South African rider Sheridan Morais has joined the Aprilia HSBK Racing team for the remainder of the MotoAmerica Superstock 1000 Championship.
“I got the call from [Team Owner] Bobby Shek and Ronnie [Saner] the Crew Chief,” Morais told Roadracingworld.com Thursday at Road America, “and we went to test in Seattle [at The Ridge Motorsports Park] on Monday. It was confirmed for me to come here then. We didn’t get much dry time on the bike because the weather was a bit wet up there, but the bike felt good.”
Morais then said the bike felt “familiar” because he raced an Aprilia RSV4 in the South African Championship in 2010 and he did a point-scoring wild card ride for Aprilia in the FIM Superbike World Championship that same season.
After a successful year in the FIM Superstock 1000 European Championship, Morais rode in the 2012 FIM Supersport World Championship, where he finished sixth in the point standings thanks to a podium appearance and nine top-10 finishes in 13 races.
Morais started the 2013 FIM Supersport World Championship with the CIA Insurance Honda team but parted ways with that unit mid-season and finished the season with the Go Eleven Kawasaki squad. Through it all the 30-year-old from Johannesburg took six top-10 finishes and 12th in the Championship.
In 2014, Morais rode for Grillini Kawasaki in the EVO class of the FIM Superbike World Championship and ended up 18th in the final standings with a best overall race finish of 12th.
During this past off-season, however, Morais’ plans have been in constant flux, he said.
“There’s been a lot going on,” said Morais. “Last year, I was with Team Grillini in World Superbikes on an EVO bike. We looked to do the same thing and that fell apart at the end of last year. So I signed up with a World Supersport team, the CIA Insurance Honda team, and they dropped me one week before the first round. They sent me an email and told me that someone had bought my ride. So that was a pity.
“After that I’ve been in [World Championship] endurance racing with the Yamaha Austria Racing Team. That’s been going really well. They gave me permission to come do this. So that’s really good for me because it’s good training. The Endurance World Championship is only four rounds spread out over the whole year.
“I’ve been trying to come to the States for quite a while, so I’m happy to have this opportunity.”
Earlier this week, Aprilia HSBK Racing announced that it had split with rider Dustin Dominguez even though he was fifth in the Championship with three podium finishes in the first six races.
Aprilia HSBK Racing’s other rider, 19-year-old Devon McDonough, will continue with the team at Road America in spite of him being unable to ride at VIRginia International Raceway due to numbness in his right hand caused by a pinched nerve in his shoulder. McDonough told Roadracingworld.com Thursday that he had seen a specialist, gone through physical therapy and expected to compete this weekend.