Soup is live at the Yamaha USA headquarters in Cypress, California,
for their 2008 media day. Top man Bob Starr kicked off the morning by mentioning how he was tired of turning on the TV these days and seeing nothing but bad news--so today would just be about good news from Yamaha for 2009.

Racing Overlord Keith McCarty kept the "good news" theme going, with three big announcements about Big Blue's '09 plans.

Hayes was beaming as McCarty introduced him, and confessed that he'd been chasing a ride at Yamaha for years . Hayes mentioned that he'd "never seen a rider leave Yamaha on bad terms", and was happy to join a family environment. "The new motorcycle is very exciting, I've gotten to see it first hand watching Ben Spies test ride in Portugal, and I think it's gonna be the machine to have. I really hope Mat Mladin stays out here and races Superbike in 09 because I've wanted a shot at him for a long time;

First off, as expected, Josh Hayes will finally get his shot at a factory Superbike ride, on the new crossplane crankshaft R1. Hayes was beaming as McCarty introduced him, and confessed that he'd been chasing a ride at Yamaha for years . Hayes mentioned that he'd "never seen a rider leave Yamaha on bad terms", and was happy to join a family environment. "The new motorcycle is very exciting, I've gotten to see it first hand watching Ben Spies test ride in Portugal, and I think it's gonna be the machine to have. I really hope Mat Mladin stays out here and races Superbike in 09 because I've wanted a shot at him for a long time; I wanted a shot at Spies, but...I love a challenge and I love competition. "

More great news: Number 155, Ben Bostrom, will return to the Superbike class for 2009, as teammate to Hayes. McCarty announced this to thundering applause, saying that Bostrom had "transformed his life" to dominate the Supersport class in 2008. Bostrom's impressive revitalization clearly influenced Big Blue's decision to move him up to Superbike for 2009. With obvious gratitude, Bostrom snatched the microphone from McCarty to mention that he had been on the verge of retiring, when Yamaha gave him a ride and saved his career.

Josh Herrin is back in Supersport for 2009, and expressed regret that Bostrom had left the class, as he was "kinda looking forward to whoopin' on him this year..." This got big laughs, especially from Ben. Herrin will get at least one chance, as Yamaha is fielding four bikes in the Daytona 200--more good news. That's right, Bostrom, Hayes, Herrin and new teammate Tommy Aquino will all compete at Daytona, under the lights, a huge statement of commitment to the emerging DMG series.

McCarty actually mentioned that Yamaha had made their decision to race the series some time ago, which might explain why they have maintained a fairly low profile during the hubbub of the past few months.

Ben Spies is here too, he spoke very briefly about the new YZF-R1, how excited he is to be riding for Yamaha in World Superbike, and how amazing the motorcycle sounds, saying he expects it will be a pretty wild streetbike, with "nothing out there like it".