George Papadakis is an artist-illustrator who has been commissioned to paint or whose artwork is currently a part of the art collections of numerous NFL Players.  George recently decided to include Ducati amongst his list of subjects and this rendition of the all new Ducati 1199 Panigale S Tricolore was the result.

George’s artwork is classified as two dimensional mixed media art.  He completed the Ducati 1199 Panigale S Tricolore for the President of Redline Performance Motorsports.  To show it was no one hit wonder he also completed the 1969 Ducati 450 Desmo Mark 3.

He may have started with football but we think he has got the eye for Ducati now.  What do you think?  You can checkout some more of George’s work on his Facebook page.

About George Papadakis

George Papadakis is an artist-illustrator who has been commissioned to paint or whose artwork is currently a part of the art collections of numerous NFL Players as well as entertainers such as comedian Jeff Foxworthy. His mixed media art has graced the national and regional magazine covers of Athlon Sports Magazine with paintings of Tiger Woods, Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal. George has recently been commissioned to illustrate the cutting edge golf book entitled “Thirty Degree Golf” authored by Dr. Ned Armstrong.

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Having encountered at least one day of rain during every winter test and in every race so far except for Qatar, the two Ducati Team riders hope for a weekend with stable weather conditions at Le Mans as they continue working on the setup of the GP12.

Friday will find Valentino Rossi back on the track where he finished on the podium last year, and with the Portuguese post-race test having been cancelled due to bad weather, he’ll start with the settings he used at Estoril race, with the goal of improving upon his seventh-place finish there.

Nicky Hayden also hopes to do better than in Portugal, and although he doesn’t count the French circuit among his favourites, he thinks some of its characteristics could be a good match for his Ducati.

VALENTINO ROSSI, Ducati Team
“It’s a shame that we lost the post-race test in Portugal because we would have continued our development work, and as we had very recent data from the race, we could have made some interesting comparisons. Still, this won’t influence us much from a technical point of view at Le Mans, as any updates would have arrived later anyway. In France, we’ll prepare for the race by working on the bike like we did at Estoril, starting from the base setup that we’re now a bit more familiar with and trying to continue with the settings one step at a time, in such a way that we reach Sunday at the maximum of our current potential. Le Mans is another place where the weather can be challenging, particularly at this time of year, but it’s also the track where I had my best result with the Ducati last year. We’ll see how it goes, but we’d like to do a little better than we did in Portugal.”

NICKY HAYDEN, Ducati Team
“I certainly wouldn’t say Le Mans is my favourite track on the calendar, but there are some things that I like about it. Sometimes it lacks grip somewhat, which I don’t like so much. On the other hand, it has a fair amount of hard braking, and I think some of those parts should suit our bike well. It will also be interesting to be at a different type of track compared to what we’ve seen so far this year. It’s a shame we didn’t get to test in Portugal because it certainly would have been nice to try a few things, but we’ll get to France, see what kind of weather we get, and try to get a good result.”

VITTORIANO GUARESCHI, Team Manager
“Le Mans is a bit strange, a classic stop-and-go track that’s very different from Estoril. This will give us an opportunity to check the work that we’re doing on the GP12’s setup: Valentino used it all weekend at the last GP, so we’ll continue like that in an effort to also make progress at Le Mans, where he had a really nice race last year. Though this isn’t one of Nicky’s preferred circuits, he’ll also use the experience he has gathered while using this setup on the GP12 since the start of the championship.”

LE MANS CIRCUIT RECORDS
Circuit Record: Dani Pedrosa (Honda – 2011), 1:33.617 – 160.932 Km/h (99.999 mph)
Best Pole: Dani Pedrosa (Honda – 2008), 1:32.647 – 162.617 Km/h (101.045 mph)
Circuit Length: 4.185 km
MotoGP Race 2012: 28 laps (117.180 km)
MotoGP Schedule 2012: 2 p.m. local time

PODIUM 2011: 1st Casey Stoner, 2nd Andrea Dovizioso, 3rd Valentino Rossi
POLE 2011: Casey Stoner (Honda), 1:33.153 – 161.733 Km/h (100.496 mph)

DUCATI TEAM’S BEST RESULTS AT LE MANS
2011: 3rd (Rossi)
2010: 4th (Hayden)
2009: 5th (Stoner)
2008: 15th (Melandri)
2007: 3rd (Stoner)
2006: 2nd (Capirossi)
2005: 7th (Capirossi)
2004: 8th (Bayliss)
2003: DNF

Rossi’s MotoGP/500cc track record at Le Mans
2011: Grid, 9th; Race, 3rd
2010: Grid, 1st; Race, 2nd
2009: Grid, 4th; Race, 16th
2008: Grid, 4th; Race, 1st
2007: Grid, 4th; Race, 6th
2006: Grid, 7th; Race, DNF
2005: Grid, 1st; Race, 1st
2004: Grid, 4th; Race, 4th
2003: Grid, 1st; Race, 2nd
2002: Grid, 1st; Race, 1st
2001: Grid, 3rd; Race, 3rd
2000: Grid, 10th; Race, 3rd

Hayden’s MotoGP track record Le Mans
2011: Grid, 10th; Race, 7th
2010: Grid, 5th; Race, 4th
2009: Grid, 13th; Race, 12th
2008: Grid, 6th; Race, 8th
2007: Grid, 7th; Race, DNF
2006: Grid, 10th; Race, 5th
2005: Grid, 5th; Race, 6th
2004: Grid, 7th; Race, 11th
2003: Grid, 13th; Race, 12th

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Source: Ducati Corse

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Okay, so there aren’t actually 20 movies about Ducati but the Bologna bullets have sure had more than their fair share of product placement in Hollywood productions.  In 2010 the discontinued Ducati SportClassic made a big splash for Ducati in Tron Legacy but there are at least 19 more movies where a Ducati graces the big screen.

In 2011 Ducati came second only to Apple in Product Placement but Ducatis have been in movies for quite awhile including some classics such as ‘Taxi’ (the French one not the Scorsese one) where a Ducati 916SP starred but was somehow blown off by a Peugeot and ‘Inception’ where Leonardo DiCaprio rides a Ducati Streetfighter S in the rain (thank goodness for the standard traction control).

Tom Cruise sort of rode a Ducati Hypermotard in Knight and Day which became an Aprilia SXV550 with a dummy Cameron Diaz for a pillion during one of the stunts.  The guys at Complex Rides have put together a pretty good list of Ducatis in the movies but there are a couple of omissions we can think off.  One is the Ducati Hypermotard based Moto Terminator in Terminator Salvation and the other is the Ducati 848 in ‘I am Number 4′.

Check out the 20 Best Ducatis in the Movies and let us know if you know of any more that would have made your personal list. One of our all-time favorite bike movies is the 1974 Australian production ‘Stone’ which apart from a biker gang on Kawasaki Z1′s and a cop on a Norton Commando has a bit part for a Ducati 750 GT.

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Two recent video reviews of the Ducati 1199 Panigale against its natural European sports bike competitors, the Aprilia RSV4 and BMW S1000RR, have concluded that whilst the newest Ducati Superbike is much faster than the 1198 it still can’t match the outright lunge of the Bavarian Bruiser that won its first ever World Superbike race last weekend.

Both MCN and Motorcycle.com have posted teaser videos ahead of their full reviews.  Rather predictably the BMW suffers for being more Japanese with its inline 4 engine, the Aprilia is praised for its V4 soundtrack and the new Ducati is still a Ducati but now one that needs to be revved to get the most out of it.

The surprise given the headline 195hp claim is that both reviews note the BMW S1000RR is still faster than the Ducati 1199 Panigale S whilst being more affordable.  It would appear that the great leap forward in power that has been seen with the 1199 over the 1198, impressive as it is, has now made the Ducati simply competitive in the power stakes.  Still I know which bike I’d prefer to own.

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A collection of 100 significant Ducati motorcycles were put up for auction over the weekend in Monaco.  Most of the bikes came from the Saltarelli collection but Ducati Corse through in a few bikes they had lying around.  One of them just happened to be the last Ducati to win a MotoGP race.

Remember when the red bikes ran at the front in MotoGP?  If you’re new to MotoGP you might be excused for not remembering since it is coming up for 2 years since Casey Stoner took victory at Phillip Island in 2010.

That was the last time a Ducati won a MotoGP race and that very machine, the Ducati Desmosedici GP10 CS1 was sold for auction over the weekend for £172,430 ($277,129) according to MotoGP commentator Toby Moody.  On this site I can now exclusively reveal that Ducati News Today bought it to use for track days.  Sorry that last bit might have been a dream.

Our favorite would have been the factory Ducati 888 racer as ridden by Ducati Hero Giancarlo Falappa in full Team Police livery and signed by the Lion of Jesi himself.

There were many other delicious Ducatis available for sale too.  If you didn’t bid you can still enjoy the experience by viewing and downloading the awesome PDF catalogue which is free and weighs in at 192 pages.

Thanks to @motorbikenewsuk for the heads up

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The fifth round of the World Superbike Championship at Donington saw some of the best racing in the series since it began 25 years ago at the same UK circuit.  Both races were exciting to watch with some history being made and the results far from a forgone conclusion right up until the very end of the racing.

Sunday proved to be a very unfortunate race day for Althea Racing’s Carlos Checa and Davide Giugliano at the Donington Park circuit. In race 1 the pair finished in sixth (Carlos) and seventh (Davide) position while in the second race both crashed out at the first corner.

Race 1

Both Carlos and Davide were caught up in traffic at the first corner, finding themselves in eighth and tenth position respectively at the end of the first lap. The Althea men got past first Davies, then Camier and while Carlos gave chase to Rea ahead of him, his team-mate Davide battled it out with Guintoli.

From mid-race on, Checa began to close the gap between himself and Rea, passing him on the fifteenth lap but Rea soon got back in front and increased his pace in the final stages, meaning that Carlos had to be satisfied with final sixth position. Giugliano, who maintained a strong pace right to the end, followed Checa across the line to close seventh, ahead of Guintoli.

The big news from race one however had nothing to do with Ducati as BMW rider Marco Melandri gave the German manufacturer their first ever World Superbike race victory with his team-mate Leon Haslam making it a 1-2.  BMW been racing in the series since 2009.

Race 2

The race came to a premature end for both Althea men when, caught in traffic at the first corner, both found themselves on the ground as a result of contact between bikes. Carlos was unfortunately unable to continue while Davide returned to the track; after a few laps, and a pit stop, he too retired from the race.

At the end of this fifth round of the championship, current champion Checa now lies in fourth position with 105.5 points behind Rea with 108, Sykes with 123.5 and Biaggi with 128.5. Giugliano moves up to ninth with 50 points. Ducati continues to lead the manufacturer’s championship with 161.5 points, to Aprilia’s 139.

Carlos Checa: “After the result of race 1, which wasn’t bad, I thought I’d be able to do more in the second. I tried to start strong and found a good position but when I got to the apex I saw Laverty in front of me and he braked suddenly, maybe there was a rider in front of him I don’t know. I did everything I could to brake, to stop the bike, but there were riders all around me and I couldn’t avoid a fall. My leg is a bit sore and a little swollen but I’m ok. I need a couple of days to get over this result and then I’ll start preparing for Miller.”

Davide Giugliano: “It’s a shame because the day had started out fairly positively. We had seen in race 1 that we had a strong pace and we were certain that we could do better in the second. I started race 2 convinced that I could be up there with the top four but unfortunately what happened at the first corner penalized me too. We have however demonstrated that we have good pace and now we go on to America, a track that I don’t know, to see what we can do there.”

The racing was a knock out drag down affair for the front 4 or 5 riders in each race and is well worth watching.  Check out the race highlights below.

RESULTS:

Race 1 – 1. Melandri (BMW); 2. Haslam (BMW); 3. Sykes (Kawasaki).

Race 2 – 1. Rea (Honda); 2. Biaggi (Aprilia); 3. Sykes (Kawasaki)

CLASSIFICATION:

Riders – 1. Biaggi (Aprilia) 128.5; 2. Sykes (Kawasaki) 123.5; 3. Rea (Honda) 108; 4. Checa (Ducati) 105.5; 5. Melandri (BMW) 97.5; 6. Haslam (BMW) 89; 7. Guintoli (Ducati) 85; 8. Laverty (Aprilia) 65; 9. Giugliano (Ducati) 50; 10. Smrz (Ducati) 44.5;.

Manufacturers – Ducati 161.5; Aprilia 139; BMW 131; Kawasaki 129.5; Honda 112; Suzuki 40.5

Source: Edited Althea Racing Release

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Althea Racing’s Carlos Checa and Davide Giugliano faced a more difficult afternoon today at the Donington Park circuit. At the end of a hard-fought Superpole session, Checa qualified in ninth position for tomorrow’s Superbike races, Giugliano thirteenth. 

The Althea riders faced sunny but still very cold conditions (10 ̊C air temperature, 18 ̊C track) for the second qualifying session this morning. Davide Giugliano continued to make good progress, consistently lowering his times and recording several laps in under 1m30. His best lap of this morning’s sessions was sixth tenths quicker than his fastest set yesterday and thanks to this time he closed in eleventh position, easily qualifying for this afternoon’s Superpole.

Carlos Checa got on with the work started yesterday, concentrating together with his team on the setting of his Ducati 1198. In the final minutes of the session he recorded a very fast lap (1m28.9) which positioned him third. Only the top three riders – Checa, Sykes and Smrz – lapped in under 1m29.

Superpole 1 – the first phase of the Superpole went well for Carlos. He immediately made a fast lap and the time recorded – 1m28.6 – positioned him third. With this time there was no need to return to the track and he closed the session in fifth position. Davide had difficulty making a clean lap and as a result his fastest time positioned him thirteenth, just a tenth of a second from Badovini, in twelfth.

Superpole 2 – Checa went out first on a qualifier but, seeing that he needed to make a second exit, he went back on track but this time on race rubber. The times recorded was not as low as the Spaniard had hoped for and he closed in ninth place, a fraction of a second from Camier, eighth.

Carlos Checa: “We had tried the qualifying tyre at the start of the second Superpole phase but when I saw that I needed to go out again, I opted for the race tyre. I thought I’d be able to make a low 1m28. I gave it all I had but it seemed like I didn’t have the same level of grip that I had had in the morning, and I couldn’t do quite enough. Anyway, it went like that and tomorrow I’ll need to make a really strong start.”

Davide Giugliano: “In the morning things were going ok but then in Superpole, with the race tyre, I wasn’t able to put together a lap like I had been doing in the morning. Perhaps I was a little on edge, I don’t know, but it’s a shame because I missed out on phase two by just a tenth of a second. We need to make a strong start tomorrow, which won’t be easy from the fourth row but I’ll do my best.”

Liberty Racing compatriots Sylvain Guintoli and Jakub Smrz faired somewhat better and will start on the second row in 5th and 8th respectively.

TIMES (Superpole): 1. Sykes (Kawasaki) 1’27.7; 2. Haslam (BMW) 1’27.8; 3. Melandri (BMW) 1’28.1; 4. Biaggi (Aprilia) 1’28.3; 5. Guintoli (Ducati) 1’28.4; 6. Rea (Honda) 1’28.5; 7. Camier (Suzuki) 1’28.5; 8. Smrz (Ducati) 1’28.7; 9. Checa (Ducati) 1’28.4…. 13. Giugliano (Ducati) 1’29.2

Source: Edited Althea Racing Release

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The Althea Racing team and riders Carlos Checa and Davide Giugliano were more than satisfied with the results of today’s first SBK qualifying session at the Donington Park track. Carlos Checa closed the session in third position with Davide Giugliano in ninth.

In cool temperatures (12 ̊C air, 20 ̊C track) and under cloudy skies, Carlos and Davide were on track for this morning’s free practice sessions. In the first part of the session, Checa was at the top of the timesheets; the Althea rider continued to improve on his lap times until he crashed ten minutes from the end of the session.

He returned to the garage where his technicians immediately set to work to repair the damaged Ducati 1198. His best lap time, a 1m31.1, positioned him eleventh. Giugliano, who hasn’t raced at Donington since 2009, used the first session to familiarize himself with the track once more.

He made consistent progress throughout the 45-minute session, recording a best time of 1m32.0 in the final minutes and closing in fourteenth position. The Althea men returned to the track later in the day for the first of two qualifying sessions. Thanks to a fast lap made in the opening stages Checa was almost immediately up in third place, a position that he held for most of the session.

In the final minutes he made another step, lowering his best time by a further four tenths of a second and recording a 1m29.6 followed by a 1m29.5 on the very next lap. Giugliano made significant improvement in terms of lap times in the afternoon session, recording his best time in the final minutes (1m29.9) and thus lowering his morning’s time by over two seconds. Thanks to this time Davide closed in ninth position.

Carlos Checa: “For some reason I was having more difficulty turning the bike in certain sections of the track today compared to last year. This morning I crashed, which came out of nowhere really, but luckily I am fine and we could carry on, and tomorrow we’ll continue with the planned work. We’ll need to make some changes to see if we can resolve the turning issue but in the meantime I’ll say that I’m feeling pretty confident.”

Davide Giugliano: “It’s always great to ride here at Donington and I’m pretty happy with this afternoon’s result. In the morning I took things a little easy, to improve feeling with the track and the bike. Then in the afternoon I was able to do well. Unfortunately on the fast lap one of the wildcard riders caused me to lose a couple of tenths but I’m nevertheless fairly satisfied, though we of course have room to improve further tomorrow.”

TIMES (Qualifying): 1. Smrz (Ducati) 1’29.3; 2. Rea (Honda) 1’29.3; 3. Checa (Ducati) 1’29.5; 4. Haslam (BMW) 1’29.6; 5. Camier (Suzuki) 1’29.6; 6. Sykes (Kawasaki) 1’29.7; 7. Fabrizio (BMW) 1’29.9; 8. Biaggi (Aprilia) 1’29.9; 9. Giugliano (Ducati) 1’29.9; 10. Badovini 1’29.9

Source: Althea Racing

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The six engine limit and the need to test proposed changes will mean that Ducati riders Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden will have to wait until the US MotoGP at Laguna Seca in July to race with a new engine package that promises to improve driveability off the turns.

Both factory riders have complained that the power delivery of the Ducati GP12 is too aggressive hurting their drive off of turns despite the fact that the Ducati is the fastest bike on the track in a straight line.

The current engine is presumed to be 1,000cc at the limit but at least one commentator believes the engine could be as small as 930cc. Ducati Desmosedici father Filippo Prezioso himself talked of a 930cc engine as early as 2010.

“Whether those parts include a new crankshaft to take the bike out to 1000cc, rather than the 930cc it currently almost certainly is, given that it has been clocked revving to around 17,500 rpm, remains to be seen.”

link: Motomatters.com

After the washout of the Estoril test, the Ducati team will test a Mugello in May, June and July to get the revised engine package ready for Laguna Seca.

“We are working in two different areas. One is to improve engine driveability. We have a lot of steps planned. We think that we will end up supplying a complete package for the Laguna race. We believe that the engine driveability will help when you are at full lean and you open the throttle,” said Preziosi.

Ducati continues to go with their rider feedback on the correct direction to improve the Ducati GP12.  The engine already produces an abundance of low rpm torque that is more than the chassis can handle.

“So for that reason there is a question mark that only our riders can answer – if it makes sense to add more torque and less top power, even with this kind of engine? So we are very interested to test this engine and have a final answer to this question.”

Source: Autosport.com

Source: Edited Ducati Corse Release

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You probably have visited Ducati’s official Web site to drool over the latest models, configure a bike just how you like it or check out some apparel or accessory item.  Aside from the obvious stuff though, there are some hidden gems to be found if you know where to look.  Here’s five.

Find your local Ducati Club

Owning a Ducati is a special experience made even better when you share it with other like minded addicts enthusiasts. The find your Ducati Club tool, will get you hooked up in no time no matter where you are in the world.

Find your local Dealer

Moving to a new city, state or country?  You can easily find your nearest dealer(s) with the Ducati Dealer Locator.

Get the specs on older Ducati Models

Own an older Ducati or thinking of buying one?  If its a 2001 model or later you’re in luck.  The Ducati Model Year Archive provides basic technical info and gallery shots of every model produced since 2001.

Get an Owners manual or Spare Parts Catalog

Everyone should have an owners manual for their bike and a spare parts catalog too if you need to fix it up (or ahem, repair it following a horizontal incident).  If you don’t have yours, download a copy from the Ducati Web site.  Manuals and parts catalogs are available for every model since 2001 and the best thing is you can’t get dirty thumb prints on an electronic manual.

Listen to how a Ducati Sounds

One of the great things about a Ducati is how they sound.  If you are thinking of buying a Diavel, Hypermotard, Monster, Multistrada you can hear what it sound like on Desmo notes.  Ringtones are available for download if you sign up for free on ducati.com.

You can found all these and other great links to explore on our Ducati News Today Links page.

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