Aprilia Racing’s brand new project to bring the brand back to big raid rallies has started in the best possible way. On his debut on the Aprilia Tuareg 660, Jacopo Cerutti dominated all three days of racing, including the first two stages of the Italian Motorcycle Championship and the first stage of the Tricolore Raid TT, held early this month in Riotorto, province of Livorno.
The Tuareg 660 – Cerutti duo had no rivals in the G-1000 category, reserved for multiple displacements beyond 600 cc. After finishing ahead of the rest on Friday, valid for the Italian Raid TT championship, the brilliant rider from Como stunned everyone with a compelling brace at the prestigious Tricolore Motorally, unleashing an extraordinary performance, so much as to challenge for overall victory on the much lighter single-cylinder enduro bikes.
In fact, Cerutti finished the Saturday rally in second place overall – just 25” from a victory that would have been unprecedented for a two-cylinder engine – and fifth overall on Sunday. This achievement is a testament to the Tuareg 660’s excellent off-road capabilities, as well as the great work done by Aprilia Racing and GCorse.
Aprilia Racing’s second Tuareg 660, entrusted to Francesco Montanari, was also a star performer with a third place in the Raid TT on Friday, and the podium was repeated the next day at the first stage of the Italian Motorally. Montanari finished the day in seventh place on Sunday, hampered by a penalty.
“I am very happy! I didn’t expect to be so high in the leaderboard right away! I am very proud that I was able to win at the debut of the Tuareg. We knew we were competitive and I expected to be able to fight for the win against the other twin-cylinder bikes, but to threaten even the Specialized enduro bikes was a big surprise.
We won and even came close to taking 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 handles great on mixed terrain and this trait helped me a lot in the special stages – very technical – that we tackled this weekend.
We will have to work ahead with smoother circuits in the coming races, but we already know what we need to do to perform well even on the fast sections. Competing helps us understand what we need to focus on to make even more progress towards our future commitments. Our development work has only just begun!”
“I’m happy because I got off to a good start with a third place on Friday and another third place in the first stage of the Motorally on Saturday, despite a few mistakes reading the roadbook. On Sunday, in the second test, I lost some time due to a crash, but the most important thing is that my weekend went up. We worked well, we made a few changes to the suspension and now I have an excellent feeling with the bike. I enjoyed driving. I feel I can push when I need to and Jacopo has shown that our potential is extremely high. Being on the team with him is just crazy motivation. I can’t wait to tackle the next round and try to stay even higher!”
The competition version of the Aprilia Tuareg 660, developed by Aprilia Racing with the technical cooperation of GCorse from the brothers Gianfranco and Vittoriano Guareschi, is equipped with Öhlins by Andreani suspension, titanium SC Project exhaust and specific Sprint Filter air filter.
The partnership with Metzeler is also invaluable as they are showing increasing interest in the world of two-cylinder Adventure motorcycles and chose Aprilia to develop the products for future engagement in rally raids. At Riotorto, the Tuareg 660 won with Metzeler Karoo tires specially made for use in raid and motorcycle competitions.
In Riotorto, the Aprilia Tuareg 660 immediately proved to be a major protagonist in the fledgling Italian GPX Championship, a rally format with simplified navigation – through GPS tracking – created this year to make the discipline accessible to the many off-road fans. Paolo Pettinari entered what was essentially a standard Tuareg 660, equipped only with the minimal modifications necessary to take on a race, and took victory in the second of three stages scheduled for the Tuscan weekend.
– Thanks for information from Motorfreaks.