South Africa, Apr 17: Ulsterman Jeremy McWilliams has earmarked a top 12 finish when the new MotoGP season begins at the weekend in South Africa. Now astride an Aprilia, the 40-year-old veteran moved hopes that he has similar success with the Italian bike as he had earlier in his career.
McWilliams had two podium finishes back in 2000 and believes he can it again. ''The only reason why I'm back at Aprilia is to ultimately get another podium finish,'' said McWilliams. McWilliams changed from the unpredictable Proton to Aprilia during the winter break and he says that the new machine will be more competitive.
''I didn't want to spend another year testing a bike that I know won't be competitive. Proton was great fun, and a good fun team to ride for. ''But I would not get that bike on the podium. With Aprilia there is a chance that we will get on the rostrum at some stage. ''At the moment we are not near that yet. We won't get the new bike until the start of June at Mugello, where I had some good testing recently. ''Up until then, I wasn't particularly happy with the testing. I just could not get the right set-up and it was difficult to explain what really was wrong with the bike. ''But we will still be using the 2003 bikes until the new ones arrive. So we will be using the first couple of races as testing. ''Those bikes are still fairly powerful at 230 horse power and hopefully we can get into the top 12,'' said McWilliams who is the oldest rider on the MotoGP circuit. ''I'm the oldest by a long way, and I'm pretty proud of the fact that I'm still around. ''Mind you I can't see myself managing too many more years of this. At this level it's becoming more and more difficult and the body is creaking a bit now.'' Bureau Report