“A dream come true” as Ogden joins Aspar for 2021 CEV season

The Aspar Team Junior has announced its lineup for the 2021 CEV Repsol series, with Briton Scott Ogden joining the team.

In 2020 the Aspar team enjoyed major success in both the CEV and Grand Prix paddocks, with Albert Arenas winning the Moto3 World Championship; Aron Canet becoming rookie of the year in the Moto2 World Championship; Izan Guevara taking the Moto3 Junior World Championship title; and David Alonso being crowned European Talent Cup champion. 

For 2021, Guevara vacates his CEV seat, as does the third Moto3 Junior World Championship rider of the Aspar team in 2020, Ondrej Vostatek. 

In place of Guevara and Vostatek arrive the aforementioned David Alonso, who will make his Moto3 debut in 2021, and 2019 British Talent Cup champion Scott Ogden, who moves into the Spanish outfit after a year in the CEV with the British Talent Team. 

The two newcomers to the Aspar team will join the retained Daniel Holgado, who finished fifth in the 2020 Moto3 Junior World Championship with a best result of second place coming in Jerez. 

Holgado’s championship was based on consistency in 2020, with the 15-year-old Spaniard failing to finish just 2 of the 11 races, and eight of the remaining nine inside the top five. 

In a press release from the Aspar team, Holgado said “I am very excited about his opportunity, another great year with my team. I have more experience and I have matured as a rider. I am waiting for the season to start and I know we can do great, like we did in 2020. Our main objective will be to win, for that we are working hard, non-stop, to give our best, which is what we do best.”

Similarly to Holgado’s debut Junior World Championship campaign, David Alonso’s European Talent Cup title victory in 2020 was largely down to consistency, but also marrying that with speed. The 14-year-old won the first four races of the season, crashed out of only one race – in Aragon – and never crossed the finish line lower than second. It was an impressive campaign for Alonso, but the step to Moto3 cannot be underestimated. Alonso is under no illusions; “It will be a year full of challenges, it will surely be tough, but also very [fun].”

The challenge Alonso faces is one that his teammate for 2021, Scott Ogden, already faced in 2020. Ogden finished the 2020 Junior World Championship season in 15th and finished only 6 of the 11 races. The British rider took a best result of eighth in the final round of the season at Valencia, which was also his third top 10 of the year. 

It is certainly a positive step for the 16-year-old to be moving to the Aspar setup, considering its recent success, but there is also no doubt that the pressure to perform will be significant. Adding to that, it will be Ogden’s first season on KTM machinery, as Aspar becomes the official GASGAS team for Moto3 in 2021. 

Certainly, competing in a Spanish-based championship for a Spanish team on a motorcycle with the branding of a Spanish manufacturer and with two Spanish teammates, it is possible to see the potential for Ogden to become ostracised in 2021. However, the possibility to grow as a rider a compete for the top positions is also significant. Additionally, Aspar are of course not unfamiliar with British or English-first-language riders, having recently fielded Jake Dixon in Moto2 and Eugene Laverty in MotoGP.  

In the team press release, Ogden said that to join the Aspar Team Junior is “a dream that comes true”, adding that his “main objective [for 2021] will be to fight for the top 6 constantly.”