The WTGP: A Global Competition for Yamaha Motorcycle Technicians

Honing Skills through Competition to Offer One-to-One Service

IWATA, JAPAN – November 27, 2023 – (Motor Sports NewsWire) – The World Technician Grand Prix (WTGP) is an international competition where Yamaha Motor’s best motorcycle technicians compete against each other with their skills, and boasts the longest history of such a contest in the motorcycle industry. Although Yamaha was not able to hold the event over the last few years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is scheduled to make its return in 2025 and is where one of the roughly 34,600 Yamaha-certified technicians will be crowned the No. 1 Yamaha motorcycle technician. This issue provides a general overview of the competition and introduces its goals.

34,600 Technicians Competing for the No. 1 Title

After clearing national or regional events, technicians compete at the World Technician Grand Prix armed with the skills and knowledge acquired through their daily duties (photo from the 2018 event).

To ensure Kando experiences for each and every customer, the Yamaha Motor group’s service department’s global ideal is “One-to-One Service.” Three factors lie at the core of this ideal: the high maintenance skills, expert product knowledge, and reliable support provided by Yamaha’s technicians when they take care of a customer’s motorcycle. To manifest these factors at a high level, Yamaha Motor established the Yamaha Technical Academy (YTA) as a globally standardized training program for its technicians. YTA-certified technicians help support a safer and more enjoyable motorcycling life of customers.

There are approximately 34,600 such technicians around the globe and the first competition in which they pit the skills and knowledge honed through their daily work against their colleagues is the National Technician Grand Prix (NTGP) held in each country. Those who emerge as the winners of their respective NTGPs qualify to compete for the No. 1 title at the World Technician Grand Prix (WTGP), which has been traditionally held every two years since 2002.

The WTGP puts entrants up against a wider range of more practical skills and knowledge tests. These include the Technical Skills section; where participants compete by demonstrating their skills in troubleshooting and conducting repairs, point checks, and the final inspection; and the Customer Relations section, where the technicians communicate the details of the point checks to the customer in an easy-to-understand manner while…