Italia Connections' Racing Ducatis

Ducati's Racing Heritage

Ducati Staccato 250 Single
A beautiful Staccato 250 single.
Formula 750 Series

Back in 1972 in the U.S.A. Formula 750 was born courtesy of the American Motorcycle Association as a racing class to supercede the previous Class C regulations.
Class C was a category to include bikes of up to 500cc overhead valve engines or 750cc side valve engines, but not the new generation of overhead cams engines which had at that time become popular especially with the Japanese manufacturers.
It was therefore a class formulated mainly for the larger capacity bikes, but also to encompass all production based machinery from 251cc to 750cc.
The first Daytona F750 200 mile race was held in 1970. The winner being Dick Mann on a Honda CR750/4, with fellow American Gene Romero finishing 2nd on a Triumph triple.
In 1971 the F750 series was growing very quickly in terms of popularity in the U.S.A. That year the Triumph triples dominated with a 1-2-3 at Daytona & Dick Mann riding the winner. At this time the Britain vs U.S.A. Transatlantic Match Race Series were started. This was to prove a good move as it helped the F750 series to gain popularity on this side of the Atlantic.
However in Europe it wasn't welcomed with open arms and as such the racing was neither competitive nor memorable. It lacked organization, prestige and importantly big money.

For 1972 the Moto Club Santurno, organizers at Imola took a big money risk and decided to run the very first Imola 200 for F750 machines with a prize fund of £24,000!
At that time the FIM very much left the organizers to their own devices as regards eligibility. The result was that they banned the Yamaha 350's and allowed Italian pre-production prototypes to race (I wonder why ;-). The Desmo Ducati was just one of these.

The racing line-up was impressive and read like a who's who of racing at that time:
Giacomo Agostini, Walter Villa, Alberto Pagani, Percy Tait, Ray Pickerell, Paul Smart, Phil Read & Tony Jefferies were amongst the field no doubt attracted by the prize money.
Smart had previously been with Triumph, and had been released by Team Hansen Kawasaki to race the Ducati 750 V-twin. Smart was reported to have no faith in the bike's competitive ability. His team-mate in the Ducati team was Italian, Bruno Spaggiari.

Agostini and Pagani (who failed to ride due to injury) had new 750 4 cylinder bikes from MV, based on the 750S road bike. These proved to be very fast in a straight line BUT their handling was at best dubious. This may have been due to the retention of the road bike's shaft drive. In fact it proved too much even for Agostini's undoubted skills.
Italian Walter Villa, Pickerell and Tait were on the Triumph triples, Phil Read was with the works Norton team, Moto Guzzi and Laverda also fielded works teams.
Bruno Spaggiari's 1972 Imola 200 Bike.

Bruno Spaggiari in action at the Imola 200.

70,000 turned up to watch the race. The flag dropped and Smart & Spaggiari's Ducatis lead the 200 mile race from start to finish. A brave performance from Agostini on his ill-handling MV kept the Ducati's in sight until the bike gave up. This had no effect on the outcome of the race as it was by then a race between the 2 Ducatis. The factory even gave signs for them both to slow down until the last 2 laps. The lead changed hands a number of times before Spaggiari made a mistake near the end for Smart to take the win and £5,000 winners cheque. Spaggiari came home 2nd, followed by Villa on his Triumph and Read on the Norton. Smart, Spaggiari and Agostini all shared the fastest lap with an average speed of 100.1mph - the MV certainly wasn't slow!

This was to be Ducati's only F750 victory. Some might say a fortunate victory as the FIM's rules stated that 200 bikes must be produced worldwide for homologation, as today in World Superbikes.
In 1973 at Imola Spaggiari rode the bike well to finish 2nd in the 1st 100 mile leg behind Saarinen on a Yamaha TZ350. In the 2nd leg he came 3rd behind Villa and winner Saarinen.

Bruno's bike.

The 90 degree V-twin desmodromic engine had a capacity of 748cc, with bore and stroke of 80mm and 74.4mm respectively. It was fed by a pair of 40mm Dell'Ortos and was reported to produce 85bhp with a limit of 8,500 revs. Gearbox had 5 close ratios.
The frame was a simple cradle affair with a long 1500mm wheelbase, Marzocchi forks and Ceriani shocks. Brakes were Lockheed calipers on 280mm cast iron discs, two up front and one in the rear. The whole bike weighed in at 166kg.

1978 - TT Victory

Mike Hailwood at '78 TT.

In 1978 Ducati persuaded Mike 'the bike' Hailwood to come out of retirement to race a 900 Desmo V-twin in the TT. He is pictured above on the Sports Ducati at the Waterworks on route to a historic victory.
The bike was prep'd by Steve Wynne of Sports Motorcycles, and soon after came the MHR road bike to commemorate the event.

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