When all is said and done, there’s going to be quite a contingent of international riders taking part in this year’s 82nd running of the Daytona 200, March 7-9, and at the top of that list of teams and riders heading to Florida with the intent of taking the trophy back to Europe is YART (Yamaha Austria Racing Team).
Owned and managed by Mandy Kainz, YART has two World Endurance Championships (2009 and 2023) and 11 Endurance World Championship race victories on its resume.
And they are coming to Daytona International Speedway with the three riders who earned that title – Austrian Marvin Fritz, Czech Karel Hanika and Italian Niccolo Canepa. The trio will be armed with Yamaha YZF-R6s fitted with Bridgestone tires.
Further proof of how seriously the team is taking the 200 is that it just completed a two-day test in Almeria, Spain, with the riders sharing two of its new YZF-R6s, a change from the Yamaha YZF-R1s that YART uses in the World Endurance Championship.
Following its Daytona debut, the team will focus on defending its World Endurance Championship and will do so with the same three riders – Fritz, Hanika and Canepa – who won the title last year.
