Not way back, Ducati pulled the covers off its Ducati Desmo450 MX motocross race bike. This bike made waves not solely within the racing world, however your complete motorbike trade, because it wasn’t simply Ducati’s return to the single-cylinder house, it was additionally the model’s first enterprise into the world of motocross.
So large was this improvement that Ducati established Ducati Corse Off-Road, a division of its racing division devoted solely to its off-road exploits. With that, it was clear that Ducati was in full-force within the MX recreation, and on March 17, 2024, it made its debut on the Motocross Pro-Prestige MX1 Italian Championship.
Piloted by Alessandro Lupino, the brand new Ducati Desmo450 MX crushed expectations, taking pole place and successful its debut race. Lupino began at pole place, and did a wonderful job of setting the tempo. The observe circumstances have been favorable, and Lupino and the Desmo450 MX rocketed throughout the end line, retaining first place all all through.
Alessandro Lupino sends it aboard the Ducati Desmo450 MX
During the second warmth, Ducati wasn’t so fortunate as Lupino made a mistake, inflicting him to fall to the again of the pack. After a valiant effort, he managed to climb to seventh place at race finish. Overall, Ducati took second place within the first spherical of the 2024 season—greater than a promising begin for a first-timer within the sport.
Behind the scenes on the Ducati paddock
Commenting on the race outcomes, Alessandro Lupino expressed his pleasure in direction of racing MX for Ducati, “These were two very exciting days. My debut with the Ducati was truly a dream: they told me it would be, but today I experienced it! Feeling like a Ducatista is a truly special sensation. Congratulations to all the guys who worked on this project, because in a very short time they created a spectacular bike, with a lot of potential, doing an incredible job.”
Keeping an optimistic outlook, Lupino highlighted that regardless of messing up his second run, the engineers have been capable of collect important information to additional enhance the bike in upcoming races. “Unfortunately, the second heat didn’t go as I would have liked: I got the start wrong and wasn’t able to recover. But that’s okay, now the engineers have the data to analyze two completely different situations,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ducati CEO himself, Claudio Domenicali, was all praises with the Ducati Corse Off-Road’s first foray into the MX world. “This weekend in Mantua we wrote one other chapter within the historical past of Ducati. Alessandro Lupino and our group gave us some nice enjoyable and, regardless of it being the primary motocross race in our latest historical past, we instantly demonstrated excellent efficiency,” he stated.
Ducati has at all times been about racing, and its stellar efficiency on the first spherical of the Motocross Pro-Prestige MX1 Italian Championship is proof that it’s greater than able to tackle the MX world head on. The subsequent spherical of the Italian MX Championship is ready to happen from April 27 to twenty-eight, 2024, and you’ll wager your backside greenback that Ducati will probably be prepping its bike to unleash nothing wanting a stellar efficiency.