yamaha fxnytro on podium at canadian season finale

Steve Taylor and Steve Martin put their Yamaha FXNytro 4-strokes to the test at the Horseshoe Resort, near Barrie, Ont., April 5-6, where they greeted their fans at the CSRA Season Finale.

Laid out on the side of a ski hill, the long fast uphills and warm weather created challenges for all the teams. "We had to do a lot of recalibrating to tune for these conditions," says Yamaha Factory Snocross Team Manager Greg Marier. "Horseshoe is the kind of track we don't normally encounter at U.S Nationals. This track featured an uphill section that was the longest I have seen on a snocross course, and that was followed by a tricky serpentine section on the downhill side. The sleds reached the highest speeds we've ever seen during a race!"

Third and second place finishes in Saturday's qualifiers set the stage for a victory in Sunday's qualifier, where Taylor got the holeshot and never looked back as the 2-stroke competition fought to keep up. "They had a long uphill where you were absolutely wide open for five seconds or more, way longer than any other track," says Taylor.

Martin was also enjoying the track and using the FXNytro to its fullest, saying "That track was amazing! That uphill…well our sleds were going so fast at the top, it was unbelievable! If I was 30 ft. behind someone, I could pass them going up that hill."

Those great rides meant good starting positions in Sunday's 15-lap final, which Taylor and Martin used to their advantage to power their way into turn one. "Taylor led for about half the race until he got caught in a bad line and Hayden got by him," explained Marier. "Taylor closed the gap but just ran out of time." Taylor kept the pressure on Hayden to finish second. This is the fifth main-event podium for Taylor and his FXNytro this season.

Martin was also running strong until bad luck put him out of what looked to be another Yamaha podium finish. As Marier states, "Martin looked the best ever on the sled. He was running strong and putting pressure on the third place position, and he still had plenty of racing left. Unfortunately, his sled had a mechanical problem and Steve was out."

The Yamaha Factory Snocross Team is spending some time testing in the area, using the great weather and plentiful snow in Canada to their advantage.