Aprilia has won the Africa Eco Race on the debut of its new team and motorcycle on the event.
Jacopo Cerutti was the rider to bring ultimate glory to Aprilia’s Africa Eco Race challenge, winning overall ahead of the Yamaha pair of Alessandro Botturi and Pol Tarres. Cerutti’s margin was six minutes and 38 seconds in the end, as Aprilia took the first victory of its rally raid project.
At the end of the final day, Jacopo Cerutti said: "I had quite a scare today because at the 20th kilometre, there was a bit of a mix-up on a note and I thought my rivals had dropped me. But then I found the track again and it was me who caught Botturi. From that moment on we went on together and I brought the result home.
“I must compliment my opponents for the fairness they showed throughout the race, it was really an honour to battle with them. It was a very tense Africa Eco Race for us, leading from the start with Botturi and Tarres putting pressure on us, but we managed it. Thanks also to a great bike: the Tuareg proved itself equal to a demanding marathon like this.”
The target of Aprilia’s rally raid project, which it called ‘Back to Africa’ when launched in 2022, was always to bring Aprilia to success in the African rallies.
Much of that project, based around the Aprilia Tuareg 660 adventure bike, was carried out in Italy and the Moto Rally Championship there, before the bike made its international debut on the Transanatolia Rally in Turkiye last year. There, Francesco Montanari proved the Tuareg’s competitiveness by finishing on the podium. Cerutti’s result in Africa takes that one step further, and cements that there is legitimate competition - between Aprilia and Yamaha, which won in Transanatolia and completed the podium behind Aprilia at the AER - at the head of rallying on bikes derived from production adventure models.
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