Pro Ride Motorsports officially communicates, after 1 year in the Moto2 World Championship with the rider Max Neukirchner, its plans for 2012. The Tuscan team will take part of the World Superbike Championship running the Honda CBR 1000 RR, with the Italian rider Raffaele de Rosa, a great promise for this season. De Rosa has ridden in the World GP at the classes 125, 250 and Moto2 and he is one of the main young talents on the track. Pro Ride has accomplished a 3-year project, which started with the construction of the Performance Center at Lucca, an unique structure, complete and independent to build and tune racing bikes, suspensions, engines and electronics in a high level, serving the team itself and privateers. A structure that today can make projects, build and develop any part for a racing bike. The team counts on the support of an important group of technical partners, and this group has been constructed during the past 15 years and today it is the support for the development and assistance for our bikes. Pro Ride will be actually the only team using electronics HRC at the World Superbikes. The team has the factory support of brands like Giannelli, GB Racing, Carbonin, Mechanix, Beta, Rizoma, DID, Nissin, Showa, Valter Moto, Motorex and many others. The project has also the sponsorship of some Italian companies and the main sponsor is Real Game, a Lombard company from the bets and electronic games area with an important story. We would like to thank its owner, Stefano Volpe, for trusting on us and dedicating so much passion and professionalism when dealing with our proposal. The Pro Ride plan is to confirm itself as a Superbike team and increase the value of our own brand, advertising not only our partners but also ourselves and corroborate our Honda profile. An single company in Italy, where a team from a World Championship works also for privateers, taking to them the same professionalism and high quality that we take to our rider on the World SBK. And working side by side with brands to whom we have prepared a marketing plan and strategies to show their brands to the world. Pro Ride has a lot of aims this season and we hope to develop at the most the potentialities of our rider, of the bike, the brands that are with us and of Pro Ride itself both as team and company. Raffaele de Rosa, RIDER: “I am very happy to be part of this project, I like the way Marco Nicotari thinks and I believe in the way he wants to manage the team and on the conditions his company offered to me. I found at Pro Ride a family rapport and this is something elementary but unusual inside the pit garage and until now this was missing element for me. Changing championship does not scare me at all. I do not expect to be fast at the very first moment, but for sure I am looking for results and satisfaction. I would like to be one of the first among the “rookies” of 2012 and honestly I think this can be done. But as the World Superbikes is a new situation for me, I do not have much idea of the way the other bikes behave and the challenges I’ll face ahead. But I believe that Marco, with all his experience, together with the team, will be able to help me to take the best from our Honda. It would be perfect if Honda, with whom I made my best results on the 250gp could give us some support. I am ready to Phillip Island: as it is one of my favorite tracks, I am coming motivated to take the best of my Fireblade!” Ing. Marco Nicotari, Team Manager: “After 3 long years of hard working, we are finally able to start the Team Pro Ride Motorsports where I wanted, in the World Superbikes. We made a different road last year with the Moto2 that brought a new experience to my company, but we are finally here. At this moment there is not much to tell but much to be done. We are coming back to where Pro Ride has been created and with a lot of energy to represent our way of making races: bike and its development at first place. “Raffaele is the rider we were looking for, a young man full of talent, values and strength. We re-start in a humble way, from the beginning and aiming to reach results, be professionals and for sure work together with our technical sponsors, brands that are with us for such a long time and have never left us during the hard times. We are happy with the possibility of making a precise job and giving Raffaele the working environment that he wanted. At Phillip Island we will see the way our bike will behave and we will then be able to make an accurate strategy for the season. It won’t be easy, the level is really high, but there are a lot of motivation. I feel at home. I would like to thank INFRONT represented by Paolo Ciabatti, the SBK Commission represented by Giulio Bardi and Pirelli, represented by Giorgio Barbier for the respect, the welcoming and mainly the professionalism”.