Yoshimura continued to grow, adding people and infrastructure. The once tiny race shop was now a state-of-the-art facility with multiple dyno rooms, tube benders, and all manner of race-oriented equipment.

1996 was an interesting season for Yoshimura with the addition of a brash young Aussie named Mat Mladin. After a pretty good season, Mat left for the Ducati team and then in 1998, he returned to Yoshimura. As it turned out, this was the beginning of a great relationship.

In ’98 Mat finished third in the Championship chase but he was just warming up. 1999 saw the first of an incredible run of Seven AMA National Superbike Championships. No one else has more than three titles. No one else has as many race wins, and no one else has as many pole positions. To put it clearly, Mladin has dominated the American Superbike scene for quite some time.

From a business perspective, Nabe created growth at a rapid rate. As it turned out the skills Nabe learned as a race mechanic/engine builder translated well into running a business. Nabe’s manufacturing skills are legendary and he provided the leadership and vision to re-define what a pipe manufacturing company was capable of doing. Like Mladin did in racing, Nabe accomplished in manufacturing. The same dedication to being the best permeates Yoshimura both on the track and at work. The results speak for themselves.

With all this growth, the block of buildings in Chino no longer was big enough and the company moved to a new Chino facility. Today again, Yoshimura is comprised of three separate buildings – but they were all built from the ground up by us. The main building is the manufacturing facility, which houses all of the exhaust pipe production and warehouse. Building two is our race shop, which houses all of our various racing teams and performance labs. The last building is our R&D facility where all of our production research and development occurs.

During this growth period Yoshimura added young Texan Ben Spies to the team. He put his time in learning from his more experienced teammate and in 2006 wrestled the title away from Mat who finished second. Ben won again, (by one point), over Mat in 2007, and then once more in 2008.

Since Mat joined the team in 1998, Yoshimura Suzuki's have won the AMA Superbike title in 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. Not a bad record for sure.

In the business end of things, Nabe has stepped down from running the company and is devoting his time to supervising the R&D efforts. Race mechanic turned Team Manager Don Sakakura has been elevated to “President” of Yoshimura R&D of America and is guiding the company into new and exciting times.

The one constant at Yoshimura that always stays the same whether here in the USA or at Yoshimura Japan… is the love of racing. The same passion that Pops had 55 years ago to race and win at Daytona; the same determination from Fujio to win the Suzuka 8 hours; and the same effort put in by Nabe and Don in winning the AMA Superbike titles is what Yoshimura is all about.

The future will be the same as the past already was: more races, hopefully some wins, and the sense of accomplishment when all the effort pays off.