November 19, 2008 - Kenny Pryde

Aussie Karl Muggeridge will ride for the Celani Suzuki team in WSB 2009. Regis Laconi takes his old seat ... Scroll down for the full story

Popular Aussie Karl Muggeridge has signed to ride for the Italian Celani Suzuki team in WSB 2009. Muggeridge was in with a shout of the second Aprilia RSV4 bike alongside Max Biaggi but Shinya Nakano was preferred. There was some suggestion that this was down to Aprilia's desire to sell scooters in Japan, but its hard to believe that even an Italian company could imagine that was an effective marketing strategy. I mean, seriously...

Anyway, according to 'Muggas' press release:
"The 2009 season will mark the return of Celani Team to the top World Superbike category as the Rome-based team has signed up 2004 World Supersport champion Karl Muggeridge to race for them in next year's championship. Suzuki Celani will have support from team Alstare for the preparation of the new GSX-R1000 K9 with which Muggeridge will tackle the 2009 season.
“It's a great opportunity for both Celani and myself. Particularly because the bikes will be built, maintained and supported by the Alstare Group, which gives us both a solid platform to work from and a wealth of experience and knowledge. We won't receive the bikes until early in the New Year but they'll be ready to race and I can't wait to throw my leg over it”

Curiously, the Italian Celani team has already run an Australian rider, Mark Aitchison in superstock on a highly competitive Suzuki GSX-R1000, so the signs are good that the team knows how to run Suzukis and understands Aussie riders. Good news for Muggas, a former world supersport champion, let us not forget.

And Muggas old team, DFX, is returning to the Ducati fold and will have Regis Laconi on its bikes in 2009.