13th Yamaha VR46 Master Camp Students Achieve New Heights on Day 3

The third day of the 13th Yamaha VR46 Master Camp was especially designed to let the riders further develop the body position and throttle control techniques in a soft-cross and an eSport session. They finished the day with some stretching to aid recovery at the midway stage of the training programme.

The third-day programme of the 13th Yamaha VR46 Master Camp pushed the six riders to up their performance levels in superhot conditions. They returned to Valentino Rossi's Motor Ranch in the morning, this time for a soft-cross session with Flat Track Instructor Marco Belli and Yamaha VR46 Master Camp Team's Jeremy Alcoba. In the afternoon they were joined by multi MotoGP eSport Champion Lorenzo Daretti (aka Trastevere73) for an eSport challenge before their relaxing gym session.

Gonzalo Sanchez Melendez (age 15, Spain), Takumi Takahashi (age 16, Japan), Dorian Joulin (age 17, France), Aymon Bocanegra (age 14, Peru), Wahyu Nugroho (age 21, Indonesia), and Md Adamhaikal Bin Jahar (age 19, Malaysia) were keen to step aboard the YZ125 bikes for a soft-cross lesson.

Instructor Belli was impressed, saying:

"I put Jeremy in charge of the soft-cross class, and he tried to pass on his experience with this discipline to the guys. Four of the six already had experience and two were new to it, and I think this edition of the Master Camp programme is going very well. We are building onto their existing levels and every lesson we give them is just one little step to make. Overall, we're raising their self-awareness as a rider, so they can push themselves more and more every training session, but in a realistic manner, without overdoing it."

Alcoba also had a good time, he added:

"It was a really good session. Let me start by saying that riding at the VR46 Motor Ranch was always a dream for me. Riding soft cross here is great fun! The jumps at this track are made very well. I saw the guys make a great improvement, they did really well. Some better than others, but that was all due to past MX experience. But I'm happy because they improved, they were pushing themselves, and nobody took it too far, which is easily done.

"On Day 4, I will push them a bit more. Day 3 was for training and fun, but on Day 4 we get down to business!"

Back from lunch, it was time for a friendly MotoGP eSport match-off. The riders held a qualifying and two races (one held in Misano and the other in Sepang). The winner overall was Bocanegra, with Joulin coming second, and Nugroho finishing third.

Their teacher Daretti commented:

"It was a really good second session. The guys improved their riding a lot. We've seen great battles for the podium. Aymon won both races. He was maybe not the fastest rider out of them, but he used his head, kept first position, and won the Master Camp eSport challenge.

"In the end, Dorian and Wahyu had the same number of points, 36, after the two races. So we did an extra 5-lap race in Aragon as a tiebreaker. Dorian won this race and therefore got second place, and Wahyu was third.

"I really enjoyed seeing them race. You can tell by their control and their ability to avoid the curbs that they improved, because it's easy to crash if you brake on the curbs. They became more precise in riding. The key during these races is not to crash and remain 'alive'."

After the gaming, the pupils headed to the FISIO GYM to do some stretching exercises with the aim of helping their bodies recover after a full-on first three days of training.

Relive the action of the Day-3 activities HERE.