Aprilia now holds the record for the Italian / European manufacture with the most victories in the World Motocycle Grand Prix Championships. Nico Terol, who took victory at this weekends round of Moto GP in the 125cc category at Brno in Czech Republic bought the total number of victories for the Noale based manufacture to 276 (one more than the previous record holder MV Augusta which have 275 to their name).
Aprilia made their racing debut in the 250cc category of the World Motocycle Grand Prix Championships in 1985 and in the 125cc category in 1988. The first victory came in 1987 with Loris Reggiani on board the Aprilia 250cc and was soon followed by their first 125cc victory in 1991 with Alex Gramigni. Once Aprilia tasted the sweetness of victory, they wanted more and in 1992 Gramigni took Aprilia to their first World Motocycle Grand Prix Championships in the 125cc category, Max Biaggi soon followed in 1994 giving Aprilia their first championship in the 250cc category.
Today Aprilia’s World Motocycle Grand Prix Victory list is long with: 133 race victories in the 125cc category, 143 race victories in the 250cc category and 36 World Championships (18 Riders Championships and 18 Manufactures Championships).
Many of today's greatest Motorcycle Champions have made their début to racing on Aprilia machines which they then went on to take to victory, the list includes: Max Biaggi, Loris Capirossi, Valentino Rossi, Casey Stoner,Marco Melandri, Marco Simoncelli andJorge Lorenzo.
Aprilia Racing boasts an overall winning record of 43 world championship titles which are added to the 36 World Motocycle Grand Prix Championships with 7 Championships in the off road disciplines. Today Aprilia are also involved in the World Superbike Championship with the RSV4, which Max Biaggi has already ridden to nine victories in this 2010 season and currently leads both the rider championship rankings and the manufacturer standings. Aprilia is also involved in the motorcycle rally disciplines where the RXV 450 two cylinder made its début with a fantastic third place in the Dakar in 2010 and then dominated the recent Tunisia Rally.
With Aprilia involved in most disciplines of motorcycle racing along with the technology and know-how that they possess, we can only imagine how the number will read in another ten years.