There’s no denying that off-roading and adventure is massive in the motorcycling world, and Aprilia are set to jump onboard with that by utilising and developing their Tuareg 660 into a true, off-road titan in 2023, before a big push to take on the big rally raids in 2024.

The project will begin this year and will see Aprilia competing in the new ‘GPX’ category in Italy, which has been introduced in order to make the championship more accessible to production-based, middleweight adventure machinery.

Aprilia previously competed in the Dakar from 2010-2012 and are the only Italian brand to win a stage at the legendary event, alongside taking third place overall in 2010. In order to emulate this success, the new era of Aprilia’s off-road participation will be headed up by Italian rider Jacopo Cerutti, who not only has four Italian and a European Enduro titles under his belt, but has also competed six times in the Dakar Rally too. He will be backed by Francesco Montanari, a national-level Enduro rider.

Aprilia Racing CEO, Massimo Rivola said “With its ‘Back to Africa’ project Aprilia Racing is returning to the world of off-road racing, to the races that forged the division. We want to keep growing in the world of Grand Prix motorcycle racing and in on-track races. We want to discover new talent through our SP 250 Championship and the RS 660 Trophy, but we are also embarking on a completely new project with the extraordinary Aprilia Tuareg. It's an additional sign of development for a racing division that has grown significantly over the past years achieving results never before seen by Aprilia”