Aprilia Racing announced that Marco Simoncelli will join Max Biaggi at Imola to compete for the factory team in World Superbike. He will sub for an injured Shinya Nakano.
Aprilia Racing announced that reigning 250cc World Champion Marco Simoncelli will join Max Biaggi this weekend at Imola to compete on the RSV4 in World Superbike action. Simoncelli currently competes for the Metis Gilera team in the MotoGP 250cc class and is slated to join the San Carlo Gresini Honda MotoGP squad in 2010. He currently sits 40 points behind Hiro Aoyama in the 250GP point standings.
Simoncelli has been taking part in a two-day test of the Aprilia RSV4 at Mugello, where he posted a best lap time of 1’53.55 seconds while putting in 91 laps.
"I am very satisfied with this test," Simoncelli said. "I was quite quick and together with the bike managed to improve a lot. We worked to find the right base setting for Imola, where it will be important to find a good set-up as quick as possible, which will make things much easier. I'd like to thank Aprilia for this great opportunity, I will be making my debut in a category and on a track that are completely unknown to me, the level of our rivals is very high and it won't be at all easy to obtain a good result.”
Simoncelli will sub for Aprilia factory rider Shinya Nakano, who had to retire from Nurburgring after competing in only one race. The Japanese rider has been experiencing problems with neck muscles.
