During round four of the 2015 World Superbike Championship at Assen, Althea Racing Ducati 1199 Panigale R pilot Nicol Terol suffered a violent highside.
The Spaniard – a 125 GP World Champion – hit the Dutch asphalt hard in race two, momentarily losing consciousness and fracturing his right wrist.
Due to recovery, Terol, who scored a ninth in race one at Assen, is forced to sit out round five of World Superbike at the Enzo e Dino Ferrari Imola circuit May 8-10. And on Tuesday, Althea Racing reported that the Roman rider Michel Fabrizio will substitute for Terol at Imola.
Fabrizio is known around the SBK paddocks, and has experience with Ducati, racing for the Borgo Panigale manufacturer’s factory efforts from 2008-2010 (Xerox Ducati). Collectively, Fabrizio, 30, has achieved 35 podiums and four wins in World Superbike.
“I am very happy for this ‘call’ from the Althea Team. Although it will be for just one race I am enormously proud to be working in a Team that I have always aspired to be a part of. I know that I have the trust of both the Team Owner Genesio Bevilacqua, with whom I also have a very good personal relationship, and the Team members with whom I worked back into 2005,” Fabrizio says.
“It will be a very exciting experience for me, full of expectations being aware that I can finally show all my worth as a complete and competitive rider. Whatever happens it will be a success.”
Bevilacqua also commented: “Michel Fabrizio is one of the riders who has always gravitated around the Althea Team. Way back in 2005 he had already played in our Supersport Team, at that time he was only nineteen, and he was already giving a hard time to well-known riders such as Muggeridge, Foret and Fujiwara.
“Today all the Althea Team welcomes him with great trepidation and hope that he will dispute races that reflect its strong level as a rider and professional in the experienced Superbike circus. At the same time we wish a prompt recovery to our Nico Terol that, even if just for one race, he will have to watch it on television.”
As for Terol, he is expected to return for round six at Donington Park in the UK.