The last day of the Yamaha VR46 Master Camp is always an event that comes with mixed feelings for the students. Nevertheless, Italy's Alfonso Coppola (19), France's Enzo De La Vega (17), Finland's Kimi Patova (15), Ukraine's Mykyta Kalinin (18), Brazil's Renzo Ferreira (15) and the Netherlands' Robert Schotman (18) were excited to head back to the place where it all began, the VR46 Motor Ranch, to race Francesco Bagnaia, Marco Bezzecchi and Celestino Vietti, with flat track instructor Marco Belli present as 'race direction'.
Each of the riders were eager to go out on a high, and they gave their all in three furious rounds aboard their YZ250F bikes - two incorporated the entire track and one was an 'American-style' race on the oval. Ultimately the last Yamaha VR46 Master Camp challenge was won by De La Vega, ahead of Kalinin in second place, and Patova, who finished third overall.
It was then time to say goodbye to the VR46 Motor Ranch, but their young spirits were soon lifted by a visit to the VR46 Store - a quick shopping stop before the group made their way to the VR46 Headquarters.
The riders had one final theory class in the afternoon, given by Sky Racing Team VR46's Technical Director and Crew Chief, Pietro Caprara. The technical course was followed by a quick guided tour to show the students the latest products and the VR46 Riders Academy and Yamaha VR46 Master Camp bikes. The tour ended back in Valentino Rossi's office, for the traditional graduation ceremony, led by VR46 Riders Academy Director Alessio 'Uccio' Salucci and Yamaha Motor Racing Srl's Managing Director Lin Jarvis. The riders viewed a summary video of the last five special days, before being handed their official Yamaha VR46 Master Camp certificate of attendance and some extra gifts from VR46.
The Yamaha VR46 Master Camp team want to sincerely thank Yamaha, its partners, Valentino Rossi, VR46, the VR46 Riders Academy and its riders for their contribution to this project, which gave the six Master Camp students the opportunity to take the next step in their racing endeavours. The Master Camp team also sincerely thanks the six riders for their efforts.
Lin Jarvis: "I think that the fourth Yamaha VR46 Master Camp has been a big success. This was our first event with European based riders and we were curious to see what it was going to be like and it went really well. They are all accustomed to being in Europe and in Italy and its society. There was no adaptation period, it was just a matter of getting stuck in and acclimatising themselves to the Master Camp group and getting on with the week. It was great that we had riders from six different countries, all working together as a team under the bLU cRU project. The level of riding skills was pretty high, which is also what I heard from the VR46 Academy riders and Marco Belli when I spoke to them. These riders are all very keen to learn, adapt, and they were open to trying new things. For me the benchmark is looking at the fifth day of riding and I saw the speed they had at the VR46 Motor Ranch in the morning, which was impressive. They are happy, positive and motivated, so it‘s been big smiles all around. It‘s been a fabulous week, without any incidents, because in racing you never know. So everybody is going home happy, content and a lot wiser than when they came and I think with a huge motivation to improve their career."