Yamaha Motor Corporation U.S.A.’s Customer Support Group announced Steve Maltba of Fayetteville Powersports in Fayetteville, North Carolina, as the 2016 U.S. Technician Grand Prix (USTGP) Champion. Maltba will represent the United States at Yamaha’s World Tech­nician Grand Prix (WTGP), a head-to-head competition of international Yamaha-trained technicians to be held in October at Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd., world headquarters in Iwata, Japan.

Maltba and five other Yamaha Technical Academy (YTA) Gold Level training graduates earned invitations to this year’s competition by achieving the highest scores in YTA Gold classes conducted between fall 2013 and spring 2016.

Finishing second and third, respectively, were Joshua Fugate, CC Powersports, Louisville, Kentucky and Bryan Harner, Wild West Yamaha Camp Hill, Camp Hill, Pennsylvania.

“Each of the USTGP contestants performed exceptionally well under extreme pressure and thorough critique of our expert judges. We are very proud Yamaha’s training programs prepared the contestants to quickly diagnose and address the competition’s technical challenges,” said Colin Haugh, national service manager of Yamaha Motor Corporation U.S.A.’s Customer Support Group. “This training and competition ultimately refines each participant’s skills and abilities to handle everyday customer issues, which is the most important test of all.”

Yamaha’s Technician Grand Prix competitions are more than contests of technical skills. They showcase how service training is a vital spoke in the wheel of Yamaha’s success as the technicians and dealership service departments are crucial customer points of contact.

A guiding principle for Yamaha’s Customer Support Group is a commitment to excellent service for Yamaha owners, aim­ing to build outstanding relationships with each customer at the dealer level. The company’s YTA training programs are designed to reinforce this principle by continuously honing Yamaha technicians’ skills to help ensure service excellence at authorized Yamaha dealers nationwide. Today, there are more than 30,000 YTA-trained technicians worldwide.