TRACK DAZE
Ducati Day with Elite Sportbike
Author: Jim Richardson
Admit it. You have Ducati envy.
You may not want to admit it. It may even be your secret shame, the kind of thing you wouldn’t dare confess to a priest or even your closest friend. But somewhere in the blackest recesses of your motorcycle-obsessed heart, you harbor a sinful lust for something exotic and temperamental and gloriously Italian. Preferably in red.  You console yourself with numbers. Your CBR100RR bests Bologna’s finest in every measurable respect at nearly half the price. But like the guy with the Z06 Corvette, you know that while it may meet or even exceed the performance numbers of many European Supercars and definitely has a better warranty, when it is compared to even a garden-variety Ferrari F430, it’s still just an overachieving Chevy. And “CBR1000RR” will never roll off the tongue like “Desmosedici.”
While bench racing in the pits or over beers at bike night, you might dismiss the Ducatisti (yes, the faithful have their own name – not so with the Big Four, you notice) as foppish prats with more money than sense and an obvious need to compensate for certain personal shortcomings. Deep inside though, you know that if you had the chance to actually get your hands on one of those Italian rockets, you’d do it in half a heartbeat. That’s exactly what we did during a recent track day at Talladega GP and not just one; we had a whole bevy of Italian  beauties to sample. It was worse than window-shopping in Amsterdam’s red light district. The opportunity for this indulgence came courtesy of Elite Sportbike. Always looking to add value for your track day dollar in these hard times, Elite managed to convince NPR Ducati of Atlanta to bring a semi-truck full of bikes to the track and put them into the hands of any registered rider free of charge. It was an opportunity too good to pass up. Ducati never does anything halfway. In addition to the enormous red semi, they set up a sheltered hospitality area with tables and chairs, munchies and free Ducati swag, including Ducati water and Ducati towels. Yes… the Ducatisti do not deign to drink from the same trough as the rest of us, nor will they wipe their sweat with a common rag.
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