It was a memorable evening for the thousands of enthusiasts who gathered in Hall 29 of Bologna Fiere for the 2024 edition of “Campioni in Festa”: an event that for three seasons now has become a fixture of Ducati’s best sporting moment ever.
“Campioni in Festa” is a unique event, which was created with the aim of sharing the passion for this fantastic sport with the territory, the fans, the Ducati Official Club enthusiasts and, more generally, with all motorcycling lovers. An opportunity that Ducati seizes from a privileged position, being able to count on a combination of technicians and riders with few equals in the world of motorsport: the show’s programme this year saw 14 top level riders and over 20 World Titles take to the stage.
The celebratory event, free for the public, was preceded by an exclusive party for Ducati employees only, an opportunity to share and celebrate together a year of great results. The public segment of the show event got underway with a concert by the Ducati Band, a musical group formed over 20 years ago in the Company on the initiative of some employees including the current Technical Director of Ducati Corse Davide Barana in the role of guitarist, who warmed up the atmosphere with a performance full of rock & roll energy. Afterwards, the Italian comedian Paolo Cevoli provided moments of light-heartedness and laughter with his show, engaging the audience with his unmistakable style.
The evening was hosted by Barbara Pedrotti, who dictated the pace of the show, calling onto the stage all the main protagonists of the 2024 season, starting obviously with the CEO of Ducati, Claudio Domenicali , who underlined once again during his speech the effectiveness of the “Ducati System”, a special way of doing things characteristic of the Bologna-based Company, which has proven to be successful both in racing and in series production.
The first “Campione in Festa” to take to the stage was Alessandro Lupino, winner of the Italian MX1 Title aboard the Desmo450 MX prototype, which made its debut this season kicking off Ducati’s new chapter in Motocross. Lupino was accompanied on stage by nine-time MX World Champion Tony Cairoli, Ducati Corse Off-Road Technical Director Davide Perni and Ducati Corse Off-Road General Manager Paolo Ciabatti . Ciabatti’s speech represented the moment of transition between satisfaction for the results achieved in the first season and a look to the future and the challenges of the 2025 MX World Championship, which will also be faced thanks to the talent of the new riders Jeremy Seewer and Mattia Guadagnini, presented to the Ducati family on this occasion.
The spotlight then shifted to Ducati’s successes in the World Championships for production-derived motorcycles: WorldSBK and WorldSSP. On stage were SBK Project Management Responsible Marco Zambenedetti, along with Daniele Casolari (Team Owner Aruba.it Racing Ducati), Serafino Foti (Team Manager Aruba.it Racing Ducati) and above all the riders Álvaro Bautista, Nicolò Bulega and Adrián Huertas . Bulega and Bautista, who finished second and third respectively in the WorldSBK general classification, were cheered by the crowd, as well as the new WorldSSP Champion Huertas, who had the opportunity to thank everyone for the support received throughout the entire season to reach the final goal of victory.
The section dedicated to MotoGP opened with an invitation onto the stage for Nadia Padovani (Team Principal Gresini Racing), Alessio Salucci (Team Principal VR46 Racing Team), and the riders Marco Bezzecchi, Fabio Di Giannantonio and Michele Pirro (Ducati Official Test Rider). Immediately afterwards, the top management of Ducati Corse Mauro Grassilli, Davide Barana and Davide Tardozzi gathered in front of the audience, with Barbara Pedrotti who invited the Ducati Corse General Manager Luigi Dall’Igna to join them for a speech which included an emotional mutual thanks with Paolo Campinoti, Team Principal of Pramac Racing, with whom a twenty-year working relationship will end at the end of the year, culminating with the victory of the 2023 World Teams’ Title and the 2024 World Riders’ Title.
Finally, the highlight of the show arrived with the “Fantastic Four” Ducati riders, dominators of the MotoGP World Championship with 19 wins out of 20 total races, which ignited the enthusiasm of the crowd. The reigning World Champion Jorge Martín, Italian idol Francesco “Pecco” Bagnaia with Marc Márquez and Enea Bastianini threw themselves into the mix, exchanging questions and points of view with each other, and receiving the warm tribute of the public for a season in which they took the Desmosedici GP to an unimaginable level.
The evening ended with a massive collective applause, symbol of the pride and passion that unite the Ducatista community. The 2024 edition of “Campioni in Festa” once again celebrated the excellence and the aggregator spirit of Ducati, confirming itself to be an unmissable event for all motorsport enthusiasts.
Also taking part in the celebration of this extraordinary racing season was LEGO®, with which Ducati recently presented the new Lego® Technic™ Panigale V4 S set. For the occasion, LEGO®exhibited a 1:2 scale model of the Panigale V4S made entirely of bricks, unveiled shortly before the show by the “Fantastic Four”. In addition, all the party participants were able to contribute to the creation of a shared work, reconstructing the logo of the Borgo Panigale company with LEGO®bricks.
The “Campioni in Festa” event, of which a video-recap is available on YouTube, was organized by Ducati with the support of the Municipality of Bologna and the collaboration of Motor Valley and BolognaFiere.
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