After missing the first round of the Ssanyong Australian Supermoto Championship due to the
delayed arrival of their new Aprilia SXV450 and 550 super motard bikes, Team Magee
Aprilia Racing is raring to go at this weekend's two round event at Cameron Park
near Newcastle NSW.
"The delays have been frustrating as we hoped to have the bikes well in advance and do
some serious testing. But we've now got three bikes, two 450s and a 550, we've got the
riders in Josh McFarlane and Jake Magee, and we've got a great team to support them.
We're confident we'll go really well." said Team Manager, Kevin Magee.
"The team has been working hard to get the things ready‰Û_ and Josh and Jake are champing at the bit.
So yes, we're ready to go and we're really looking forward to these two back-to-back rounds."
"Aprilia Australia's commitment to this series and to these new off road motorcycles is total," said John Sample,
Executive Chairman of John Sample Automotive, the Australian Aprilia Importer.
"We're ready to go and I have very high expectations - we're developing these motorcycles in conjunction
with Aprilia in Italy, this will be the first time a production Aprilia SXV will have been raced anywhere in the World.
"It's an honour to be able to test and develop the bikes in a race series as good as the Australian Supermoto
Championships and I am sure the knowledge base we gain from racing in this series will be a great help to
riders and racers of Aprilia SXVs and RXVs World-wide.
"I have every confidence the standard Aprilias will be extremely competitive‰Û_ the 450 has a race muffler system
and a race kit ECU, however the 550 will be raced by Josh in the S1 class as a completely standard motorcycle -
the race kit for this bike has not yet been developed." John added.
Team Magee Aprilia Racing will field Josh McFarlane in the S1 class and Jake Magee in the S2 class of the
championship. After some initial testing, the riders are very confident and looking forward to the racing.
"This is so exciting, the bikes are a new step-up in this type of racing, I haven't been this excited for
five or six years," said current Australian S1 Number 1 plate holder, Josh McFarlane.
"I recently rode the SXV550 for the first time as a street bike and it's amazing straight out of the crate.
It's easy to ride, very fast and has great top end horsepower. The bike behaves really well under brakes -
it's nice and light and turns into the corners with superb feel and really stable steering.
"The bike is completely stock as we have yet to see the parts to help with racing, but even so, I'm confident
we'll come away with some great results for the weekend."
Jake Magee, wearing plate number 33, is just as upbeat about his new SXV450. "I'm actually really relaxed - I
have no concerns with the bike and know we'll be up to scratch first time out," he said. "My initial impression
is that this is an awesome bike, straight out of the box. Everything feels really good, the bike surprised me
with how easy it is to ride‰Û_ under brakes you can go really deep into the corner, lay it on its side and fire
it out. This is our first hit out and I'm really looking forward to it."
You can catch the No1 and No33 Aprilias in action this Saturday and Sunday, qualifying kicks off at 9.00 a.m
with racing commencing at 11.00.
