American Ben Bostrom, who finished third in the 2001 World Superbike Championship, signs autographs for enthusiastic fans.
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In its evolution from ownership by the Ducati family, through Claudio and Gianfranco Castiglioni's Cagiva Group and finally to an American investment group in 1996, Ducati has come to view itself as an entertainment company. Its pioneering designs have been hailed worldwide. For fifteen years, the high performance motorcycle statement was made via the café racer with its fairing, rear set pegs and clip-on bars. All that changed in 1993 when Argentine Miguel Galluzzi designed a new Ducati model. He stripped away the fairing revealing the trellis frame and sat the rider upright, just like Marlon Brando in The Wild One. The resulting Ducati M900 Monster became an instant classic. In redefining the conception of a cruiser, Galluzzi allowed it to retain the power and handling of a superbike. While in a different tradition, Ducati's latest, the limited-edition MH900e, keeps Ducati in the forefront as the most advanced styling statement among today's motorcycles. It is designer Pierre Terblanche's homage to Mike Hailwood and his 1978 TT-winning 900. In keeping with its futuristic appearance, the bike has been offered only on the Internet. Demand has been such that the original production run of one thousand has been doubled.
The worldwide Ducati community has celebrated together twice before, at World Ducati Weekend in 1998 and 2000. In both cases there was a track day at Misano in Santa Monica (Italy) on Saturday and a picnic in Bologna on Sunday. WDW is now officially a biennial event.
Recognizing the importance of the North American market, Ducati held a festival called Ducati Revs America this year in Las Vegas over the last weekend in October. It is intended that this event will fill in the years between Ducati World Weekends in Italy. The festivities were centered at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The sounds of clicking slot machines and coins dropping into metal trays were replaced for some by the chatter of dry clutches and the staccato beat of hundred of V-twins cruising the strip and hurrying to the track.
Once there, there was a myriad of choices as to what to see. Everything was happening at once. The NASCAR garages had been made into the Ducati Village. Vendors, a Cucina and the Ducati Museum vied for one's attention. The latter had a wonderful selection of bikes from Ducati's history. Outside, there was a bocce ball tournament. On Friday evening, there was a press reception at Zeffrino's restaurant in the Venetian, a hotel/casino/resort that has managed to fit part of Venice's canal system inside. If you wish, you can ride in a full-size gondola, propelled by a striped-shirted gondolier with the traditional single oar. In Zeffrino's, the vino and appetizers were abundant. We were herded into a smaller room upstairs where factory Superbike rider, Ben Bostrom, unveiled Ducati's latest limited production bike, the Bostrom 998S. This model was created specially for the North American Market. It's paintwork, including the colors of the America flag, is based on a mixture of Ben's helmet colors and the graphics on the Ducati that Bostrom rode to third in the World Superbike Championship in 2001. Production will be limited to one hundred fifty-five examples, consistent with Bostrom's traditional race number 155. In keeping with the national mood, the last bike of the production run will be auctioned for charity on http://www.ducati.com The crowd was suitably impressed as it was with the wine and food offered by Zeffrino's.
