Michele Rinaldi celebrates 25 years with Yamaha
By Alex Hodgkinson on 14th Dec 16
Yamaha will celebrate a special anniversary on Thursday, December 15, when it pays tribute to Michele Rinaldi, the man who has led the companys GP activities for a quarter of a century.
It was in the winter of 1991/92 that the Italian shocked the off-road world by switching from Suzuki to Yamaha – with outstanding success.
The 1984 125cc world champion had ended his own riding career at the relatively young age of 28 after finishing fourth in the 250cc World Series in 1987.
When we spoke about old times a couple of years back Michele was his usual honest self: "I had just finished fourth in the world, but I knew I couldn't win again,” he said.
He immediately set up his own race team as Suzuki's official participants in the 250 World Series, clad in the iconic white Chesterfield racing gear as he guided US newcomer Rodney Smith to the bronze medal.
For 1989, activities were extended to incorporate the 125 GPs, with Alex Puzar narrowly losing the title to Trampas Parker and in 1990 Michele moved the ‘Italian Stallion' to the 250s, the partnership taking the title by a mile after winning six of the first seven GPs.
Yamaha had directed their race programme from Amsterdam for a quarter of a century, their own line of success secured by Hakan Andersson, Heikki Mikkola, Neil Hudson, Danny LaPorte, Hakan Carlqvist, Jacky Vimond and John Van den Berk.
While Rinaldi concentrated on Suzuki's 250 affairs, Sylvain Geboers had taken over the 125 effort with equal success to score title wins with Donny Schmit in 1990 and Stefan Everts in 1991, but for his move to the then ‘premier' 250cc class, the American's contract was transferred to Rinaldi.
Then the bombshell as Rinaldi defected from yellow to white and took both Puzar and Schmit with him, adding Bobby Moore in that trio which only missed a complete sweep on the 250 medals in the summer of 1992, when Puzar got hurt and was nipped for third.
Although as ever a contender, no more 250 titles were added but Moore was sent to win the 125s in 1994 and in 1999 Rinaldi took over Yamaha's four-stroke project, immediately catapulting Andrea Bartolini to the 500cc world title.
The period 2001 to 2006 was the era of Rinaldi-Everts, the quietly-spoken Italian's role in those six titles acknowledged as he and younger brother Carlo delicately ‘sorted' every blip in the Belgian's psyche.
It was Michele, who had the inspirational idea – three GPs into the 2003 season – to send Stefan out in the 125cc class to get him warmed up for MXGP – and only the devastating injury to Josh Coppins when a rock severed the rear brake line at Loket in 2007 interrupted a run of success carried on in 2008 with David Philippaerts.
Rider injury misfortune dogged the team through the following years, but the tightly-knit technical outfit – a true race team, not a sandwich bar with a couple of bikes in the tent next door like so much of the opposition – continued to work diligently as Yamaha – always at the forefront of technical advances, as in 1973 with the Tilkens mono-shock and in 1997 with the first new generation high-revving four-stroke – turned their engine round to improve air flow.
In the ‘dark' years Michele admitted: "The work doesn't stop when you're not winning. If anything everyone works even harder to return to the top.”
After six years of dedication with little reward Romain Febvre arrived in 2015 to herald a new era of success for Rinaldi and Yamaha, which the Frenchman, together with Jeremy Van Horebeek, seems certain to prolong.
The party in Parma on December 17 will see the crew take a well-deserved bow but rest assured, on Friday, December 18, it will be back to the grind to ensure more titles in future for Michele Rinaldi and Yamaha as they enter the second quarter-century of their partnership.
