Cycle News Staff | January 24, 2023
Yamaha Motor Corporation, USA (YMUS) announced a renewal with Monster Energy and a strengthened global partnership, celebrated with a new Monster Energy Yamaha race-team livery for 2023.
(LR) Dylan Ferrandis, Eli Tomac and Fabio Quartararo.
Breaking cover at a global race-team celebration in San Diego, California, the Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing and Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP and MX2 teams’ YZ race machines will sport the same new look as the Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team’s YZR-M1s .
Before the San Diego Supercross, the worlds of Supercross, MotoGP and MXGP were brought together along with members of the media for the unveiling of the YZs. Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Eli Tomac and Dylan Ferrandis were on hand to reveal the new look of their YZ450Fs for the 2023 Monster Energy AMA Supercross and AMA Pro Motocross seasons, which are part of the inaugural SuperMotocross World Championship series. MXGP rider Jeremy Seewer was there for the presentation of his Monster Energy Yamaha Factory YZ450FM, which he will race in the 2023 FIM Motocross World Championship. 2021 MotoGP World Champion Fabio Quartararo also attended to share his YZR-M1, which was revealed earlier in the week at the Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team’s livery launch in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The camouflage motif on the YZ racebikes blends the colors of Yamaha and Monster Energy along the new addition of gray, giving them a refreshed, younger look. Designed by the renowned helmet designer, Italian Aldo Drudi, the new livery is said to symbolize Monster Energy and Yamaha’s combined passion for motorsports and the strong relationship between the brands.
Levi Kitchen’s 250SX West YZ250F shows off new graphics for the 2023 racing season. All of the Factory Yamaha motorcycles in Supercross, motocross and MotoGP will feature similar graphics.
Monster Energy’s VP of Motorsports Marketing Dave Gowland said, “Monster Energy is all about winning, and we’re excited to enter the 2023 global racing season with Yamaha Racing. Monster Energy competes and excels in motor-racing disciplines and championships the world over, and when we go racing, we go to win. We couldn’t be happier than to enter the 2023 Monster Energy Supercross Championship with Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing, the MXGP World Championship with the Monster Energy Factory MXGP and MX2 teams, and the MotoGP World Championship with the Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP team. Powering into 2023 with Yamaha and our collective new global livery for 2023 puts us in a position to fight for race wins and championships, and that’s exactly what we’re about. Bring on 2023. We’re here to win.”
The gathering took place at indoor go-karting center, K1 Speed, in downtown San Diego, so you can only imagine what transpired. Members of the media and some of the Yamaha factory racers, both past and present—including Tomac, Quartararo, Seewer and former Supercross Champion Ryan Villopoto—participated in some pretty entertaining kart racing. It was a rare opportunity for the racers—who don’t really see much of each other during their varying off seasons despite being members of the same Yamaha racing family—to catch up, hang out and chat. Quartararo and Tomac conversed for quite a while, discussing what’s life like in their respective sport. Tomac was surprised to learn that Quartararo only gets to test his MotoGP bike a few times before the racing season starts, which is quite different from how Supercross and motocross operate.
So, who was fastest in the karts? In the final race after several qualifiers, Quartararo took the win by two-tenths of a second over Seewer. Swapmotolive.com’s Michael Antonovich was a close third, while Ferrandis was fifth. CN