West to race Aprilia in GP250.

Teenage Australian motorcycle rider Ant West is witching from Honda to Italian manufacturer Aprilia for this year's
250cc world championship, which starts with the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka on 8 April.

West, who finished sixth in the 2000 championship on a works Honda NSR250, will race in this year's 16-round series for a Milan-based Aprilia team sponsored by Swiss financial institution Sogevalor.

Teenage Australian motorcycle rider Ant West is witching from Honda to Italian manufacturer Aprilia for this year's
250cc world championship, which starts with the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka on 8 April.

West, who finished sixth in the 2000 championship on a works Honda NSR250, will race in this year's 16-round series for a Milan-based Aprilia team sponsored by Swiss financial institution Sogevalor.

The 19-year-old Queenslander's team-mate for his third successive 250cc world championship season will be Great Britain's Jeremy McWilliams, who will race a works Aprilia for the satellite Umoto squad. West will contest the championship on an Aprilia with identical chassis, suspension, and brakes, and a 2001-specification factory-kit engine.

Sogevalor Aprilia team manager Andy Leuthe has confirmed that West would be supported by a crew of five, comprising a chief mechanic, three other mechanics, and a computer/data technician.

West, who has been in Europe for the past two weeks and will travel to Japan on Monday, said today he was pleased to have resolved his future and added he had been impressed with his new team and their facilities during a three-day visit to their workshop in Italy.

"They've got a good set-up, and importantly the team want to build a long-term relationship for the future with me, which is what I wanted," he said, "It's taken quite a few months to put a deal together that I was happy with, but everything has turned out pretty well and now I can get on with racing."

West, who finished in the top ten in 15 of the 16 rounds in 2000, said he was confident he had made a positive career move by switching to Aprilia after two years of racing Hondas.

"We looked at all the options and decided the Aprilia was the best way to go," he said.

West said the lengthy period finalising his 2001 racing plans could understandably affect his performance at Suzuka because he had been not been able to participate in any off-season testing.

He will ride the Aprilia for the first time in the opening practice session at Suzuka this Friday [6 April]), ending a six-month break since he last rode a 250cc grand prix machine in the final round of the 2000 championship at Phillip Island in Australia.

"I haven't been on a grand prix bike for six months so I'll be a little rusty," he said, "There's no use worrying about it, but at the same time I've got to be realistic and treat this first race as a chance to see how the Aprilia works and get myself up to speed.

"I'm told the Aprilia has different power characteristics to the Honda, and luckily my team have plenty of grand prix experience to help me learn to get the most out of the bike."

West, who finished sixth in the 250cc grand prix at Suzuka in 2000, said the 5.8km circuit was among his favourite racing venues.

"It's mainly fast and flowing with a combination of sweeping and tight turns," he said, "If the racing is close on the last lap one of the most important places is the tight chicane before the run to the finish.

"You drop back to first gear at the chicane and flick the bike right and then left - it seems like you almost stop before getting on the throttle again."

West has made a total of 32 starts in the 250cc world championship in the past two years, with best results of fourth in the Dutch Grand Prix at Assen and in the Portugal round at Estoril in 2000.

He will be part of a massive Aprilia assault on this year's 250cc championship, which also includes Italians Marco Melandri and Roberto Locatelli, Japan's Tetsuya Harada, German Klaus Nohles, and McWilliams on works machines.

Honda's factory campaign will be spearheaded by Daijiro Katoh, who won the 250cc grand prix at Suzuka twelve months ago, but rival Japanese manufacturer Yamaha will not campaign a works team in the class this year, despite winning the title in 2000 with Frenchman Olivier Jacque.

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