| Interesting thoughts on the 999 in AMA
by: Evan Williams
Originally posted on AMA Superbikes website
Ducati's AMA Superbike program has won four of the last six races on the tour. The heart of the 2005 season has seen quite a turnaround for the sole remaining v-twin factory Superbike team in America.
It wasn't so many weeks ago that the Ducati Austin bikes' red paint scheme was the only thing looking rosy. Eric Bostrom and Neil Hodgson (along with the rest of the field) were trounced in the early going by the three-headed Suzuki Superbike monster. The low point might have been Infineon Raceway, where Hodgson lashed his 999 for all it was worth, only to get a third and a fifth at Sears Point that weekend. On Sunday, one photographer told me that he thought former World Champion Hodgson was going to crash every lap as he came past because he was riding so hard. For fifth place, no less.
At least it was better than his teammate was doing at the time. Save for a scant handful of races, you might have better luck finding Eric Bostrom's competitiveness since coming over to Ducati for 2004 if you put a "missing" ad on the back of a milk carton.
There was no truth to the rumor that the team removed all sharp objects from the race shop at Road Atlanta, though.
While Ducati insiders said the 999 was still a capable mount, whispers around the paddock murmured the Ducatisti fan base might be in serious misery for a while. The naysayers began to question whether the twin could stand up to today's 1000cc four-cylinders, fire-breathing brutes that have revolutionized Superbike racing since coming on the scene in 2003.
Although Ducati is committed to the twin through at least 2006, the Italian brand has announced a road going version of its MotoGP Desmosedici. The critics began to wonder if a new bike is the answer for Ducati. Given equal displacement, more pots are, well ... more. Big displacement four-cyl Superbikes have bottom end torque via 1000ccs of displacement plus the "rev-ability" to pull all the way to the redline stratosphere via smaller pistons than a twin. There's also the philosophy that the point-and-shoot American tracks favor the rear-steering inline-fours instead of the long-legged Ducati, which some say is built for the more flowing circuits of Europe.
Like father of the water-cooled, four valve Ducati twin Massimo Bordi once said when commenting on the Ducati MotoGP bike, "The regulations make the engine." The twins do get some rules breaks from the AMA, but the fours are already fabulous, well rounded machines. And the multis will only continue to be refined over the next few years and are at the beginning of their development curve.
It's a bit sad, really. The Ducatis are the last of what many consider "real" Superbikes -- those with hot rod roots back to the glory days of Unobtainium, when engine changes were frequent and the whirls and whistles of a full-on spec Superbike motor in pit lane had you wondering, "What's really inside that thing?" The 1000cc fours are great, but the rules mean they are essentially Superstock bikes with badass brakes and suspension parts.
While Honda and Suzuki both built v-twin race bikes in the past like Ducati, has the double thumper Superbike gone the way of "The Macerena", Beanie Babies, and the Spice Girls -- a 1990s trend relegated to the waste bin of racing history?
But then Pikes Peak happened. Bostrom has always been a madman at the Colorado bullring and beat Yates this time. And Hodgson won in a monsoon at Road America.
Those two wins might be considered fortunate. After all, Eric might win on his Cannondale bicycle at PPIR and Hodgson's rain win race was held in one of the worst condition in memory. But then Bostrom won at Laguna Seca and at Mid-Ohio. Four wins out of six races is not luck. Or coincidence. The competition at the front of the AMA Superbike grid is just too good.
What does the sexy 999 Superbike do so well? For starters, it starts. Eric has shown the Ducati is a rocket off the line his entire Ducati tenure. While other the Superbikes have shown the racing clutch to be an Achilles heel, Bostrom said he could flog the 999's clutch "until blue smoke pours off it" with no ill effects after his Mid-Ohio win. Get out in front and the race is much easier.
Power wise, the 999 seems close enough. Earlier this season, Ducati Corse's Paolo Ciabatti said the 999 made 195 horses up top, which is in the ballpark of the fours (said to make perhaps ten more horses more on an ideal dyno day by insiders). Since then, Ducati has introduced some extra goodies for World Superbike that are slowly filtering over to this side of the Atlantic. (For what it's worth, James Toseland and Regis Laconi have combined for four World Superbike wins this year after a poor start, Sound familiar?)
It's not all about top end, anyway -- it's about making good power all up and down the rev range, then getting it to the ground.
After 18 months or so of constant struggle, Bostrom and his crew led by veteran mechanic Gary Medley have finally gotten a handle on the handling, too. That's the biggest key. Hodgson has struggled some lately but that's probably due to oddball tracks and/or not much track time at the circuits for the first-year AMA rider. It didn't help him that he got torpedoed on the first lap at Laguna Seca and that he's had machine issues in a couple of races, either.
The bottom line is a race bike is a tool for the pilot and a must be honed into a precision instrument. If the bike is good enough, a great rider will figure out the advantages and disadvantages and learn how to win on it. And the Ducati is still "good enough" to win. At Mid-Ohio, Bostrom proved this when he was able to handle intense pressure from Yates for the first eleven laps. The Suzuki man was the one to crash and took Mladin with him.
After the recent streak, Ciabatti, team owner Terry Gregoricka, and team manager Tom Bodenbach won't have to listen to press morons like the author of this piece ask, "When are y'all gonna build a four?" They can now sarcastically ask, "When are the other guys going to build another twin?"  | 
05-Aug-2005, 12:01 
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