DIRT NEWS
“ Feeling like a Ducatista is a truly special sensation . Congratulations to all the guys who worked on this project , because in a very short time they created a spectacular bike , with a lot of potential , doing an incredible job . Together we wrote a page of history : first pole and first heat victory for the Ducati Desmo450 MX . Unfortunately , the second heat didn ’ t go as I would have liked : I got the start wrong and wasn ’ t able to recover . But that ’ s okay , now the engineers have the data to analyse two completely different situations !” “ This weekend in Mantua , we wrote another chapter in the history of Ducati ,” said Ducati ’ s CEO Claudio Domenicali . “ Alessandro Lupino and our team gave us some great fun and , despite it being the first motocross race in our recent history , we immediately demonstrated outstanding performance . Best time in free practice , pole and victory in the first heat are truly a debut that lives up to expectations : we have gathered a lot of information which will be fundamental to best develop the bike that will be available to all enthusiasts next year . Congratulations to Alessandro and our entire off-road team , a fantastic start to a new story of sport and passion .” With the bike still in the prototype phase , the two heats allowed Ducati engineers to collect the first important data to continue the development of the Desmo450 MX which , like the other newcomer to MX from Europe - Triumph - has confirmed its validity in the heat of competition . Ducati says the focus of the Ducati Off-Road project is “ a combination of the search for lightness pushed to the extreme , top-of-theline components and engines characterised by a very broad delivery curve .” The latter is obtained thanks to the utilisation of the Ducati ’ s signature Desmodromic valve system used on all the brand ’ s sports bikes starting from MotoGP . Ducati remains the only company in the world that uses the same valve return system on its highest performing production motorcycles as it uses on racing prototypes . The next round of the Italian Motocross Championship is scheduled for April 27-28 on the Cingoli ( MC ) circuit .
100 KIWI RIDER