Sam Warren and the SR Off-Road Aprilia team made the most of their first
competitive outing in the UK by winning all three A-Group races at the Three
Sisters NORA Sport round on Easter Monday.
Up against many of the top British riders the Wigan event proved to be a
good test for the Aprilia SXV and Derbyshire rider Warren.
Warren crashed finding the limit of his SXV mid-way through the morning
qualifying ending any opportunity for him to improve on the fifth quickest
time he had set at that point. Starting from the second row of the grid
though proved to be no barrier as he won the first two A-Group races and the
final in convincing fashion.
He said it was a relief to get the first race win on the board and with
further improvements to the set-up of the Aprilia it got stronger as the day
progressed.
"The development of the Aprilia is in its very early stages but already I
can tell it's a much better package out of the box than any other bike I've
ridden before. We have a substantial amount of set-up adjustment so it's
going to be a case of fine-tuning it to my liking.
I really wanted to start the year on the right note with a win. Once I had
that sorted I felt a lot more relaxed and I was able to set consecutively
quicker fastest laps in each race."
Team boss Mick Spencer and his team have been working around the clock since
getting their hands on the first of the Aprilia's to land in the country
just four weeks earlier.
"Being an all-new bike we are in many respects starting from scratch. It's a
race against time for us but it is clear that even at this early stage the
Aprilia SXV has the potential to be a real contender both in the British and
World Supermoto Championships.
We ran our new WDS Suspension for the first time today which we now are
making very good progress with and tested the new Dunlop control tyres that
We are using in the World Championship which Sam said are awesome.
Our to-do list is still quite long but each day we get a little closer to
having everything sorted. We are very upbeat about this season."
The next major outing for the SR Off-Road Aprilia team is the Dunlop Grand
Prix of Europe in two weeks which is the first round of the World Supermoto
Championship in Italy.
