Moto. "What a challenge in SportBike for me. I want to prove my worth"

Brand new category, new bike, same team. The 2025 of the Ravenna rider Nicola Plazzi will always be, for the fourth consecutive year, with the Faenza team of Ilaria Cheli Mgim Racing but he will no longer be riding the Kawasaki in the SuperSport300 but in the brand new one Sport bike, which will always be part of the paddock of the Civ – the Italian Speed ​​Championship – practically replacing the old 300. By changing category, the bike will also change: Plazzi, in fact, will drive aAprilia RS 660, quite different from the Japanese one he was used to and which led him to step on the podium for the first time in his career and, also, to participate with a wild card, in the Italian stage of the SuperSport300 World Championship, held in Misano. After the accident at work at the beginning of last year, which had caused Plazzi to risk losing two fingers on his right hand, the young man from Romagna is absolutely prepared for the new category: "I'm really happy - he explains - to stay with the Mgim Corse team. In the last three seasons we have improved year after year, last year two podiums on the track, then became an actual one, a pole position, fastest laps. In short, we come from a good 2024 and a decision had to be made: either do a year of the Supersport300 World Championship but from next year the Sportibike which in the near future is destined to replace the 300 also in the World Championship. A category with twin-cylinder bikes that is already raced in England and the United States".

The premises are all there, also because the team from Faenza participated in the Aprilia single-brand championship that is run with these bikes even if they are slightly less performing. "All this makes me extremely confident for 2025. With the team we will start a bit from scratch: I will have to be good at getting used to the power of the new bike. At the same time, it looks like a stimulating challenge as I will meet many riders I already met in the Supersport 300 days. I am eager to show all my value. And for being here I have to thank the team, my family and, of course, the sponsors Russo Impianti and the Ca' Claudio restaurant".

Plazzi will test the new bike in the official tests on March 25 and 26 in Misano and this shortly before the official seasonal debut. In fact, the Civ in this 2025 begins on April 5 and 6 right in Misano, a weekend that will be repeated on July 26 and 27 with the long-awaited Racing Night. On May 31 and June 1 it will be the turn of Mugello, where the riders' efforts will conclude on October 4 and 5. The third round is scheduled for June 28 and 29 in Vallelunga while the first weekend of September will be held at the Dino ed Enzo Ferrari in Imola.

Ugo Bentivogli