I raced a 1000 DS for almost 10 years. This was the most economical Ducati I ever owned. The chassis was pretty stock, I bought the longer end for the factory Ohlnis shock, so I could jack up the ride height in the rear. Springs and a valve kit up front. Slip ons. That bike was great. Eventually I built the motor, if you're going that route, the 1100 Hyper engine is the best. It has the top pickup and lighter timing gears, you can get more hp out of it I sold it to a CCS guy in NJ, he still races it to this day. Also I believe the 1000 DS is legal in Superstock trim in the WERA LW classes.
I always thought they called them Ducatista because they ride to the coffee shop to hangout with the Barista?
Since we're discussing Ducatis, any thoughts on the 749? Looks like V8 is where it fits but no idea how competitive is would even be there.
A 749R would arguably be competitive in MW these days but yeah . . . no person with any semblance of sanity would race that.
I used to have one of them Suzuki slingshot crotch rockets. Had to sell it after my third ticket for doing 220 mph in a 55.
I have a 749S with a lot of the R bits on it with a salvage title that I am thinking of bringing out to play next year. Still trying to decide if I am crazy for considering it. I think the salvage title kills a lot of the collector value, even though it is in really good shape. Would just need some new fairings and a mirror to restore it back to its original glory.
As others have mentioned, the 848 can still be very competitive in C classes. If you go that route and plan on racing a full season, it would be smart to swap the main bearings as others have mentioned. With that being said, I think the 899/959 is one of the easiest bikes to ride on the track. I have thousands of track miles on them and have never had an issue. We've built and set up dozens of them for track day guys and club racers and all have pretty much been bullet proof. When we pulled Dylan Tent's motor apart after 2 full seasons of racing and track days and overall treating the bike like a filthy whore, the bearings were in need of replacement as anticipated. I think any race motor would look the same after 3,500 miles of abuse. I would look for a 959 over the 899. If you do your own oil changes and general maintenance, I don't think cost of ownership of a 959 track bike is any higher than a full race spec R6 or 675, etc.
+1 I try to do all the minor maintenance myself. Even after a big high side, I was able to source the parts needed to rebuild the bike and probably fixed it for less than $700 (cracked lower triple, some body work, master cylinder and clip ons). I did spend a good $2k on suspension tuning and just a check up on the engine over the winter, but that’s not hateful considering that I haven’t done that since owning the bike for over 10k miles.
Does anyone with some knowledge know how to rate the new V2 Panigale? Is it worth 4-5k more than a 959, given the electronics, swing arm? The one thing is that the only exhaust that looks available for it is the Akra system that costs 5k by itself. Looking for an eventual HWT/B bike if there is still a HWT class.
I sold my 848 and got a 1299 cause the 848 was waayyy outgunned at some tracks in HWT and I’m not good enough to make up the difference. It was great in C and B classes though. Had a few photo finishes against 750s trying to our run each other from the last turn to the finish line.