At Donington Park on the 30th and 31st of July, 2022, the Yamaha Racing Heritage Club (YRHC), which had been established to recognize and preserve the renowned racing legacy of the firm, was successful in accomplishing this goal.
Phil Read, Chas Mortimer, Alan Carter, Niall, Tarran Mackenzie, and many other well-known British racers were among those who competed in the events hosted by the Yamaha Racing Heritage Club at Donington Park. Read is a multiple-time winner of the Grand Prix, and Mortimer, Carter, and Mackenzie are brothers.
During the course of the weekend, a number of the most well-known figures in British racing made an appearance at the Young Racing Drivers Club (YRHC) stand, which was one of the most popular attractions at Donington Park.
From their very first factory race bike, which was the 1957 250cc YD-A, to the first Yamaha to compete in the UK, which was the Sonny Angel YDS-1R from 1960, and all the way up to Tarran “Taz” Mackenzie’s McAMS Yamaha R1, which won the 2021 British Superbike Championship, the impressive assortment of motorcycles on display covered all 65 years of Yamaha’s history.
Phil Read, Yamaha’s first-ever Grand Prix World Champion, eight-time Isle of Man TT champion, and the rider with the most titles overall, was the obvious centerpiece of the show. Read is also the most decorated rider in terms of championships.
Read created history by becoming the first individual to win the 125cc, 250cc, and 500cc Grand Prix titles during the course of his storied career, during which he won 52 Grand Prix, ended on 121 podiums and made a total of 121 podium appearances.
He went on to win four more World Championships for Yamaha, including the 250cc World Championship in 1971, when he rode a very unique, custom-modified TD2-B of his own design and competed as a privateer.
Other titles he won for Yamaha include the 250cc World Championship, the 250cc World Championship, the 250cc World Championship, and the 250cc World Championship. The Team Read Castrol Yamaha was a customized version of the normal bike.
It included a revised frame, a dry clutch, front and rear disc brakes, and an engine that had been significantly modified and was constructed by a former Yamaha Race Engineer named Ferry Brouwer.
Chas Mortimer participated in the Sunday autograph session with Read, 50 years after he won the very first Yamaha 500cc Grand Prix at the Montjuic street circuit in Barcelona in 1972. Read was the host of the event.
Mortimer is the only rider in the annals of motorcycle racing to have been victorious in all of the World Championship races for 125, 250, 350, 500, and 750 class motorcycles. He holds the record for having won all of these events. Along the same lines as Read, he took home eight TT victories and was overjoyed to be competing at Donington Park over the weekend.
The first year of the YRHC has been a huge success, and there is a full calendar of events planned for 2023, with several already announced and more to come. In addition, the YRHC has received a lot of positive feedback from attendees.
If you are the owner of an older Yamaha race bike and are interested in becoming a member of the Yamaha Racing Heritage Club, you can do so by going to the website of the official club, which can be found by following the link provided below. Once you do so, you will be eligible to receive additional technical support and the chance to have your bike added to the organization’s official database.