Former AMA Superstock Champion Aaron Gobert will replace Ben Thompson on the Factory Aprilia Millennium Technologies AMA Pro Daytona SportBike team starting with this weekend’s races at Mid-Ohio. “It was four o’clock Wednesday afternoon and I was at my house in Murrieta [California],” Gobert told Roadracingworld.com during a flight layover Thursday in the Dallas-Ft. Worth airport, in Texas. “I had already planned on coming out to Mid-Ohio to ride in the Daytona SportBike class. I had already committed to not racing American Superbike. Then Chip [Spalding, Factory Aprilia Millennium Technologies Team Manager] called me up and asked if I would be interested in riding the Aprilia.” The Aprilia seat became available Wednesday when Thompson announced that he had decided to leave the team because he had not been able to get the results he or the team had wanted during the first half of the 2009 AMA season. Thompson, age 26, was 25th in the Daytona SportBike Championship point standings after 12 of 20 races, with a best finish of sixth in Race Two at Barber Motorsports Park. The timing of Thompson’s decision was good for 28-year-old Gobert, who had spent the first half of the 2009 season struggling to get any noteworthy American Superbike results on a Honda CBR1000RR that was built in his garage. This after several successful seasons as a factory and factory-supported rider for American Honda and Yamaha, with whom he won the 2004 Superstock Championship. “It’s a factory bike and probably the best opportunity for me to get out there this season and show I’ve got what it takes and prove myself,” said Gobert. “I haven’t been on the top of the results in a long time, and I’ve been missing that. I’m definitely prepared enough to get good results. I’m looking forward to getting on the bike and sort it out this weekend and hopefully we’ll get some more time in the seat and we’ll be good to go for the last three rounds after this one.”