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Yamaha YFZ450R ATV Links |
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| Yamaha
YFZ450 ATV Link |
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| In
2008, Jarrod McClure earned two Pro ATV
podium finishes in the GNCC Series &
earned a Top 10 Number for 2009 |
Baltimore, MD (2/22/2009) - With
the start of the 2009 ATV racing season just around
the corner, it was decision making time on what
quad to race for the 2009 GNCC racing season.
I have raced the Honda TRX450R the past couple
of years with great success, but with the Honda
GNCC contingency cut in half for 2009, there really
wasn’t enough of an incentive to race another
year in the GNCC series on the Honda 450R. However,
I would continue to race the TRX 450R out west
in the WORCS Series because of the substantial
Honda ATV racing contingency for the series.
As for the GNCC series, I considered all the
available ATV options beyond the Honda, and
I decided that Yamaha had the best track record
considering 9 Time GNCC Pro ATV Champion, Bill
Ballance, has secured his last five Pro ATV
championships on the YFZ450 and both Donald
Ockerman & Brandon Sommers have also scored
several Pro-Am & amateur championships over
the past couple of years on the YFZ450 as well.
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Jarrod
McClure made his GNCC debut in 2004 on
a Yamaha YFZ450 & earned several top
five finishes in the Stock Class |
Also, I raced the Yamaha YFZ450 many years
ago, before I was even on the Honda 450R, in
the GNCC stock class for a few rounds and had
some great finishes on it. I then made the switch
to Honda 450R just because of their contingency
program at the time, so I already knew that
I felt comfortable on the YFZ450, and over the
past couple of years, Yamaha has made many updates
to the YFZ450 to make it even better, so decided
to buy a brand new Yamaha YFZ450 and see if
it was going to be the right ATV for the 2009
GNCC Racing season.
I also thought about racing the all new Yamaha
YFZ 450R in 2009. Fortunately, I had the opportunity
attend the press intro with ATVriders.com, which
provided me opportunity to ride the YFZ450R
on the trails and motocross track, and I was
really impressed with the YFZ450R.
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Jarrod
McClure tested the all new 2009 Yamaha
YFZ450R on
both the
trails & motocross
track |
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| Jarrod
McClure Test Riding the 2008 Yamaha YFZ450
ATV |
The day after I returned home from riding the
YFZ450R, I decided to go out on my stock YFZ450
to see how much different it felt from riding
the new YFZ450R. Within the first few minutes
of riding I immediately noticed my thumb starting
to get sore. This wasn’t a problem on the
YFZ450R because of the fuel injection along with
the new thumb throttle design. Also, another thing
I noticed instantly was how narrow the YFZ is
compared to the YFZ450R. I came into a corner
a little to hot and was up on two wheels before
I knew it. Speaking of cornering, you can also
notice the difference in the frame rake between
the two quads. The YFZ has more of a tendency
to push, and also when coming into a corner on
the brakes the bumps seemed very harsh compared
to the YFZ450R.
