Any person who followed motocross and supercross races through the 90’s and 2000’s would, hands down, declare Yamaha of Troy their God and anybody who doesn’t probably followed motocross for the toons. For such is the magic of these racing Supremes that every other team paled in comparison to their on track exploits and off track flamboyance!
And now to think that an era is coming to an end! Yamaha of Troy in January officially closed down their company in Dayton, Ohio. It is rather sad and unfortunate that a brand like Yamaha of Troy failed to find buyers, even after years of amazing performance which generated some serious money for al their sponsors. The recession did not spare the racing giant from is venomous spell and the company went through a trough patch through 2008 and 2009. Is attempted comeback in 2009 also did not help matters, as after two unsuccessful efforts, the company had to close its doors and end the belief of millions of fans who idolized them.
The journey of Yamaha of Troy has been fascinating and was founded by the illustrious Phil Alderton. He led his team to victory in eight outdoor wins, forty supercross wins, and four AMA 125/250F East/West Supercross championships. The team with their explosive biking set the tracks ablaze like a ninja in the nineties and continued their winning spell well through the decade of the 2000’s as well. What kept them ahead of the competition was imaginative and bold mechanisms for their bike and highly advanced tool kits, which their rivals could only dream for. Their bikes were worth drooling over and so were their bikers, as they established standards on the racing tracks and trends off them. Jason Lawrence is probably the most popular member of this team and his 2009 inclusion invited much appreciation and love from their loyal fans. Yamaha of Troy won various championships and tournaments and not once did it seem that their previous wins were putting a pressure on their performances as every time the bikers came forward and made the competing reams taste dust, quite literally. Much of their win’s credit should go to their management as well, which ensured that everything was impeccable when it came to planning and all bikes and tools were state of the art. Evidence of this can be seen in the award for Team Manager of the Year, received in the year 2004.
Yamaha of Troy was the trendsetter, Yamaha of Troy were the demi-Gods of racing tracks, Yamaha of Troy were the last word when it came to motocross and supercross racing and the first word when it came to sheer brilliance. Their close down is the end of an era, a golden era, made spectacular by their race track marvels. Yamaha of Troy would always live on in the heart of their fans, no matter their company shuts down or continues like always
