The Ducati Alstare team revealed the livery for its Ducati 1199 Panigale R superbike which will make its racing debut in the 2013 World Superbike Championship.

The Panigale R replaces the highly successful 1098R as Ducati‘s premiere production-based racebike. Riding the 1199 for Ducati Alstare are Ayrton Badovini and Carlos Checa who won the 2011 WSBK title on the 1098R.

The new graphics were designed by Alstare with help from Ducati and remains true to the manufacturer’s history with its Corse Red coloring. Continue Reading »

Ducati has named Bernhard Gobmeier the new general manager of Ducati Corse, handing the former BMW Superbike racing director the reins to the company’s racing program. Gobmeier replaces Filippo Preziosi (pictured above) who will be reassigned to the post of director of research and development for Ducati, shifting his focus from racing to developing new products.

The personnel change carries two storylines. On the one hand, Preziosi’s tenure as GM of Ducati Corse was a disappointing period for the factory MotoGP program, highlighted by the two disastrous seasons with Valentino Rossi and the continuing struggle to make the Desmosedici race bike competitive.

The other plot thread is the appointment of a German to lead the Italian manufacturer’s racing program. Ducati is now, of course, owned by Audi, and the appointment of Gobmeier has the German automaker’s fingerprints all over it. As the official announcement reads, Gobmeier’s role is to “to enter the new phase of development for Ducati’s racing activities and to achieve the targets set during the recent acquisition by the Audi Group.” Continue Reading »

As the Ducati Factory World Superbike team finalizes its plans for the introduction of the 1199 Panigale into the series, two things are certain: 2011 champion Carlos Checa will be the team’s lead rider, and Team Althea Racing, who have worked with Ducati since 2010, will not be the team’s sponsor. Continue Reading »

The historic race first-ever World Superbike Championship round in Russia provided plenty of drama with several top riders crashing out of both races and a new leader emerge in the chase for the 2012 WSBK Championship.

Superpole qualifying made for four different manufacturers lining up in the first row of the grid, with Carlos Checa taking pole position for Althea Ducati ahead of Kawasaki‘s Tom Sykes, Aprilia‘s Eugene Laverty and BMW rider Leon Haslam.

A slightly damp and unfamiliar track likely contributed to a number of crashes and collisions. Sykes won the first ever WSBK race in Russia while BMW’s Marco Melandri took Race Two and moved ahead of Aprilia’s Max Biaggi for the championship lead. Continue Reading »

Last month, we wrote about the Diavel Drag Race at World Ducati Week 2012 starring Ducati’s current MotoGP and World Superbike racers and the one and only Troy Bayliss. If you missed it, the retired three-time WSBK Champion Bayliss defeated nine-time Grand Prix Champion Valentino Rossi in the drag race competition on Ducati Diavel Carbons.

Our initial post featured a video of highlights from the drag race competition shot by Italian website Motociclismo.it but it was filmed by a single camera from an awkward vantage point. Thankfully, Ducati has since uploaded a video of the entire competition with live commentary and various camera angles from its official WDW TV coverage.

Unfortunately the commentary is in Italian, but it’s pretty easy to figure out what is going on if you don’t speak the language. It isn’t difficult to make out the names of Bayliss, Rossi, Nicky Hayden, Carlos Checa, Jakub Smrz, Sylvain Guintoli, Niccolò Canepa, and Lorenzo Zanetti. Continue Reading »

Marco Melandri bit a chunk off of Max Biaggi‘s World Superbike championship points lead by taking a pair of wins at Brno. The double was the first in Melandri’s career and the first for BMW.

Biaggi, who arrived in the Czech Republic with four wins and nine podium finishes in ten previous races at Brno, was held off the podium this year, shrinking his lead in the championship to 21 points from 48.

Both races saw Melandri steal the win from Kawasaki‘s Tom Sykes who led all but seven laps all weekend but was forced to settle for a pair of second-place results. Continue Reading »

Former World Superbike Champion Troy Bayliss out-dueled MotoGP star Valentino Rossi in a highly-anticipated showdown to win the Diavel drag race on the Misano Circuit‘s starting straight as part of World Ducati Week 2012 celebrations.

Bayliss and Rossi faced off in the final round after getting through the preliminary rounds which also featured Rossi’s MotoGP teammate Nicky Hayden, reigning WSBK Champion Carlos Checa, Jakub Smrz, Sylvain Guintoli, Niccolò Canepa and Lorenzo Zanetti. Continue Reading »

Revellers at 2012 World Ducati Week got a surprise treat with defending World Superbike Champion Carlos Checa completing an unscheduled test of the WSBK-spec Ducati 1199 Panigale.

The Althea Ducati racer has ridden the production version of the Panigale but this marked his first test of the WSBK-spec version. His maiden ride of the WSBK Panigale was supposed to take place at Mugello but instead Checa and Ducati decided to give the Ducatisti a treat at the Misano circuit for WDW.

Ducati did not release any lap times, only saying Checa provided valuable feedback. Continue Reading »

Max Biaggi strengthened his hold on the 2012 World Superbike Championship lead with a pair of wins at Italy’s Misano circuit.

The Aprilia rider out-battled the Althea Ducati duo of Carlos Checa and Davide Giugliano to win Race One before taking a relatively easier Race Two victory.

Before the races, WSBK riders lined up on the starting grid to hold a banner expressing their support for the Emilia region in northern Italy which has been suffering from earthquakes and continuing aftershocks since late May. WSBK promoters Infront Motorsports announced an auction of racing memorabilia donated by racers to raise money for those directly affected by the disaster. Continue Reading »

Marco Melandri earned BMW its second ever World Superbike victory to move into second place in the championship standings behind Max Biaggi in the series’ only stop in the United States.

Melandri won a red-flagged Race Two at Utah’s Miller Motorsports Park after finishing second to defending WSBK Champion Carlos Checa in Race One to give him 142.5 points on the season, tied with Kawasaki‘s Tom Sykes but behind Aprilia‘s Biaggi who leads the way with 160.5 points. Continue Reading »