First look at the 2024 GASGAS Factory Racing EC 350F which EnduroGP World Champion Andrea Verona will debut at the Italian Enduro Championship opening round this weekend.

The start of the Italian enduro series is always a busy one as many of the EnduroGP race teams wheel out their riders and bikes in full technicolour for the new season.

The 2023 Assoluti series opener this weekend held in Andora, Liguria has brought a flurry of activity as the riders put winter training and testing into practice for the first time in anger.

Reigning EnduroGP World and Italian Champion Andrea Verona tops the billing at round one which is held just one hour away from the opening race of the world championship later in March.

Next generation GASGAS enduro model

What GASGAS haven’t mentioned too much in the pre-event PR though is that Andrea will get his 2023 season underway riding the next generation GASGAS EC 350F. In keeping with other Farioli team factory riders like Josep Garcia, Verona will race the 2024 GASGAS 350 four-stroke model in both his domestic series and the world championship. (Read about Josep’s 2024 250 EXC-F here).

The new bike brings a switch up to E2 category for Verona who has made his name and career to date on a 250 4T, taking back-to-back E1 world crowns.

“I’m really looking forward to getting my season started with the opening round of the Italian championship.” Says Andrea. “After deciding to switch up to the Enduro2 class and the GASGAS EC 350F I’ve been doing a lot of training over the winter to prepare myself. It’s already been five years that I’ve been racing a 250 four-stroke, so the move up to the 350 makes sense now and also gives me some extra motivation to continue to improve my riding.”

Consistency was the key to the EnduroGP world title in 2022 with Andrea proving more power doesn’t necessarily mean more success on the baby four-stroke. Often seemingly left wanting more power on some of the wide open world championship and ISDE tests in recent seasons, how will the extra torque suit the Italian?

“I think my riding style fits better with the 350 anyway, so I’m hoping to improve my speed and results in the overall EnduroGP class over the whole year.” Andrea explains.

“The main difference between the 350 and last year’s bike is of course the engine. But there are other changes too such as the chassis and how the bike feels to ride. Having this weekend’s Italian round to really try out the bike under race conditions will give us a lot of important feedback that we can use to improve things even more ahead of the world championship. It’s been a long off-season of training and testing, but now I’m really looking forward to racing again.”

Fabio Farioli, GASGAS Factory Racing Enduro Team Manager says, “The bigger bike should suit Andrea’s style and he was also looking for some new motivation after riding a 250 four-stroke for so long.

“This race is very important because as a pre-season race, it gives us a great opportunity to test everything – the bike, the rider, and to see what level we’re at compared to the other riders. The Italian championship is a really good measure of performance as around 85% of the world championship field compete there.

The factory have given the team an excellent package for this year, so as usual, our goals are the same – win both E2 and EnduroGP classes, and the overall Italian championship, starting hopefully with victory this weekend.”

Photo Credit: Puig Arnau