AFTER ALEIX ESPARGARÓ’S HISTORIC VICTORY IN ARGENTINA AND WITH MAVERICK VIÑALES IMPROVING RAPIDLY, APRILIA TACKLES THE TEXAS ROUND WITH CONFIDENCE

IT’S TIME FOR ANOTHER DEMANDING CHALLENGE FOR THE 2022 RS-GP, WHICH HAS PROVEN TO BE A WINNING BIKE

Aprilia arrives in Texas, the venue this weekend for the Grand Prix of the Americas, in unprecedented great form. Fresh from the historic victory earned by Aleix Espargaró in Argentina and with Maverick Viñales back to battling for the top spots, the Aprilia Racing team is preparing for the fourth round of the season with confidence, despite the treacheries of the Circuit of the Americas, one of the most demanding on the calendar and recently partially resurfaced.

Thanks to their outstanding performance in the first three Grand Prix races, Aprilia is also leading in the overall rider standings with Aleix Espargaró at 45 points, whereas Maverick Viñales has now moved up to 13 points.

During the MotoGP weekend in Austin, the North America Talent Cup will also be making its début. This is the single-brand series part of the “Road to MotoGP” path which races with the Aprilia RS 250 SP2 bikes. After the success enjoyed on the national level with the Italian FMI Aprilia Sport Production Championship, the “small” 250 from Noale, designed to make rider growth easy and gradual, has now embarked overseas - a testament to Aprilia Racing’s growing commitment to grooming young talent.

ALEIX ESPARGARÓ
“These past few days have been very emotional for me and I was extremely happy to receive so much affection from the fans and the entire paddock after the exciting win at Termas de Rio Hondo. But now it’s already time to think about the Austin race. We are well aware that it will be one of the most complicated ones for us, because we struggled a lot last year, but we’ll try to take full advantage of this positive moment, continuing to have fun. Up to now, we’ve been competitive on three very different tracks and even in Indonesia in the wet, a condition that I have never been particularly crazy about, the bike was truly fast. We have been consistent and this is demonstrated by the fact that we are also in the lead in the championship, but we are keeping our feet firmly planted on the ground. The important thing is to continue this trend without making mistakes.”

MAVERICK VIÑALES
“Aleix’s victory was a huge confidence booster for the entire team and for me, because I got back to battling to the top positions. We knew that the race in Argentina would be very important for us. We were seeking confirmation after the settings changes we tried in Indonesia, and we found it. Now I feel like I’ve found a good base to work on to improve even further and I can’t wait to get back in the saddle. Plus, the Circuit of the Americas is one of my favourite tracks, where I’ve always been fast. That said, we’ll keep going with the same mentality. We are aware that there is still much to learn and in Austin we simply want to make another step forward in terms of me adapting to the bike, because that is the only way we’ll be able to grow and improve further.”

Joe was in his mid-30s when he was involved in an accident when a car turned into the path of his motorcycle which was written off.

He was admitted to hospital where scans and x-rays were obtained before he was transferred to a different hospital for surgery.

Joe sustained multiple orthopaedic injuries including spinal injuries and he also suffered scaphoid fractures in both of his wrists, which required extensive surgery.

Joe experienced psychological problems since the accident including low mood and anxiety.

Potter Rees Dolan was successful in recovering damages in the region of £160,000.00 gross of interim payments and benefits.

Helen Shaw acted for Joe and commented:

“Joe was fortunately able to benefit from early and extensive rehabilitation funded by the relevant insurers pursuant to the Rehabilitation Code and to include privately funded surgery and physiotherapy, which helped to expedite his progress and ultimately the settlement.”

The names and identifying details of the client have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals involved.

Article supplied by Potter Rees Dolan

This year, the MOTORRAD magazine has once again presented its traditional Best Brand Awards. Touratech won this prestigious award in the "Accessories / Conversions" class with a clear lead. And not for the first time.

The Best Brand Award is the most important consumer award in the motorcycle industry. Every year since 2006, the MOTORRAD magazine has asked its readers to vote for the best brands in the motorcycle accessories sector. This prestigious prize is awarded in 22 categories, with over 50,000 readers taking part in the voting.

Always out there in front: Touratech. The accessory specialists from the Black Forest have won a total of 23 awards in the categories of luggage systems, tank bags, conversions, customising, attachments and seats over the last 17 years, making Touratech one of the most successful brands on the market.

And this year as well, Touratech was able to impress the motorcycle-enthusiastic readers with the high quality of the products made in Niedereschach. Touratech won the award in the hotly contested "accessories / conversions" segment. "It is particularly pleasing that we were able to carve out a five percent lead over the runner-up this year," explains Touratech CMO Martin Wickert, not without pride. "Through this, we have once again proven our expertise in motorcycle conversions and brought the award in the "conversions" class to Niedereschach for the tenth time".

This renewed success is due to the boundless passion that over 350 employees at the Niedereschach location put into the development and manufacture of Touratech products – and, of course, to the readers of the MOTORRAD magazine, who, like countless motorcycle travellers worldwide, trust in Touratech brand products.

"We would like to express our sincere thanks to the readers of the MOTORRAD magazine – as well as to our loyal customers – for the great trust they place in our products," says Martin Wickert. "This important award shows that the motorcycle scene shares our enthusiasm for our products."
And they are not the only ones: numerous motorcycle manufacturers such as BMW, KTM and Husqvarna also opt for the legendary Touratech quality and have products for their original accessories programme manufactured by Touratech.

To be able to offer customers maximum advice and service, Touratech is further expanding its sales structure. In addition to eight locations in Germany and direct sales in numerous European countries, more than 50 partners worldwide form a reliable network of contact points for motorcycle travellers.

Thank you!

www.touratech.com

#ArgentinaGP race. Team Gresini Racing MotoGP always tends to look at the bright side of things and today at Termas de Rio Hondo de best news comes from Fabio Di Giannantonio who got away with just a few bruises after the heavy crash at turn 11 with only two laps left in the third Grand Prix of the season.

The racing weekend was squeezed into a two-day event due to the ‘notorious’ MotoGP crates which prevented both Gresini standard bearers from finding the perfect feeling on what is known to be a challenging track to interpret.

It was not a GP to remember for Enea Bastianini either. Today’s top-ten finish left a bittersweet taste in the Italian rider’s mouth as he struggled to get up to speed on the Argentine track. The few points scored allow him to remain in the higher part of the standings: Bastianini will fly out to Texas in third place, 9 points away from the top of the standings.

10th - ENEA BASTIANINI (3rd in the championship standings)
“We’re not satisfied with how today went. We were not comfortable with the bike, and we lost the good feeling we had in the warm up this morning. We really didn’t understand this race well. I did have a decent pace, but I was too often at the limit. Maybe with a more ‘traditional’ weekend we may have had a few more options, but the goal was vey different. We had too many issues with the rear-end of the bike. We scored a few points, so let’s think positive and look forward to Texas.”

DNF - FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO
“It wasn’t a positive weekend. We had very little track-time and unfortunately, I ended up crashing out of the race with a few kms left to ride. It was a difficult moment, in a very fast corner. Fortunately, I got away with a few scratches and a hit in the abdominal area – without major consequences. Obviously, we were aiming at a different result and a more normal weekend, but we need to keep our heads down and keep working.”

The Argentine racing weekend has finally begun with an unusual Saturday, in which were squeezed both free practice sessions and qualifying. All the crates of Team Gresini only arrived during the night, which required an incredible amount of effort for mechanics and team staff who worked tirelessly from 4am in the morning until the end of the day.

Qualifying were not kind to Enea Bastianini and Fabio Di Giannantonio, even though the former – who currently leads the championship standings – was only 22 thousandths of a second away from getting into Q2 and will therefore start tomorrow’s race from thirteenth place.

Di Giannantonio did not manage to shine on the Argentine track and will line up on the twentieth spot of the grid for the Argentine Grand Prix. The Italian experienced a little step back from the same day in Indonesia two weeks ago, although his feeling with the bike is still improving.

Tomorrow’s race will indeed get underway at 15:00 local time (GMT -3), with a double warm up (40 minutes) in place to allow riders for a bit more of track time before the third race of the season.

13º - ENEA BASTIANINI (1'38.566)
“This was a difficult day. It was one of those days that start on the wrong foot and that are hard to change. We missed the access to Q2 just for a few thousandths of a second both in FP2 and Q1. We had a few issues that we maybe addressed a little too late, but these days happen, and we need to accept the outcome. What we can do is to keep working to be competitive tomorrow and try to put together a good comeback race. I felt the bike a bit more ‘mine’ in today’s final laps, and the direction we’ve taken is the right one.”

20º - FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO (1'39.126)
“It was a challenging day for us because we made a mistake this morning: we kind of ran around in circles as we focused more on my feelings than on the track conditions, which changed quite a lot during the day. We took a wrong direction with the set-up, but we went back to previous settings and we improved – which also doing some damage limitation in qualifying. It’s a pity because we lost some time, but these things can happen when you’re a rookie. Fortunately we’ll have 40 minutes of warm up tomorrow and we’ll try to make the most of them.”