NCR-Ducati Wins First and Second at Opening Round of Parts Canada Superbike Championship
NCR-Ducati Team completed the first round of the Canadian Thunder Championship with an impressive first and second place finish on the new Ducati 848. The Thunder Championship is a very competitive class which includes the New Buell 1125R, the KTM Super Duke R 990 and the new BMW HP2 Sport. The Ducati has a significant displacement disadvantage but yet is able to show the refined package that it is, start out of the box. Factory riders Valter Bartolini from Imola, Italy and Andrew Nelson from Kars, Ontario spent valuable time to set-up the razor sharp handling to the new flowing and demanding Calabogie Circuit in Ontario, Canada. On Thursday, lap times started with a best of 1:14.262 for Valter and 1:14.575 for Andrew. The team worked hard on power delivery and suspension changes and were able to drop the lap times to 1:11.730 for Valter and 1:12.235 for Andrew by Sunday morning practice.In parallel, NCR-Ducati entered a third bike based on a Ducati Paul Smart Sport Classic 1000. The concept was to use the Paul Smart as a starting point and build a NCR New Blue replica using all the factory goodies to enter the ST Class (air cooled).
Guy Martin from MBP professionally built the replica in record time to enter the first round. The motorcycle was ridden by Patrick Chartrand for the first time on Thursday and started with laps in the 1:22 range but then was able to drop the times to a very respectable 1:16.799 by Sunday morning. Unfortunately, suspension changes before the race slowed Patrick down for the main event.
The Thunder race was amazing in that NCR-Ducati had both pole and second position on the starting grid. Valter got an amazing start while Andrew got and average launch and found himself behind the Buell 1125R Floridian rider Dave Estok. Andrew didn't want Valter to get away so he worked hard to pass Dave in the second lap. By then, Valter had set the fastest lap of the race with a 1:10.805 and was slowly pulling ahead. The race ended with NCR-Ducati's Valter Bartolini in first, NCR-Ducati's Andrew Nelson 4.4 seconds back in second place and Buell's Dave Estok 14.2 seconds back in third.
This result is very important because the Vartolini's lap times were in line with the top 3 of the Superbike class. It means that the 848 performance, with the NCR Special Parts and kits can really release a very competitive racing package (Note that the Thunder rules doesn't allow the use of slick tyres and unlimited engine power). All the NCR packages are available on the market, so do not hesitate to contact us.
The NCR-Ducati team looks forward to the next round in Calgary on June 26-29th.
Tag: NCR Ducati NCR Ducati 848 BMW HP2 Canada Racing Paul Smart Classic 1000 Blue Replica ST Class Superbike Championship Air-Cooled
