Massimiliano Biaggi is to be Aprilia’s top rider in the Suberbike World Championship.

The rider from Rome won three of his four MotoGP world championship titles with Aprilia. Now he has signed a contract that will see him back with Aprilia and riding the RSV4 for the next two seasons.

Max Biaggi rode for Aprilia from 1991 to 1996. His spectacular adventure began with a first place in the European Championship and went on to record three world championship titles in the 250 class, with 23 GP wins and a total of 37 podiums.

“Biaggi was our number one choice and I’m delighted to have him back with us”, explains Leo Francesco Mercanti, the Piaggio Group’s Director of Product Development and Sports Activities. “Biaggi has written some of the most important chapters in the history of Aprilia’s racing career. He gave us our first really important victories, and rode for us in seasons that saw us dominating the championship. In short, Max Biaggi put Aprilia firmly in the history books of motorcycle racing. To have Biaggi with us to ride the Aprilia RSV4 means the beginning of a whole new challenge. We are convinced that he will give expression to our passion, technical skill, and desire for victory.”

 

Shinya Nakano will be on the saddle for the Aprilia RSV4, side by side with Max Biaggi and completing the Aprilia team that in year 2009 will race in the Superbike World Championship.

The Japanese rider, after he visited the Racing Department of Noale, signed the contract that ties him to Aprilia for the whole of the next season with an option for the 2010.

Shinya Nakano, born in Chiba on October 10th 1977, is a pilot of great experience that boasts ten seasons in the World Championship: like two in 250 cc - category in which he was vice champion of the world in 2000 - one in 500 cc and well seven in MotoGP. With the GP of Valencia, raced last Sunday, Nakano has closed the season 2008 with 126 points, occupying the ninth position in the final classification of the Moto GP, with Honda, Team Gresini Racing.

After the signature Shinya Nakano declared: "I am happy indeed, for me it is a joy to belong to the great family of Aprilia. Here I have found a big tradition and extraordinary competence in the races that Aprilia faces with high professionalism, the 33 world titles won up to today are the confirmation of it. The Superbike is a new challenge that fills me with new challenges, I want to risk all of my experience to grow for the new project of Aprilia RSV4. It will be a honor to be able to race beside Max Biaggi, he is a hero of mine and he was an inspiration to me in the first phases of my career, I am sure that together we will succeed in developing the best motorbike and to already get good results in the season 2009”.

“With the arrival of Nakano - Leo Francesco Mercanti who is responsible of the development for the products and racing activities of the Piaggio Group has commented - we have settled another box for a important and ambitious project like that of the development of the superbike RSV4 and of his twin destined to the races. We provide a team of pilots of high-level we set high ambitious goals to reach. I believe that Nakano can find with Aprilia the correct encouragement to reach for the top. We have trust regarding his talent in this competition, and his experience in the development of a motorbikes he wants to show all the technological advantages and the sophistication that’s the attitude for the project RSV4”.

"With the engagement of Nakano - said Giampiero Sacchi, Sport Director of the Piaggio Group - we complete the team for the World Superbike 2009. Aprilia faces difficult competition having as adversaries the greatest world constructors, it is a hard but fascinating challenge that needs interpreters of before greatness: Biaggi and Nakano are a couple of pilots at the same time fast, competitive and of great experience. This is the top for an innovative, technological project, being ambitious in sport like Aprilia RSV4".

Who will be ...

... the fastest?
Max Biaggi, 8 votes (80 %)
Shinya Nakano, 2 votes (20 %)
Total votes: 10
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