Image: Russell Colvin.

Active8 Yamalube Yamaha has announced the signing of Tayla Jones for the 2016 season as its off-road and desert racer in the E1 division.

Coming off the back of an outstanding 2015, Jones will campaign a YZ250FX as a full member of the Active8 Yamaha team alongside Josh Green and Beau Ralston, who will take on E2 and E3 duties respectively.

“We really admire Tayla’s determination to be a better racer,” said Active8 Yamaha manager AJ Roberts. “Her times in the some of the racing in 2015 were right there with the men’s and we both felt that should she compete against the men if she wanted to work towards an international career in racing.

“With that in mind, we offered her the E1 role on our team and will support her in the AORC (Australian Off-Road Championship), A4DE (Australian 4-Day Enduro) as well as the desert races of Finke and Hattah. With the additional support and knowledge, it is ours and Yamaha’s aim to take her riding to the next level so she can continue to succeed on the world stage.”

Jones has a busy schedule in 2016, but it’s one she looks forward to as she continues to work towards a career racing internationally.

“Since I have joined Yamaha my racing as improved enormously and the importance of having good people around me has shown in my results,” said Jones. “I’m so excited to be a part of Yamaha’s Active8 team and can’t thank AJ and Ray Howard for stepping up to make this happen.

“My goal is to race overseas fulltime and both AJ and Ray have been so supportive of that and working with the Active8 Yamaha team and racing against the men is all geared to prepare me for international competition.”

Jones’ first event with the Active8 Yamaha team will come at the opening round of the AORC in March. She will also spearhead Yamaha’s 250cc desert racing profile at Finke and Hattah after such strong performance at those events last year.