The Yamaha Racing Heritage Club (YRHC) will return to the Yamaha Racing Experience at Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli on June 18-19, bringing together legendary riders and some of the most important motorcycles in Yamaha’s racing history. Founded in 2021, the YRHC preserves and celebrates Yamaha’s racing heritage by supporting owners of historic race bikes and keeping these machines active on track. Visitors at Misano will be able to see the bikes up close, hear them running and watch them in dedicated track sessions. The event will feature Grand Prix legends Giacomo Agostini, Carlos Lavado and Luca Cadalora. Agostini’s historic YZR500 0W23, which delivered Yamaha’s first 500cc World Championship title in 1975 and became the first two-stroke machine to win the premier-class crown, will return to the track following a recent restoration.
Lavado’s championship-winning 1986 YZR250 0W82 and Cadalora’s 1990 YZR250 0WB9 will also be on display, while Cadalora is expected to ride the YZR500 0WK1 he raced in 1998. The Grand Prix collection also includes Eddie Lawson’s 1986 World Championship-winning YZR500 0W81, the 1987 YZR500 0W86, and Norifumi Abe’s 2002 YZR500 0WL9, one of Yamaha’s final 500cc two-stroke Grand Prix machines before the switch to four-stroke MotoGP bikes. Yamaha’s WorldSBK history will be represented by Noriyuki Haga’s iconic YZF-R7 OW02, along with his 1998 YZF750 0WJ6 and 2008 YZF-R1, showcasing key milestones in Yamaha’s production-based racing success.
Current Yamaha stars will also attend, including WorldSBK riders Andrea Locatelli, Xavi Vierge, Remy Gardner and Stefano Manzi, as well as reigning FIM Endurance World Champions Marvin Fritz, Karel Hanika and Leandro Mercado. Their presence will create a link between Yamaha’s past and present, bringing together different generations of riders and machinery in the same paddock. The event will also include the official Yamaha Racing Experience dinner, allowing riders, customers and Yamaha representatives to meet away from the circuit. Overall, the YRHC display at Misano will celebrate Yamaha’s 70-year racing legacy by showcasing some of the brand’s most significant motorcycles and the riders who made them famous.
