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Ducati North
America and Ducati Corse have announced that their
participation in the AMA Superbike Championship with a
factory team will cease at the end of the 2006 season. The
Parts Unlimited Ducati Team has successfully raced with the
999 Superbike in each of the last three seasons (winning
five races as of today) and the American based Ducati
subsidiary will now take a year to consider its future
options.
"Our primary
objective of raising the profile of our brand and of the 999
Superbike has been achieved", said Michael Lock, CEO of
Ducati North America. "We have increased our sales over 60%
since 2003 and the USA has become a powerful export market
for our parent Italian factory. There are a lot of exciting
developments coming to our business in the next couple of
years and we have decided to take a step back in 2007 in
order to plan most effectively for our long term future.
Hopefully in the meantime the AMA technical rules, which
currently force twin-cylinder bikes to have more standard
parts than in World Superbikes, thus making it really
difficult for Ducati to compete with the best four-cylinder
machines, will be revised for the future. We remain a very
strong and committed supporter of the AMA and, when our
bikes will be allowed to participate with a fair chance of
challenging for the final championship win, we expect to be
racing competitively again very soon in the AMA Superbike
series.
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Neil Hodgson finished third in Saturday's AMA
Superbike race at Virginia International Raceway,
the most recent round of the series. The Ducati 999
pilot eased a hard-earned gap on his rivals and ran
a strong race, finishing on the podium at the tight,
technical circuit. After fighting with the group
that contested fourth place, Neil's teammate Ben
Bostrom finished 11th on the day. |
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Parts Unlimited Ducati's Neil Hodgson and Ben
Bostrom faced a challenging day at Virginia
International Raceway during the second day of the
last round of the AMA Superbike series on Sunday,
with Hodgson crashing while charging to the front
and Ben Bostrom (above) finishing in the top six on
his Ducati 999 once again after a tough race-long
battle for position. |
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"I would personally like to thank the team, the riders and
our sponsors, particularly Parts Unlimited, for their role
in the resurgence of Ducati's success in the USA," added
Lock.
Paolo Ciabatti,
Ducati Corse Superbike Director added "We have enjoyed a
very good relationship with Terry Gregoricka and his team
and are very proud of the results achieved together with
them. It is always a difficult decision to end a successful
partnership, but we respect the reasons behind Ducati North
America's change of strategy. A special thanks to Terry,
Tom, Gabriele, Gary, Ben, Neil and all the boys at Parts
Unlimited Ducati Team for their hard and professional work.
We are sure that they will do their best to finish the
racing season on a high note".
Ducati North
America will remain committed to racing in the United States
through the continuation of a national and regional
Contingency program as well as various other racing support
programs.
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