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Eric Wood has signed a deal that will have him riding a Ducati 848 in the AMA Formula Xtreme series. The team will be competing as Team Pongo/NCR Ducati and will attend a minimum of 6 rounds of the series in addition to select ASRA and CCS events. Eric has posted 5 top 10 results out of 6 finishes in Formula Extreme over the past two seasons of AMA competition.
Backing for the team will come from Pongo, an online resume building service that provides industry leading tools in career advancement. Pongo President and CEO Rodney Capron is a long time motorcycle enthusiast with a particular affinity for Ducatis. When asked about the deal he said "I've been looking at the possibility of getting involved with a professional motorcycle race team for quite some time, and when the opportunity arose to work with Eric on the new Ducati 848 I couldn't wait to get involved". Pongo will devote a section of the company website at www.pongoresume.com to follow the progress of the race team throughout the season.
The engines for the team will be prepared by Ducati Hall of Fame tuner Bruce Meyers of Meyers Performance. Bruce worked with Eric Wood in 1999 and 2000 when the pair campaigned a Ducati 748 owned by Steve Aspland in the AMA Pro Thunder class, winning 5 of the 6 rounds that they competed in. Eric noted "Ever since those two successful seasons Bruce & I have talked almost every year about working together again. We are very excited to run the Ducati 848 in the Formula Xtreme class. I feel that the Ducati is the best possible tool to run up front, and Bruce has the skills to provide us a very competitive motorcycle". Carl McAllister and Todd Malvezzi will be the technicians working along with Bruce for the 2008 season.
The final piece of the puzzle came together this week when Joe Ippoliti of the legendary NCR Factory signed on as the co-title sponsor of the team with Pongo. NCR will be supplying the team with many of the key engine, chassis and technological parts developed by NCR for the Ducati 848. Team rider Eric Wood rode for Mr. Ippoliti and NCR twice in 2007 on the acclaimed NCR Millona. Eric noted, "I was completely impressed with the both the craftsmanship and racetrack prowess of the Millona. I don't think I have ever ridden a bike that was so capable on the track and at the same time so beautiful to behold as the Millona. Having the resources of a company like NCR at our disposal to develop a Ducati Formula Xtreme contender will be a huge advantage for us this season."
Wagner Motorsports International of Worcester, MA is a Ducati dealership that is staffed with a number of road racing enthusiasts and will be providing Ducati parts support for the team. Nick McCabe of Ducati North America and New England Ducati rep Jason Routhier were also key in bringing the support of Ducati to the effort.
The team will be running on Dunlop tires for the 2008 season and has also secured the sponsorship of Maxima lubricants, Vanson leathers, Arai helmets, Penske shocks, Leo Vince exhaust, Armour Bodies bodywork, Woodcraft, VP fuels, GMD Computrack Northeast, Street & Competition, Zero Gravity windscreens and EBC brakes.
When asked about his goals for the upcoming season, Eric responded "I've been doing this for a long time, and I feel that this team is going to provide me with the best equipment that I have ever had. It's been my dream, like so many other riders, to have a machine that can run at the front of an AMA event. I think we've finally got the tools to make it happen, and I can't wait to get out on the track at Daytona." |
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The Ducati 1098S won the title at the Magny-Cours circuit in France today,
when young Italian Niccolò Canepa powered to the FIM Superstock 1000 Cup for
the Ducati Xerox Junior Team. Team-mate Brendan Roberts ended his season with
a harmless crash.
The race was held in the interval between the two Superbike races due to
early morning fog and at the start Canepa powered away behind leader Van
Keymeulen. All the Italian had to do was control his chief rival Claudio Corti and
the final laps proved to be decisive. With the final podium slot behind winner
Badovini and runner-up Corti, a third place was enough to give the title to
Canepa by four points.
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CANEPA RELAUNCHES THE STK CHAMPIONSHIP
Niccolò Canepa (Ducati Xerox Junior
Team) produced a superb performance on the new Ducati 1098S machine
at the EuroSpeedway today, the Italian picking up an important
second place in the championship run-in. Team-mate Brendan Roberts
was not so lucky, the Australian finishing sixteenth after a move
by another rider that cost him a good result.
Niccolò was always in the leading
positions right from the start, controlling the battle between
front-runners Van Keymeulen and Corti. The young Italian’s
last lap was perfect as he dived past Corti on the inside to take
the runner-up slot and move closer to the top in the points
table. |
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The priority in every step of the 1098 development has been performance first. Every system, every detail and every component has been studied and pared down to its essence and performance increased to the maximum. If it didn’t make the 1098 lighter, faster or deliver quicker lap times, it wasn’t considered. This incredible new machine designed and built in Borgo Panigale produces 160hp and 12.5kgm of torque. The result: the 1098 is the most powerful twin-cylinder motorcycle in the world with the highest torque-to-weight ratio of any sport bike.
Arturo Jimenez
The 1098 is the lightest, fastest stopping, quickest lapping Ducati in history. For the first time Ducati MotoGP and World Superbike technology have been combined to create a premier street bike. The results are stunning. |
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The new Testastretta Evoluzione engine
The Testastretta Evoluzione engine is the crowning glory of Ducati’s development and perfection of the L-Twin engine. World Superbike dominance for the last 15 years is the result of continual commitment to twin-cylinder technology and the 1098 Testastretta Evoluzione, the most powerful twin-cylinder production engine in history, is a fitting reward to our engineers’ continued ingenuity.
The 1098 engine is immediately recognisable by its completely new compact cylinders and cylinder heads. Other 1098 innovations and revisions are less obvious as they reside inside the Evoluzione’s engine cases, but whether external or internal, every new development was conceived to create a lighter, more efficient, more powerful and ultra-compact engine for the new generation of Ducati Superbikes.
Texas de Brazil- Brazil's exotic flavors, near you. A meat lover's paradise! |
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The story of Ducati’s Superbikes can be traced back to 1986. The four-valve, liquid cooled factory racebikes arose from the original belt-driven Pantah engines. Initially real exotica, a step above and beyond Ducati’s street-going SuperSports, serious tackle in their own right, Superbikes have become the standard by which all other motorcycles must be measured.
“The Ducati Superbike evolution”
1986: If we wanted to name the first year for the Ducati Superbike project, it would be the one in which the first Ducati was fitted with a four valve twin-cylinder engine, the prototype named 748 Bol d’Or that made its debut in the race of the same name.
1987: In July, the first images of the Ducati 851 prototype road version were released. In the same year, Marco Lucchinelli took the racing version of this bike to victory in the ‘Battle of the Twins’. 2006 World Superbike Champion Troy Bayliss  |
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