Jarno Saarinen – The Flying Finn - at the 1972 250cc Belgian GP, Spa-Francorchamps.

Due to drastic changes to the technical regulations in the Road Racing World Championship in the late 60’s, Yamaha was forced to withdraw from participating as a factory but maintained its presence in racing by releasing the TD-2 and TR-2 high-performance 2-stroke production road racers and by finding new challenges in the sport of motocross.

Yamaha’s passion for road racing was still there. It continuously improved its production racers and introduced special racing parts and advanced-development models to support talented riders such as Phil Read, Jarno Saarinen and Kent Andersson in the 350cc, 250cc and 125cc class.

The passion was so big that Yamaha finally took up the challenge to return to the Grand Prix World Championship. And so, Yamaha did in 1973 with the first-generation YZR500 (0W20) in the 500cc class and with the YZR250 (0W17 – based on the YZ635, a liquid-cooled version of a TD-2 production racer) in the 250cc class. The Yamaha riders were Jarno Saarinen and Hideo Kanaya for both classes.

These two riders surprised everyone with their success on the new Yamaha machines; with wins and a few 1-2 finishes at the first rounds. However, Yamaha’s winning streak came to a sudden end when Jarno Saarinen was tragically killed in an accident at the Nations GP in Monza. Yamaha withdrew its factory team from all the remaining races that year.

Podium wins at the French GP for Jarno Saarinen and Hideo Kanaya in 1973.

The “Flying Suspension” made its road racing debut with Giacomo Augustini in 1974. The initial cantiliver type would be replaced by a linked type.

In 1974, Yamaha resumed racing as a factory in the Grand Prix World Championship with the YZR500 (0W20) adopting a Monocross suspension, the YZ634-based YZR350 (0W16) and a 700cc factory spec TZ750 (0W19). The Yamaha rider Giacomo Agostini rode the TZ750 to consecutive victories in the Daytona 200 and Imola 200 and followed up with wins in the 500cc class of the Grand Prix World Championship in Austria and The Netherlands.

That same year the TZ350, TZ250 and TA 125 production racers performed spectacularly, helping Yamaha to win the Constructor Championship title in four classes (125cc, 250cc, 350cc and 500cc).

In 1975, Agostini took back the Rider’s title on a fully redesigned and more compact YZR500 (0W23). His teammate Tanaya was 3rd overall and, in addition Johnny Cecotto won the title in the 350cc class.

After withdrawal for one year, Yamaha returned in 1977 with Agostini, Cecotto and  with the newly designed YZR500 (0W35). Despite hard-fought battles they could not win back the title that year.

In the 250cc and 350cc Grand Prix World Championship classes Yamaha rider Takazumi Katayama worked hard. He ranked 2nd in the 250cc class in 1976 and took the 350cc title in 1977, riding a TZ350 modified to have three cylinders.

Racing-legend Giacomo Agostini won Yamaha its long-awaited first 500cc class title in 1975.

Three-time 500cc World Champion Kenny Roberts – “King Kenny” – on a Yamaha yellow-black YZR500 in 1978.

However, with only a title win in the 500cc Grand Prix World Championship class, Yamaha was eager to reclaim the title. The arrival of the YZR500 (0W35K) (with improved power across the range thanks to the Yamaha Power Valve System (YPVS), which controlled exhaust timing to eliminate torque dips in the powerband, in 1977 and “King” Kenny Roberts, who took the place of Giacomo Agostini in 1978 and had a unique riding style, Yamaha had a formidable combination. Roberts had secured Yamaha the 500cc World Champion title three years in a row by 1980.

In Motocross, Yamaha turned its focus to racing in Europe – the home of motocross. After winning the Senior and Junior 250cc All Japan Motocross Championship, Tadao Suzuki and Hideaki Suzuki were sent off on a European motorsports Tour. Competing in the Junior class races, the two riders and their modified DT-1s more than held their own against the competition.  However, in the more top-class races this was a different story. The gap between machine performance, rider strength and skill was larger than expected.

Tadao Suzuki riding a DT-1 based YZ624 at the 1971 All Japan Motocross Championship.

Hakan Andersson won the 1973 World title on the Monocross-equipped YZM250.

Thanks to 250cc Motocross World Champion Thorsten Hallman, who became the Yamaha’s advisor using his wealth of experience in motocross, Yamaha entered in 1972 the Motocross World Championship with the newly developed YZ637 (250cc) , YZ639 (360cc) and the YZ642 (460cc, 500cc), all equipped with the in-house developed Thermal Flow rear suspension. Yamaha rider Hakan Andersson claimed his first victory in the Swedish race and ranked 2nd for the season.

That same year in Japan Yamaha began development of the new Monocross suspension. Through monopolization of the top spots of the All Japan Motocross Championship in 1973 Yamaha gained enough confidence in the level of performance of this new device and entered the YZM250 (0W12) with the Monocross suspension in the middle of 250cc World Championship. Hakan Andersson won Yamaha’s first Motocross World Championship title for both Rider and Manufacturer.

After several attempts in the 500cc class it was finally Heikki Mikkola on the 396cc YZM400 factory machine who won 12 of the 24 motos of the season in 1977 to bring Yamaha its first 500cc title. The following year, the same Mikkola brought Yamaha  a second consecutive Rider title as well as Yamaha’s first 500cc Manufacturer title on a YZM400 (0W39) with a even more compact engine and lightened Monocross suspension.

In the USA, around 1972, motocross truly came of age with the exciting AMA 500cc and 250cc National Motocross Series and the Supercross event that had a high entertainment value. Yamaha contributed to this excitement by sending its top riders to USA through Yamaha International Corporation (YIC). From 1976 to 1979 Bob Hannah won seven AMA Supercross and Motocross titles. While in 1977 Broc Glover took the outdoor AMA Motocross 125cc class title three years in a row and later in the 80’s was a three-times consecutive winner in the 500cc class.

Bob “Hurricane” Hannah – won three consecutive AMA Supercross championships.

1979 was also the start of a new race adventure, the Paris-Dakar Rally, a roughly 10,000km race starting in Paris and running through vast deserts of numerous African countries before reaching the finish in Dakar, Senegal and ridden by amateurs looking for adventure. The rally was entered by a French privateer, Cyril Neveu, on a modified stock XT500 (4-stroke single-cylinder trail model). Neveu took 1st place overall of both the 2-wheeled and 4-wheeled vehicles. Gilles Comte, the rider of Yamaha’s French importer Sonauto at that time, was 2nd overall on a modified XT500. And Marie Ertaud took the top position for the women’s division, also on a modified XT500. The following year the modified XT500 demonstrated overwhelming supremacy taking the top four places with Neveu finishing 1st again.

Cyril Neveu wins the 1st Dakar Rally riding the XT500.

Trials guru Mick Andrews in action during Yamaha trial
classes in 1973.

Trials competition is another category that deserves mentioning. Previously, only a handful of fans in Japan were familiar with the sport but it rapidly gained wider attention. Seeking to pioneer in new markets, Yamaha developed its first trials production model, the TY250. In 1973, Mick Andrews, who participated in the European Trial Championship and the Scottish Six Days Trial on a TY250 prototype, was invited to Japan to give Yamaha trials classes which fascinated the 95,000 attending fans. Haruo Kimira won the first All-Japan Trial Championship on a TY250. Thanks to these two events, the popularity of the TY250J soared. In 1974, the All-Japan Trial Championship was turned into a series and Hiroshi Kondo took the title, riding a TY250J. After the economic boom peaked, demand for trials bikes rapidly decreased. The chance to reclaim the title had to wait until a later era.