Simoncelli For World Superbike

Cycle News Staff | September 24, 2009

Italian 250cc World Champion Marco Simoncelli will make his World Superbike debut this weekend at Imola when he joins Max Biaggi on the factory Aprilia.”I did some testing with Aprilia and things went quite well,” Simoncelli said today at the World Superbike pre-event press conference. “I hope I can be as quick here. It’s clear that it’s going to be tough, but I must try and do a good job, set the bike up and be as quick as possible in the race. My rivals are all strong, starting with [Max] Biaggi, and then [Ben] Spies, [Michel] Fabrizio, [Jonathan] Rea, a load of guys. For sure it’ll be a great battle, a satisfactory result for me would be in the top five – it would be like a win.”Teammate Max Biaggi added: “It’s great that guys like Simoncelli come and race occasionally in Superbike. It does their experience and our championship a lot of good. But I won’t be as happy for sure if he goes quicker than me!”