Racing

Yamaha “Spy Footage” to Be “Leaked” Online, By Yamaha

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We see our fair share of weird press releases here at Asphalt & Rubber, though usually the strangeness stems around English not being the primary language of the writer — which to be fair, if we had to write something in a language other than our native tongue, it would read pretty strange as well.

Today’s weirdness however comes from Yamaha USA, who sent out a press release with the title: “Yamaha U.S. Road Racing Teams Discover Evidence Of Being ‘Spied On’ While At Recent Track Test”. The email title certainly grabbed our attention, after all who doesn’t like a good spy story? Danger Zone!

What followed of course was utter disappointment, as the whole premise for the release was to tease and setup a future social media campaign from the tuning fork brand — the giveaway is where the company states several times that the footage “may be leaked” onto social media. Le sigh.

You can’t fault Yamaha USA for recently holding a two-day test/media day at Thunderhill Raceway for its AMA Road Racing riders, nor can you fault the last-OEM-standing in the AMA paddock for wanting to promote its racing efforts there. What worries us, especially while looking at how AMA Pro Racing is collapsing in on itself, is how forced this campaign feels. Did The Fonz just jump over a shark on water skis?

Now don’t get us wrong, Yamaha USA has produced some amazing viral media in the past, so we want to give the benefit of the doubt, but this just feels tacky — or genius-level meta. You can read the press release after the jump, and decide for yourself though.

Yamaha U.S. Road Racing Teams Discover Evidence Of Being “Spied On” While At Recent Track Test

Cypress, CA – February 27, 2014 – It has just been revealed by Yamaha’s U.S. Road Racing Teams that, during their recent on-track test at Thunderhill Raceway Park, the teams’ riders and crew were under near-constant surveillance by unknown entities throughout the two-day event.

According to Keith McCarty, Motorsports Racing Division Manager for Yamaha Motor Corporation, U.S.A., “We spotted a couple of people with cameras equipped with long-range lenses, and they positioned covertly outside the track. It looked to be a pretty well-organized group of spies. They had still cameras and video cameras, and they were trying to conceal their locations and identities. We’re still not sure who it was, but they were definitely spying on us.”

Unknown sources have also just revealed to the two Yamaha teams–Monster Energy/Graves/Yamaha and Yamaha Extended Service/Monster Energy/Graves/Yamaha–that some of this surveillance footage is about to be leaked to social media channels on the Internet.

McCarty continued, “Some of our riders clearly saw individuals in hiding around the track, and these individuals were videotaping our test. In fact, at one point, I don’t think they expected Josh Hayes to be on the track at a certain time and place. Josh came by on his #4 Monster Energy/Graves/Yamaha YZF-R1, immediately spotted them, and decided to give them a friendly little wave.”

When asked if McCarty was upset by the surveillance, he said, “No, not at all. I’m sure whoever was taking those photos and that video footage enjoyed what they saw. Obviously, I’m anxious to see if this stuff leaks out to social media as we’ve been told, but in the long run, it’s probably good publicity for us. Yamaha had its best year ever in AMA Pro Road Racing last year, so it’s only natural that people would want to see what we have planned for 2014.”

Stay tuned for further updates on this rapidly developing story.

Also, for more news, results, and other team info, be sure to check out Yamaha’s Facebook page and follow us on Twitter @YamahaMotorUSA.

Source: Yamaha USA

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