With great relief I am able to inform you that our team Aprilia Germany is all set to go for the 2005 racing season.

Our riders in 2005 will be Chaz Davies and World Championship newcomer Martin Cardenas from Colombia. Both riders will use 250cc Aprilia with Special Kit. This means that our successful cooperation with Aprilia, having started back in 1999, will go into its seventh year. Chaz Davies will race for the third year with us, and we want to give an especially warm welcome to Martin Cardenas, who is entering into his first World Championship season.

While Chaz is well known to all of you in the meantime, it might well be that not many of you have yet heard of Martin, so I guess it’s time for a short introduction.



Martin Cardenas, from Medellin Colombia, will turn 23 next January. As a kid back in Colombia he has started racing with motocross-machines when being just eight years old. Two years later he won the 50cc Colombian Motocross championship. He was also successful on an 80cc Yamaha, and in 1996 he won the Colombian Motocross Championship again, this time on a 125cc Kawasaki. Between 1997 and 2002 Martin tried his hand on four wheels racing (karts and cars), but finally re-discovered his love for the two-wheels scenery and became Latin-American Champion in the Supersports-category in 2003. Martin moved to Europe for this past racing season and in the final race at Jerez promptly became this year’s Spanish 600cc Supersports Champion. The next logical step for him obviously is the World Championship. We have met Martin for the first time during the Valencia Grand Prix in November, and we are happy and proud that Martin has decided to join our group of enthusiasts for his first steps into the world of Grand Prix Racing

Our Team Aprilia Germany has already helped Chaz Davies make his mark in Grand Prix Racing (and some others before, of course), and we have no doubt that we can provide Martin with all the support, experience and technical expertise that a newcomer into this highest level of two-wheels-racing needs.

Coming back to Chaz, we were of course a bit worried that one of the richer teams might snatch him away from us for next year, especially after the brilliant results in the last couple of races. While we are sure that Chaz could very well handle works-machinery, neither us nor any other team could raise the proper sponsorship to finance such a project not for 2005 anyway. So Chaz will stay with us for another year at least, and his aim will obviously be to go all out for the position of best private rider.

We are convinced that our experienced crew of mechanics will provide both Chaz and Martin with the best machinery possible, and we all look forward to start testing end of January. I will post more on the Team when Iget it.
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Chaz Davies Rules