Yamaha Factory Racing’s Iain Hayden wrapped up the Canadian snocross season with a definitive win in the Pro Open Mod class at Horseshoe Valley Resort in Craighurst, Ontario this past weekend. His teammate, Steve Taylor, like Hayden piloting the potent 4-stroke FX Nytro®, snuck into the top five with a fourth place finish. Taylor also rose to the occasion to claim victory in the special Blair Morgan Pro/Am tribute race.

“Better late than never,” said Taylor after winning the Morgan race. “It took me to the end of the season to record a win so it was really sweet to climb the top rung of the podium today. It would have been nice to finish one-two in the Pro Open main with Iain, but all in all it was a good weekend for the team and the FX Nytros®.”

The final CSRA event of the season couldn’t have been run under better conditions: excellent weather, plenty of snow – which made for an ideal track – and a large spectator turnout made for a great weekend of racing in the Great White North. In Pro Open Mod action, both Hayden and Taylor advanced directly to the main event after dominating their respective qualifying heats, which they led from start to finish.

In the main, an on-fire Hayden assertively pegged the holeshot with Taylor running a close second. It looked like the teammates were on a mission to put as much distance between themselves and the chase group; by the end of the fourth lap they had pulled an impressive seven-second lead on third place!

While former CSRA champ Hayden set a blistering pace at the front of the pack, a track-tension issue towards the end of the race saw Taylor lose some ground and drop back two positions to finish fourth by the time the checkered was waved. Hayden, meanwhile, never looked back and ran his own race to finish way ahead of the rest of the field to claim his second win of the season.

“It’s always great to return to the CSRA for a race on home turf.And you couldn’t have asked for a better way to finish the season,” said Hayden. “Everything came together really nice this weekend. The sleds ran awesome. The whole team really delivered the goods.”

Yamaha Factory Racing team manager Andre Laurin was rightfully proud of this impressive finish to the season, stating “The superiority of Yamaha's four-stroke technology was easy to see today, both to the racing fans in the large crowd and also to the other contenders, who were just about banging their heads against their trailers trying to figure out how to beat us up the hill. Everyone's hard work paid off and we finished the season really strong, with our racers making the podium at three of our last four finals, including the two victories this weekend. With this momentum, I can't wait until next season!”

Everyone at Yamaha Factory Racing would like to congratulate Iain and Steve for their wins at Horseshoe Valley and concluding the ’08-’09 snocross season on a high note.Yamaha Factory Racing would also like to thank the following sponsors for their valuable support: Yamalube®, FXR®, Fox® Shocks, Camoplast®, GYTR®, Fly Racing® and Stud Boy®