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STEFAN MERRIMAN TEAMS UP WITH APRILIA Crown prince of Enduro Stefan Merriman will be the Aprilia’s top rider for the 2007 World Enduro Championship. Merriman, who was born in Tauranga (New Zealand) on the 24th March 1973, moved at a tender age to Australia where his passion for motorcycles developed. In 1993 he became Australian trial’s champion as well as New Zealand Supercross Champion. In 1995 he won the Australian Supersport 600 championship. Merriman’s seemingly universal riding skills soon extended to Enduro. It was in this toughest and most challenging of all motorcycle racing specialities that Merriman found his destiny, performing feats of epic proportion that soon set him up as the man all other Enduro riders had to beat. Merriman even earned himself the nickname of ‘the Martian’ for his out-of-this-world times. Four times Enduro World Champion (2000, 2001, 2003, 2004), in 2005 Merriman finished second in the E2 class. In 2006, despite a period of bad luck, having won three races, he finished the season in third place, taking to 62 his total of Enduro World Championship wins. Merriman’s exploits at Enduro Six Day events are simply too many to mention. Suffice it to say that his career in the event has been one of undisputed supremacy. Now, having won on two stroke and four stroke singles, Merriman is about to begin another exciting and challenging chapter in his career: riding a twin to the World Championship victory. Aprilia Brand Manager, Leo Francesco Mercanti, explains how Aprilia sees the agreement with Merriman. “After so much development work and experience building in 2006, the arrival of a world class champion like Merriman is an important step forward in our plans for 2007. Aprilia hopes to achieve ambitious results in Enduro racing and we are delighted that this amazing Australian, a living legend in the discipline, has chosen to race with one of our twin cylinder machines. I’m sure that Stefan Merriman will be a trump card in the Enduro racing game, and will give us a really competitive and successful season.” Merriman will make brace with Nicolas Paganon and Luigi Seguy, others new entry of the Aprilia team. The young French Paganon, born in 1982, has already to its assets three Champion of National France titles. In 2006 he was the rookie of the Enduro E2 World Championship E2 placing himself to the eighth absolute place with 153 points. Seguy, born 1975, belongs instead to the Motocross where he has been protagonist is in the Mx1 class that in the Mx2. When Aprilia returned to off-road racing with a revolutionary twin cylinder design in 2004, it won the Supermotard world championship at its first attempt with Frenchman Jerome Giraudo. Last year Aprilia won the manufacturer’s and rider’s titles in S2 class, with Van Den Bosch. In 2006 Aprilia also entered the Enduro World Championship, and the riders Botturi and Zanni registered impressive results.
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