Yamaha Racing Heritage Club to celebrate TZ's 50th anniversary in Mugello
Along with the 25th anniversary of the R1, Yamaha will celebrate the 50th anniversary of its TZ production racer line, which began with the TZ250 and TZ350.
Yamaha will celebrate two anniversaries this weekend at Mugello, for two of its most iconic models.
This year, the Yamaha R1 turns 25, which is both impressive and terrifying. Similarly, the Yamaha TZ production racer line celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2023. Both of these milestones will be celebrated by Yamaha at an upcoming event at the Mugello circuit in Italy this weekend on 21-22 July.
Already announced as part of this year’s Yamaha Racing Experience event at Mugello, the R1’s 25th anniversary will also be celebrated by the Yamaha Racing Heritage Club (YRHC) at the same event in Mugello, alongside the TZ250, TZ350, and TZ750 production racers.
The 250 and 350 were both born in 1973, based on the factory race bikes of 1972, and aimed at privateers. Their accessibility for non-factory riders made them cult heroes almost immediately for the young bikers of the early 1970s.
They were also followed up, in 1974, by the TZ750, which went on to win nine consecutive Daytona 200 races, including by Steve Baker, who also took the 1977 Formula 750 World Championship with the TZ750.
Members of the YRHC will be able to ride around Mugello alongside two riders who became synonymous with the Yamaha TZ line during their respective careers: Johnny Cecotto (1975 350cc World Champion, 1978 Formula 750 World Champion), and Carlos Lavado (1983, 1986 250cc World Champion).
Other race bikes set to be present in Mugello for the event include numerous TZ250s, TZ350s, and TZ750s, a TA125, 1978 factory YZR750 OW31, and a 1993 Yamaha ROC YZR500.
In recognition of the Yamaha R1’s 25th anniversary, a number of R1 race bikes will be in Mugello, along with Yamaha’s entire 2023 WorldSBK rider roster: Toprak Razgatlioglu, Andrea Locatelli, Bradley Ray, Lorenzo Baldassarri, Dominique Aegerter, and Remy Gardner; who, between them, have five FIM World Championships. Niccolo Canepa, who won the 2023 Spa 24H EWC Motos alongside Marvin Fritz and Karel Hanika earlier this year with the YART Yamaha team, will also head to Mugello for the event.
Head to the Yamaha Racing website to see if you are eligible to join the YRHC.
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Alex has been working in the motorcycle industry for as long as he has been at Visordown, which has been since March 2022 so we'll let you work it out from there. He's the new guy. He'd be fetching us all coffee 'round the clock if he wasn't based in the arse end of nowhere.
