Australian Yamaha Motorcycling Legends Gall and Martin unite at ASBK

Two men who require absolutely no introduction are Steve Martin and Stephen Gall. The long time Yamaha supported pair, collectively have more titles to their names than you can count, and the duo jumped on a Yamaha R1 together, to cut some fast laps around Sydney Motorsport Park.

With Round 3 of the 2016 Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike Championship presented by Motul Pirelli well and truly underway, at lunch time , both Martin and Gall took part in the ASBK Pillion Ride Experience – both of the Yamaha legends putting on a rare show for ASBK Fans.

ASBK Ambassador Martin, who is a World Endurance Champion as well as an Australian Superbike Champion, said it was an honour to have former Mr Motocross Gall on the back of his Yamaha R1 today, sharing that it’s been on his ‘bucket list’ for quite some time.

“When I was only six or seven years old, I used to go and watch Stephen Gall race on the YZ490’s and I remember thinking ‘Man, that’s Mr Motocross’, so to be lucky enough to take him on the back of the bike today ticked one of the boxes on my list that’s for sure,” he said.

“I was a bit nervous to have him on the back, because you want to give them a great experience, and I knew he had ridden the bike here before. But it ended up being really cool because once we came in, we could both talk about what we were feeling on the bike, and swap experiences which is pretty rare.

“There’s probably very few people that Steve would give the controls to, and for him to jump on the back with me, really was a great honour.”

For Gall, who was a four time Mr Motocross during his career, when he stepped off the bike there was no denying the thrill of his experience as a pillion rider with Martin, sharing that there aren’t many riders out there that he would be happy to give the controls to, but Martin was certainly the exception.

“That was awesome! It really was a lot of fun out there – that Yamaha R1 is just so impressive the way it handles around the track. I actually rode that exact bike last week here for about 150kms and it’s just as impressive with two people on it,” he said.

“To hand the controls over to someone else, it is difficult, especially for someone like myself with my experience, but I had no trouble at all with handing the controls over to Steve. He has so much experience and he’s been around the world and raced and I had total confidence in him.

“I know the capabilities of that motorcycle and I was very honoured to have the opportunity to jump on with Steve and go for a ride. It certainly does give you a work out though, it’s sort of like doing a push up for a few laps (laughs).”

There will be plenty of action like this across the entire weekend at Sydney Motorsport Park, as Round 3 of the 2016 Yamaha Motor Finance Australian Superbike Championship presented by Motul Pirelli continues.

Image – Andrew Gosling/tbgsport