Yamaha 50th Anniversary celebration Laguna Seca

"On July 1, 2005, Yamaha Motor Company celebrated the 50th Anniversary of our company's founding. We have been able to reach this major milestone thanks to a proud tradition of the Yamaha "Spirit of Challenge" that began with our founding president, Genichi Kawakami in 1955, and has been handed down through the generations of Yamaha employees, and also thanks to the great efforts of our importers and dealers around the world, and finally thanks to the support we have always received from our customers. On behalf of Yamaha Motor, I wish to express our deep gratitude to all these people.Throughout our company's 50-year history, racing has always been an arena for us to nurture the spirit of challenge and refine our technology. At the same time, it has been a very important way for us to realize our corporate mission of creating "Kando," which is the Japanese word for feelings of excitement and deep satisfaction. And today, we are more aware than ever of the importance of winning races, because of the tremendous inspiration and motivation it brings to our customers and our business partners around the world.Looking back, the first overseas race Yamaha Motor ever participated in was the Catalina Grand Prix in the U.S. of 1958. Later, Yamaha would bring AMA star Kenny Roberts to the GP500 class of the World Championships and create a sensation, when he went on to win three consecutive world titles. Now I am very happy to see the pinnacle competition of world motorcycle road racing return to the U.S. for the first time in 11 years.