British GP winner Scott Redding has been rewarded for a series of brilliant performances in his rookie campaign with Aprilia guaranteeing him a factory Aprilia 125 machine for 2009.Redding was told after meetings with Aprilia boss Gigi Dall’Igna in Misano last weekend, and he is likely to remain with the Blusens squad having secured the top level bike.
Redding has an offer to replace current world championship Mike di Meglio in the Ajo Motorsport Aprilia squad, and also been approached about a factory KTM ride in the 250GP series.
Redding though will stay in the 125 class and he told: “I’m not sure where I will be riding, but to get a factory bike is brilliant news. I’ve won a race this year on an old bike, so the latest spec factory bike hopefully will let me fight for the championship next season.”
His title chase hampered by a crash with teammate Hiroshi Aoyama at Misano, Mika Kallio is being courted by Red Bull KTM to continue in 250cc for another year.It´s the sight that every Team Manager dreads on raceday; nervous moments as teammates battle against each other, culminating in a DNF stamped alongside both riders´ names. That was the situation for Harald Bartol, head of Red Bull KTM, on Sunday afternoon in Misano.
Title challenger Mika Kallio and 2007 race runner-up Hiroshi Aoyama both fancied their chances at the San Marino circuit in the 250cc race, and were placed alongside each other over the course of the first two laps. Kallio collided with his Japanese teammate and brought both riders´ races to an early conclusion, leaving the title situation difficult for the Finnish star.
`We would have had a good chance today with our bike, but that´s the way it is,´ said a downbeat Bartol after the incident. `It appears that Hiro took a slightly different line, and that Mika was probably too close. The lucky thing was that Simoncelli only finished sixth.´
`We will be trying to get Mika back into the title fight, and we have some changes that we can probably bring to Indianapolis to try again,´ added the KTM boss, aiming to take a first title for the factory before Kallio´s possible departure at the end of the season.
`We are trying to keep him, but we have heard from Mika that he is looking for a MotoGP move. At the moment we have had no clear answer from him and, with so many of the top riders in 250cc already under contract, we will have to check our options,´ he concluded.
Secondly, the FV2 demonstrates some of Aprilia’s future technical direction. To that end, the injection is controlled by a fly-by-wire system like what’s already used on the 750cc Shiver. There’s traction control, ABS and electronically adjustable suspension. Ho hum. The dash integrates a nav system and a bunch of downloadable performance telemetry data, which you can send to a phone or PC, and it’s set up so you can easily upload new engine mappings from the Web in a similar way.
Perhaps most interesting is the front end - a pair of big slabby Hossack-style forks that look similar to the Duolever system BMW has been putting on its K1200R. is a bit of an obsession of mine, so I’d be very glad to see Aprilia working to move beyond the telescopic fork and give the market some options.
The race bike was piloted by Austrian rider Rene Mahr, who has been confirmed as an official KTM rider for the World Superstock Cup this year.
Despite being dogged by bad weather during the test, which prevented any representative times from being set, the team came away happy, having suffered no technical failures.
KTM spokesman Thomas Kuttruf said: “It was a two day test, the first with the bike in set up to meet superstock regulations.
“During earlier tests we just had race tyres and a race exhaust.”
He added that the team also tried British Superduke Battle champion, Pauli Pekkanen, on an RC8 during the test, saying: “We will also use a second rider during the 08 season.
“Pauli Pekkanen is not confirmed to be that rider, but he is a good candidate and impressed us on a stock RC8 with race tyres.”
The firm sees the superstock bike as a key part of the road version’s development.
Thomas Kuttruf said: “It’s the last step in development of the standard bike.
“The superstock project is linked to the KTM factory and R&D department, and the technical leader is Wolfgang Felber, who is in charge of road bike development.”
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