Aprilia’s been dabbling about in the Italian Motorally and Raid TT Championship with their Tuareg 660, which has been dominating the competition, thanks both to the insane efforts of Aprilia Racing and GCorse, as well as the beauty handling by Jacopo Cerutti (and Francesco Montanari).
The recent press release from Piaggio states that Cerutti not only crushed the G-1000 category, but went on to display outstanding performance in the Tricolore Motorally, “unleashing an extraordinary performance, so much to contend for the overall victory over the much lighter single-cylinder enduro bikes.”
All in all, a brilliant time for Aprilia to be sinking their Tuareg 660’s Metzeler wheels into MX dirt, with Öhlins (by Andreani) suspension, a titanium SC Project pipe, and a Sprint Filter air filter making easy work of the competition – and both Jacopo and Francesco are taking the memories in with a grin.
“I’m extremely happy!” enthuses Cerutti.
“I didn’t expect to be so high in the standings straight away! It is a great source of pride for me to have been able to win at the Tuareg’s début. We knew that we were competitive, and I expected to be able to make a play for the win against the other twin-cylinders, but even being a threat to the specialized enduro bikes was a big surprise.”
“We won, even coming close to clinching the overall title, and that is a clear demonstration of the bike’s potential, which is extremely high. The Tuareg 660 handles extremely well and rides great on mixed terrain, and this characteristic helped me a lot in the special stages – very technical – which we tackled over the weekend.”
“I am satisfied because I started well straight away with third place on Friday and another third in the first trial of the Motorally on Saturday, despite a few mistakes reading the roadbook,” adds Montanari.
“We worked well, making a few changes to the suspension, and now I have an outstanding feeling with the bike… I feel like I can push when it’s necessary, and Jacopo showed that our potential is extremely high. Being on the team with him is just mad motivation.”
“I can’t wait to tackle the next round to try and stay even higher!”
A big congrats from the WBW team as we look forward to the next scheduled efforts of the Aprilia team!