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Ducati's landmark Imola victory (by Ian Falloon, April 23, 2022) Today
marks what many regard as the true start of the Ducati
legend
Today marks the 50th
anniversary of the 1972 Imola 200 F750 race. Here is a
story about it. In Ducati folklore the
1972 Imola 200-mile race is a defining event. Before
Imola Ducati was a minor
Italian motorcycle manufacturer of esoteric four-stroke
singles with strange
valve gear, but after Imola they could take on the
worlds best and comprehensively
beat them. As Ducati’s great engineer Fabio Taglioni
said in 1974, “When we won
at Imola we won the market too.” It was the Imola
victory that ostensibly set
the stage for Ducati’s subsequent success. Imola would never have
happened if Ducati hadn’t just introduced their 750cc
V-Twin, and this only
came about through the 1969 company restructure. The
decade of the 1960s had
been difficult for Ducati. A series of dubious business
ventures nearly
strangled the company, and it would have sunk into
oblivion like many Italian
motorcycle manufacturers but for quasi government
bailout every year. During 1969 the
financial situation was so precarious that Ducati was
absorbed as part of the
EFIM (Ente Finanzaria per gli Industrie Metalmeccaniche)
group. At the end of
1969 new directors were appointed and Ducati Meccanica
was given a new lease of
life. Arnaldo Milvio was appointed Managing Director,
with Fredmano Spairani as
Coordinating Director, and they came to Ducati Meccanica
with a fresh approach.
Somehow, they found the resources to develop the new 750
Twin and instigate a
racing program. When the 750 was
conceived Fabio Taglioni was 49 years old. But the
father of desmodromic valve
gear for motorcycles was virtually unknown outside
Italy, and Ducati was still
a minor motorcycle manufacturer in world terms. Despite
the new management,
economic viability was essential, and Taglioni was
instructed to utilize as
much carryover technology from the existing range of
singles as possible. A V-twin made sense as
many features of the existing overhead camshaft singles
could be incorporated,
and Taglioni liked the idea of an engine that was little
wider than a single.
Taglioni chose a 90-degree V-twin layout, a carryover
from the V-four Apollo
seven years earlier. In one of several interviews I
asked Taglioni why he chose
the 90-degree cylinder layout. Taglioni replied, “The
90-degree L-twin provided
perfect primary balance. The engine can be very smooth,
with only some high
frequency secondary imbalance, and with a narrow
crankshaft there is virtually
no rocking couple. Also the twin can be narrow so the
engine can be kept low in
the frame while maintaining good ground clearance.” Along with the
development of the 750 Taglioni was also working on a
500cc Grand Prix twin.
With a special frame by Colin Seeley Bruno Spaggiari,
and later Phil Read,
campaigned this in mainly Italian events during 1970 and
1971. Although the
twin struggled against the MV triples much was learnt
that would help when it
came to the preparation of the Imola machines in 1972. A
750cc version was also
built, Mike Hailwood testing this at Silverstone in July
1971.He qualified
sixth fastest but decided not to ride it as he felt it
didn’t handle well
enough. With the announcement
of the Imola 200 “Daytona of Europe” to be held on April
23, 1972, Spairani
instructed Taglioni to mount a full-scale attempt at
winning the race. With
record prize money the Imola 200 was to be one of the
biggest race meetings
ever staged in Europe, and Imola was in Ducati’s back
yard, only a short skid
down the autostrada from Bologna. Spairani was
determined to hire a top rider
to head a line-up of six entries. He approached Jarno
Saarinen, Renzo Pasolini,
and Barry Sheene, Spairani visiting Sheene at the end of
February to secure the
deal. Although Sheene didn’t end up riding the Ducati
because they couldn’t
agree to the fee, he was still listed in the program
riding number 18. In early March
Taglioni and a group of leading Italian motorcycle
engineers traveled to
Daytona for the 200-mile Formula 750 race. Taglioni came
back optimistic. While
he found the speed of the 350 Yamahas devastating he
knew they weren’t eligible
to race at Imola. With the Yamaha out of the equation
Taglioni looked at the
rest of the competition. Mostly four-stroke, he reasoned
he could build a
better-balanced machine particularly suited to the Imola
circuit. He took ten
production 750 frames and began building a batch of
Formula 750 racers. It was
originally intended to build ten machines for six
riders, but according to
Taglioni in an interview in 1995 only six were
officially certified, with one
spare, for four riders. Right until the last
minute there was uncertainty as to who would ride the
works Ducatis. Ducati
hadn’t mounted such a factory racing effort since 1958
and all the top riders
were skeptical, none believing the Ducati twin would be
competitive. Already
signed were Bruno Spaggiari (on number 9), Ermanno
Giuliano (45), Vic Camp’s
rider Alan Dunscombe (39), and Gilberto Parlotti (24),
although he also didn’t
race. Needing another top
rider, British distributor Vic Camp suggested Spairani
approach Paul Smart,
then racing a Kawasaki H2-R for Team Hansen in America.
As there was no race in
America that weekend Paul’s wife Maggie accepted the
invitation in his absence
and Smart initially wasn’t too impressed. But Ducati was
paying good money and
after a Triumph ride fell through, Smart was soon down
in the program on Ducati
number 16, listed just ahead of his brother-in-law Barry
Sheene. The first Imola race
bike was completed in time for a Modena test by
Spaggiari on 6 April in
preparation for the first official test session on 19
April. Incredibly this
was only four days before the race and only five
machines were available,
Smart, Dunscombe, and Giuliano riding them for the first
time. Smart had only
just arrived from a race at Road Atlanta and was
initially unimpressed saying,
“It was so long it looked will it would never go around
a corner, but after
riding it I found it deceptively fast. Ducati had
obviously put a lot of effort
into it. It just felt slow revving, like it fired every
lamp post.” All Smart found to
criticize were the street Dunlop K81 “TT100” tires, and
extremely high
footpegs. After altering the footpegs Smart went out
again, breaking Agostini’s
lap record on street tires. Ducati was reluctant to
change the tires, fearing
racing tires wouldn’t last 200 miles but Smart persuaded
Taglioni to procure
some Dunlop KR83 and KR84 racing tires. Although the racing
desmodromic 750s looked surprisingly similar to the GT
and Sport, they were
highly developed factory racers sharing little with the
production 750. Phil
Schilling, Cycle magazine's managing editor at the time,
saw the bikes in the
Ducati race shop a few days before Imola. He wrote, "The
first thing I
saw, the thing that immediately dented my mind, was a
center stand. These factory racers
were all parked on center stands, stock center stands,
which were connected to
stock frames, which joined standard front forks and
near-stock swingarms. And
the production-line frames held embarrassingly
standard-looking engines. Sure,
there were special pieces: big Dell'Orto carburetors,
high-rise/low-rise
megaphones, dual discs in the front and single discs in
the rear, oil coolers,
hydraulic steering dampers, and racing shocks. But where
were all the really
trick parts? There weren't any." Schilling’s
observations were as accurate as could be made at the
time, but as with all
factory racing Ducatis there was more to the Imola
racers than met the eye. The
frames may have started as production Verlicchi items
(with center and side
stand mounts and frame numbers) but were considerably
modified to accept the
large fiberglass fuel tank and provide a suitable racing
riding position. The
fiberglass fuel tank included a large clear stripe as an
instant fuel gauge
because the machines would require a fuel stop during
the 200-mile race. The frames retained
the 29-degree steering head angle but were narrowed at
the base of the fuel
tank. The forks were machined leading axle Marzocchi,
providing around 100mm of
travel, with standard length (305mm) Ceriani shock
absorbers. Many 750 GT parts were
modified and adapted for the racer, such as the front
278mm Lockheed discs and
the machined production 38mm leading-axle Marzocchi
fork. Unique to the racer
was a rear 230mm disc, and 18-inch WM3 Borrani wheels
front and rear. As there
were only left side Lockheed calipers in stock for the
750 GT, three left-side
calipers were adapted for the racers. After the test at
Modena a hydraulic
steering damper was also installed, at least on Smart
and Spaggiari’s machines. The engines may have
ostensibly looked standard but these were also special
race motors. Taglioni
took early production 750 sand-cast engine cases rather
than the production
type used at that time. These were heavier, but Taglioni
considered them
stronger. Inside were re-routed oil galleys, welded-up
bosses for external oil
cooler lines, and cooling fins shaved to allow the
right-hand exhausts to fit
more snugly. The crankshaft
incorporated lighter solid billet con-rods with
strengthening ribs around both
the little, and big-ends, higher ratio straight-cut
primary gears with a
drilled clutch basket and a close ratio five-speed
gearbox. To reduce
reciprocating weight the flywheel and alternator were
removed and the pistons a
Mondial higher compression slipper type. Also setting the racer
apart were desmodromic cylinder heads, the ports
carefully welded up, enlarged
and finely polished to flow gases through the 42 and
38mm valves. The
desmodromic camshafts providing a claimed 13mm of inlet
valve lift, the engine
was safe to 9,200 rpm. The total loss points ignition
system featured twin
spark plugs per cylinder, the additional 10mm Lodge
spark plug allowing ignition
advance to be cut back to 34 degrees before top dead
center. After his experience
with electronic ignition failure on the 500 GP bikes
during 1971 Taglioni
wasn’t prepared to risk it at Imola. Taglioni was also
worried about heat build
up and installed an oil cooler in the front of the
fairing cooling oil to the
cylinder heads, also mounting the ignition condensers on
the front frame
down-tubes, away from the heat of the engine. With a pair of the new
generation Dell’Orto PHM 40mm concentric carburetors
without chokes, Taglioni
claimed the power was 86 horsepower at 9200rpm, but the
broad spread providing
with 64 horsepower at only 6000rpm. In many respects the
Imola machines were designed for one race only. At that
time Imola was a very
fast old style circuit around the hills at the back of
the old township,
primarily on closed-off public roads. As there was only
one tight right hand
corner (the Aqua Minerale), the kickstart and kickstart
shaft were removed and
a close fitting exhaust pipe installed on the right. The left pipe was
high-rise and as Imola was a high speed circuit the long
60-inch wheelbase
wasn’t considered detrimental. The dry weight was 292
pounds, and despite the
rather non-aerodynamic fairing they were reputed to pull
the tallest available
gearing, achieving around 169mph at the bottom of the
hill and through the full
throttle Tamburello corner. Seven bikes were taken
to Imola, in a specially constructed glass-sided
transporter, (2 #16, 2 #9, 2
#39, and #45) with Spaggiari setting the fastest time in
practice on the
Friday, and along with Smart was fastest again on the
Saturday. Ducati went
into the race full of confidence, with Spairani
particularly convinced the
Ducatis would win. Before the race he told Smart and
Spaggiari they were going
to be first and second, and they were to share the prize
money. They were not
to dice for the lead until the final five laps, and if
Smart won he would keep
the bike. On race day for the
“200 Miglia Shell di Imola” at 3.1 mile Autodromo “Dino
Ferrari” Imola, 70,000
spectators crammed in to see who would win the total
prize money of Lire
35.000.000, at that time a world-record. The entry list
comprised one of the
most competitive fields ever in F750. Along with four
factory Ducatis, MV
Agusta provided machines for Giacomo Agostini and
Alberto Pagani, and Moto
Guzzi had official entries for Guido Mandracci and Jack
Findlay. From England
were the factory John Player Nortons of Phil Read, Peter
Williams, and Tony
Rutter, the BSA of John Cooper, and the Triumphs of Ray
Pickrell and Tony
Jeffries. And completing an
impressive array of factory machinery were the 750
Hondas of Bill Smith, John
Williams, Silvio Grassetti, and Luigi Anelli, and the
BMWs of Helmut Dahne and
Hans-Otto Butenuth. There were also strong contenders in
Daytona-winner Don
Emde, Walter Villa, Ron Grant, and the Kawasakis of
Cliff Carr and Dave
Simmonds. And in addition to the factory teams and many
of the world’s top
riders was an array of more than 70 journalists from
around the world, a number
more appropriate for an auto rather than motorcycle
event. The winner was going
to be assured top publicity. On race day the two
silver Ducatis followed Agostini for four laps before
Smart took the lead.
Although he lost first gear early in the race Smart
wasn’t handicapped and
comfortably held first for most of the race. Agostini
retired on lap 41 and
Spaggiari then overtook Smart on lap 56. The two Ducatis
circulated together,
even pitting for fuel simultaneously. Smart regained the
lead two laps from the
end after Spaggiari ran wide at the Aqua Minerale. Both very low on fuel
and misfiring, Smart crossed the line four seconds ahead
of Spaggiari who was
now only running on one cylinder. Smart’s race average
was 97.8mph and he
shared the fastest lap of 100.1mph with Spaggiari and
Agostini. It was Smart’s
29th birthday and it was arguably the most significant
victory in his career.
It was certainly a pivotal victory in the history of
Ducati. They had proven to
the world their desmodromic 750 could take on all comers
and win.
------------------------------------------------- Produced by AllMoto abn 61 400 694 722 |
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