DUCATI NORTH AMERICA ANNOUNCES SUPERBIKE CONCORSO COMPETITION The Contest highlights Ducati Superbike history and performance; one Ducatisti will take home a 2007 1098 Superbike Cupertino, California Ducati North America announces the Ducati Superbike Concorso; a competition celebrating over 30 years of Ducati Superbikes. From Cook Neilson’s 1977 Daytona win to the recent introduction of the dramatic 1098, Ducati Superbikes have dominated racing circuits and become style icons worldwide. The Ducati Superbike Concorso highlights the history and spirit of these motorcycles and celebrates the passion of their owners. The Concorso is open to all 1972-2007 Ducati Superbikes and will recognize performance and history as well as beauty and craftsmanship. The contest consists of four regional rounds, which will coincide with AMA Superbike Championship races. The fifth round will be featured online at www.ducatiusa.com. This will culminate in six finalists and four Ducati-selected wild-cards to be chosen to compete on Ducati Island during the final AMA Superbike Championship round at Laguna Seca in September, 2007. The Grand Prize winner will take home a new Ducati 1098 Superbike. The top winners in “Modified/Performance Superbike” and “Original/Restored Superbike” categories will each win once-in-a-lifetime trips to Italy, where they will visit the Ducati factory and the Milan Motorcycle show as VIP guests. “The Superbike Concorso is a celebration of motorcycles that have put Ducati on the map since the 1970’s,” said Michael Lock, CEO of Ducati North America. “Many Ducati enthusiasts don’t realize just how many significant Superbikes we have built over the years, and how timeless and beautiful the designs are.” The Superbike Concorso begins at the Fontana, California round of the AMA Superbike Championship on April 27-29, 2007. The event will also make stops at Laguna Seca (July 20-22, 2007), Mid Ohio (August 3-5, 2007) and Road Atlanta (September 1-2, 2007). Full contest details and further information can be found at www.ducatiusa.com. More, from a press release issued by NCR: On its own Squadra Corse Racing Team (http://www.ncrcorse.com/us/) NCR pubblished some very interesting videos which capture great moment in Daytona, where Valter Bartolini captures a great win aboard the NCR Millona. The video also highlights a duel between Larry Pegram and Nick Ienatch aboard NCR New Blues and finally also a historic moment where Cook Neilson flies along the high bank of Daytona aboard New Blue, which was made in his and Phil Schilling’s honor. The moment solidifies the hard work of the continuous development of the pursuit of the passion of NCR but also the culmination of development that lead to the win in the predominant class of Sound of Thunder where Walter set a lap record of 1:45.4 which was one full second faster than his competitor Guareschi on his Moto Guzzi. Given that this was Valter¹s first time at Daytona, it shows the potential of NCR’s development of the 1200cc version of the Ducati 1000DS 2 valve engine. The base engine develops 77 hp at the wheel and it is magically worked on by NCR’s know how to develop an astonishing 115 hp at the wheel, almost a 40 hp increase while surviving the rigors of Daytona. Given that the 1200cc version is just a the beginning of the development cycle, it is still very impressive that it was able to hit 182 mph at 10,000 rpm. The combination of the excellent power to weight ratio and simplicity of the air cooled 2 valve engine gives the edge to NCR to be able to achieve an incredible motorcycle weight of 270 lbs combined with an incredible torque of 87 lb-ft at the rear wheel. www.ncrcorse.com