Standing Construct ready for big Yamaha role
By TMX Archives on 15th Dec 14
Yamaha are switching their MX2 racing efforts around for the 2015 FIM Motocross World Championship and have offered the slick Standing Construct team decent support and status for the coming season with riders Valentin Guillod and Julien Lieber set to run the YZ250Fs partially tuned by French firm Akira.
With the departure of the Bike it Dixon team to Kawasaki, Michele Rinaldi's Yamaha Factory Racing team dropping their 250 prototype programme for the first time since 2008 and Kemea Yamaha focussing more on youth development with the likes of Benoit Paturel not expected to push for trophies in his first GP term, Yamaha have looked to Tim Mathys' Standing crew for further (and prominent) representation. It means the third different change for the brand in the category since 2009 when they moved from the Ricci squad to Gariboldi and then assisted Kemea's rise as an established Grand Prix effort.
For Standing Construct the Yamaha alliance is a vindication of their association with the likes of Akira, Guillod and mentor and ex-champion Yves Demaria that continued their podium presence in MX2 this year after former rider Glenn Coldenhoff delivered a momentous Grand Prix win in Great Britain in 2013. The team went through a protracted and ultimately doomed merger with Suzuki Europe at the end of last year and re-emerged with Guillod on KTMs in 2014 where he scored his first GP silverware and finished seventh in the series.
Yamaha signifies a new chapter. "They want a team that focuses just on MX2 and what makes the YZ250F similar in performance to the KTM, let's say," explains Mathys. "Of course they also want a Yamaha in the top five and fighting for more and that's our goal as well."
Yamaha celebrated fleeting podium results in the last two years and since their re-worked 2014 YZ250F came into the field at the beginning of 2014; mainly from Dixon's work and union with British racer Max Anstie but Christophe Charlier also won three motos in two years on the Rinaldi YZ. The system that Standing has applied to their racing was clearly appealing to the Dutch-based Yamaha Motor Europe hierarchy.
"We worked with [renowned tuner] John Volleberg last year who did a great job for us but we think it is so important in MX2 to have the very best you can get; which means the most horsepower possible but also not losing touch with the riders' wishes," Mathys divulges. "For example last year - 2013 - I think we had one of the fastest bikes in the category and when we went testing with Valentin we were confident that he'd be super-happy but when he stepped off it he said: "It's too fast for me, I cannot ride it. There is nothing at the bottom...it's all at the top". So we had to work really hard over the winter together with the French engineers at Akira to modify the bike to his wishes. They developed special cranks and overhauled the engine and that's what we have now and what the people from Yamaha saw."
"For 2014 I was happy we could switch [back] to KTM because a lot of promises were made by Suzuki that were not fulfilled but we were a satellite team and that means always one step or more below the factory team," he continues. "It was also a reason that we started to work on the bike by ourselves and [we] liked the process. We had a good base from KTM and made it better. We will do the same with the Yamaha now but being more official and ‘factory' means more benefit and support for budget and equipment. It is important because if you want to do a year in MX2 at a good level then it is very expensive."
Standing already have plans to work with Yamaha in the United States and glean knowledge from the efforts made by the likes of Star Racing that took Jeremy Martin to a first AMA National title for the YZ250F. The bike was clearly a superior machine on American tracks last summer with Martin's team-mate Cooper Webb and also Valli Yamaha's Christophe Pourcel leading and winning 250MX motos.
It is then back to Europe to ensure that Guillod can continue his rise that started with the EMX250 European Championship in 2013 to GP protagonist in 2014 and make the most of the Swiss' final campaign in MX2 before he reaches the age ceiling.
Lieber was re-born on the Standing Construct KTM in the final two rounds of the year and after prematurely ending an unhappy and unfruitful spell at Suzuki. Overall Standing are poised to make a sizeable impact on the MX2 field in 2015 and now have extra means to do so, as Mathys stresses: "I am here to get results; that's my main satisfaction. If it was for money then I would not be here. I work hard through the week with my construction company to come here, enjoy and watch a guy going for the top five. I'm not interested in racing for 13th and having more money in my pockets."
"I'm happy for the people that make up this team, like Wim van Hoof because the work someone like he does is incredible," he adds keen to give credit. "He has such know-how and gives it 100%. Francois also, he is 66 years old but you would not believe his workload. Everyone does such a good job and now we are ready to do better."
