Vermeulen in seventh heaven
 Rizla
Suzuki MotoGP’s Australian star Chris Vermeulen will
run a new racing number on the front of his machine in 2008,
using the number seven made famous by Suzuki’s double
World Champion Barry Sheene.
Vermeulen will have the iconic crossed seven on his Rizla
Suzuki GSV-R from the start of the forthcoming season and
will be hoping that the new number will spur him on to similar
success as that enjoyed by his hero and mentor Sheene.
The 25-year-old Queenslander came to Europe to race in 2000,
following the advice of Sheene, and he has always had an ambition
to run the number seven on a Suzuki as a tribute to the 1976
and 1977 500cc World Champion, who lost his life to cancer
in 2003. He has used 71 on his race machines in his first
two seasons of MotoGP racing with Suzuki and when the chance
came to change to seven – following Carlos Checa’s
departure from the Championship – Vermeulen jumped at
the opportunity.
Vermeulen will race with his new number for the first time
at Losail in Qatar on Sunday 9th March in the opening round
of the 2008 MotoGP World Championship, when he will be joined
by new team-mate Loris Capirossi who will still be using his
familiar number 65 when he makes his debut onboard the Rizla
Suzuki GSV-R.
Chris Vermeulen:
“I am really pleased to have secured the number seven
on my bike for 2008. Barry was a huge influence on my career
and I always had it in my mind to one day race a Suzuki with
the number that he made famous on it – I just hope that
I now have the same success that he enjoyed!
“It was an honour for me to ride his bike at a demonstration
event in England a couple of years ago and then to have the
retro livery on my bike at Phillip Island last year that was
also inspired by one of Sheene’s bikes was just awesome,
so for me to now compete with the number seven is like the
icing on the cake!
“It has been over 30 years since Barry won his second
world title and I will be doing all I can to make sure that
I follow in his footsteps and make it my lucky number seven
as well!”
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