The fifth round of the 2016 World Superbike championship takes place at Imola. To coincide, Yamaha is launching a ‘Superbike Temple’ as part of the Moto Poggi Collection of motorcycles, located at Villanova di Castenso just outside Bologna.
The new WSB exhibit within one of the largest private Yamaha collections will include bikes races by the likes of Noriyuki Haga, Cal Crutchlow, Marco Melandri and 2009 champion Ben Spies. And the 2016 bikes being raced by Alex Lowes and Sylvain Guintoli.
If you’re able to visit Bologna, then the collection will be option to the public from Thursday 28th April to Sunday May 1st from 3.30-7pm each day to coincide with the Italian WSB round. If not, you’ll have to make do with the picture of the Yamaha FZ750 OW-01 that Fabrizio Pirovano rode in the first season of World Superbike racing back in 1988.
The Pirovano Yamaha FZ750 OW-01
Pirovano took second in the championship on this Yamaha FZ750 OW-01, while Mick Doohan also competed on the FZ750R with three wins from just four starts (One at Sugo in Japan, and the double at Oran park in Australia). It was followed by the Yamaha FZR750R OW-01, and later bikes including the R7 and R1.
The fame of the FZR after arriving in 1989 means the FZ has been overshadowed as a race bike – while the road version as produced from 1985 to 1991 using a thend radical 5-valve cylinder head with a radial arrangement which became a bit of a trademark for Yamaha, and could power the road bike to 150mph.
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