The great Chilean rider, Francisco “Chaleco” López will participate on the next Pharaons Rally on an Aprilia RXV Africa of Giofil Team. He will join Alex Zanotti and Paolo Ceci on their conquest of the Pyramids.

During the next version of the Pharaons Rally, that takes place in Egypt from October 3rd to the 11th, the Team Aprilia Giofil has made a beautiful commitment by engaging the rider Francisco “Chaleco” López.
This agreement, born a few weeks ago, will certainly have a bomb effect on the rally raid´s world. López is one of the strongest riders of the discipline, and he takes the challenge proposed by Filippo Assirelli with the greatest enthusiasm. The young team manager takes, therefore, three riders to the Pharaons Rally, and López will be supported by Alex Zanotti, third on the scratch and winner of the 450cc category last year, along with Paolo Ceci. The Italian team will also assist, like last year, two private riders: Gaetano De Filippo and Daniele Carmigniani. So, there will be five bikes Aprilia RXV 450 Africa at the start of the Egyptian rally raid. All of them will look for the best outcome, and at the same time, they will test the 2009 version of the bike on a real race. Indeed, many changes have been made to the 2008 model, to start from an aesthetic review and design made in close cooperation with the Centro Stile Aprilia. The race test on the Pharaons Rally is, therefore, important for the future of the team, because it is not a secret that the Team Aprilia Giofil is highly interested on the next Dakar, the most prestigious race on the rally raid world, which will be carried out at the beginning of 2010 in South America.

FRANCISCO “CHALECO” LOPEZ

Francisco López was born September 15th , 1975 in Curicó, the southern center region of Chile.
At the age of 4, he starts to ride a motorcycle, driven by his father, Renato Lopez, a three times National MotoCross champion.
Lopez inherits not only the talent and passion from his father, but also his nickname “Chaleco”, meaning “Pullover”, that comes from the fact that he ride with a big wool knitted sweater made by his mother Ana Maria, which also served him as protection.
Then, Francisco trains up until he gets noticed, and became the Latin American Champion of MotoCross of the 85cc category in 1989.
On his awards, he counts the National MotoCross Championship not less than five times, on 125cc and five titles on 250cc.
His beginning on the rally raid was in “Por Las Pampas Rally” 2005, where, as a rookie, he won a special before the best riders of this sport. 2006, he became World Champion in 450cc category with Honda. His excellent performances and results gave him the pass to become an official KTM rider on 2007.