A Piece of Ducati Racing History For Sale
Davide Tardozzi is known mostly as the former Ducati team manager who defected to BMW at the end of last year, but he was also an accomplished racer in his own right. His 1991 European Superbike Championship winning factory Ducati 888 (pictured) is will shortly be for sale.
Tardozzi nearly won the inaugural World Superbike Championship in 1988 for Bimota with the fuel injected, Yamaha FZ750 powered YB4. A poor showing in the final two rounds of the series saw the title go to flamboyant American, Fred Merkel on a Honda RC30.
In Australia, none of the Europeans were particularly competitive against the domestic Australian riders (who included a young Michael Doohan) but Merkel was the best of the full timers. The final round was in New Zealand and Tardozzi who was still leading the title chase crashed on the damp circuit during the warm-up lap. The Bimota team management frantically tried to get team mate Stephane Mertens to give up his machine to Tardozzi (they only had one bike each) but Mertens knew he wasn’t re-signed for 1989 so ignored the request.
Merkel did the business and was crowned champion. Some small consolation for Tardozzi was his victory in the Italian championship. Ironically, Ducati could well have taken the title that year if they had only contested the final two rounds. Instead they decided to focus their resources on improving the bike for 1989.
Tardozzi did however win the European Superbike Championship on this very 1991 factory Ducati 851 Superbike. This very bike will shortly be for sale if you are interested in owning your piece of Ducati history.
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