It is surely costing Yamaha a pretty penny to underwrite the track changes at the Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway in order to obtain FIM approval of a U.S. round of the MotoGP championship series next year. What does Yamaha get in return? Probably, an awful lot.
In the critical U.S. market, Yamaha will bring its now legendary MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi to parade in front of the U.S. media, both enthusiast media and general media. Think about it. Rossi is now recognized as perhaps the greatest motorcycle road racer in history, and the U.S. media is ripe to gobble up the MotoGP in 2005 and make Rossi its superstar. The Yamaha brand, of course, will be heard as often as the Rossi name in the U.S. press when MotoGP arrives next year. A brilliant move by Yamaha? Maybe so.