggest limiting factor in sno-x racing is traction. Every time the lug depth of tracks increases, the sleds go faster.

Open sleds have been producing about 165 HP for the past four seasons. The problem is there just isn’t enough traction available for motors this powerful. The move to lighter, slightly less powerful engines with the same lug tracks will actually improve head-to-head competition.

CSRA 2005 National Pro Champion Ian Hayden has undergone a trailer switch for the 2006 CSRA season.

No sooner had the #1 plate and trophy been loaded in the Team Arctic OSSTF trailer than Hayden announced he would return to Ski-Doo for the 2006 season racing for the Factory Recreation/Royal Distributing Team.

In what seemed like a bizarre twist – Michael Vandolder, heir to the Vandolder oval racing legacy and genetically implanted with Ski-Doo chromosomes, moved to the OSSTF Team Arctic Cat trailer from the Factory Recreation Royal Distributing Team.

The constant in the Pro Class moving into the 2006 season is clearly the Dodge Trucks/Supertrax/Ski-Doo Team led by this magazine’s AJ Lester and Matt Turner.

A new member of the M-Series suspension family has just been announced for this season. Titled the M-12, it’s an ultra long-travel skid built for extra tough for ditch-banging and aggressive riding.

A look at the stats tells us this is the longest travel production rear suspension system in the industry. Like earlier M-Series suspensions, this new one is made to soak up the whoops and moguls with 11.9” of real travel where it counts: Under your rear.

We’re told Team Fast’s proprietary geometry is tuned specifically for the most aggressive and experienced riders, but the skid retains plenty of cruising character for trail performance, too.

Available now to fit Arctic 2003-2006 Firecats, Polaris XC and Fusion, Ski-Doo Rev and MXZ chassis, and all the Yamaha 4-stroke chassis.

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