Robbie Malinoski, Boss Racing and Yamaha made snocross history in January when they won the Pro Open Final at the Brainerd Minnesota WPSA National.
The Yamaha braintrust had to be literally peeled from their race trailer ceiling when Malinoski rode a near perfect final – pulling the holeshot and leading to victory on Yamaha’s all-new Nytro race sled.
Yamaha left Duluth in December, went back to the drawing board and built a brand new racer off the new 2008 Nytro platform. Clearly, the new Nytro is a very competent Open Mod snocross weapon.
There’s just no way you can under-value what this victory means. Yamaha said it was going to go racing against 2-strokes, and it did. Malinoski said he wanted to be the first to win big on a 4-stroke and he did it. Frankly, if Yamaha doesn’t do anything more for the rest of the season, it has made its point.
It was way back in late 90’s when Doug Henry won the Las Vegas round of the AMA Supercross Series on the YZM 400 4-stroke motocross motorcycle and made motorcycling history. He then went on to win the first AMA National Outdoor Championship a year later on a 4-stroke.
The mold was broken and now MX racing is dominated – indoor and outdoor – by 4-stroke power. While it’s much too early to make sweeping proclamations, we think Yamaha and Malinoski deserve a pat on the back for singlehandedly doing what most thought was impossible.
