| But once you've whet your appetite for racing, where do you go from there?
The Desmo Due series was always about taking the fast trackday rider into racing, keeping within the Ducati marque. I remember lining up on that first grid all those years ago and of the 38(?) entries I think there were at most 5 of those that were not wearing a novice vest!
It was, and remains, a fantastic taster of what racing is about, with cheap machines, good venues and great paddock spirit.
But there's no denying that once you've "mastered" the awesome 60bhp of a DD bike, there will always be the next rung of the ladder that you want to climb onto and push yourself further.
I've always seen Sound of Thunder as the next (only?) step up from DD as there are very few other classes where you can ride a Ducati. Any step up is going to see you having to switch bikes/engines, whether it's to Thundersport with the KRRs, or straight into Sound of Thunder, because otherwise you're not going to be competitive on a DD bike - simple as that. Even running a decent Ducati out in Sound of Thunder will see you against much stronger bikes of other makes, in a very competitive environment. There's far too much scope to spend a lot of money to be competitive!
Hopefully the new 848 series will have the same ethos that DD has shown and proven over the last 5 years (only one of those I didn't race in) and will be seen as the "big brother" league of DD and hopefully something for budding racers to aspire to. |