Ducs De Dirt
DUCS DE DIRT
A short history of dirt-tracking Ducatis
YOU PROBABLY ALREADY KNOW ABOUT JOE Kopp and Ducati's first-ever GNC win in 2010 at Arizona's Yavapai Downs, but the Lloyd Brothers weren't the first to campaign a Ducati in a series that has been dominated by Harley-Davidson since the beginning of time. And we didn't have to travel far from CW HQ to dig up a little history-just right down the street to Ron Wood Racing (www.rotax.net).
Wood doesn't throw much away, and some of the cool stuff he's kept includes correspondence between himself and famed Ducati designer/engineer Dr. Fabio Taglioni. In the late Sixties, Wood traded Dr. T a few cacti (yes, desert plants) for what must have been among the first desmodromic heads imported to the U.S. so RW could perk up his 250cc single-cylinder Ducati dirt-tracker; apparently, Dr. T was quite the cacti aficionado. Soon after (but not too soon, since there were quite a few politi cal maneuvers required to get the desmo homologated), Wood's 250 was beating up 250 two-strokes on the West Coast. When Berliner began importing 750 GT Twins, there was nothing for Wood to do but pick up a motor from West Coast distnbutor ZDS and get to work, building his own frame with an adjustable steering head-a thing Wood claims to have invented, circa 1972. After another hard-fought documenta tional battle in `73, Wood's Ducati 750 saw AMA competition at the legendary Ascot Park in L.A. It was an excellent bike, Wood says, and fast, with a good power-to-weight ratio and weight distribution. The problem was persuading bigname riders to give up their trusty H-D XRs, Triumphs and Nortons.
RW’s Due had no dirt-track record (and no back-door cash), so not many riders were interested. Dave Aldana rode it several times anyway, finishing as high as fourth at Ascot. The limiting factor, recalls Aldana, was cornering clearance.
He went back to his trusty Nortons.
Meanwhile, in Memphis, Tennessee, local legend Eddie “The Wizard of Odds” Wilbanks built his own Due tracker, a bike campaigned on the AMA national trail from 1977 through 1980. Frame and swingarm were 4130 chrome-moly, tank aluminum, seat/tailsection fiberglass, triple-clamps magnesium. The shock was a steering damper from a Boeing aircraft, mounted below the motor (à la Wood’s) and working in extension. A remote reservoir on the left side of the bike contained a rubber diaphragm with 2500 psi of nitrogen on one side and shock fluid on the other, with compression and rebound damping adjusted by a tapered metering valve on the reservoir.
To solve the cornering-clearance problem, the 1974 750 GT motor’s left main case/sump had a big chunk removed from the bottom by cutting it at a 45-degree angle, with a flat aluminum plate TIG-welded in its place. Norris Cams were ground to Eddie’s specs, and Ron Wood helped dial in the Dell’Ortos.
Ridden first by Kenny McDonald (#26), then later by Steve Freeman (#68)—as well as Will Davis and Jay Springsteen’s brother, Ken—the bike was said to be competitive, just not with the XRs that won all the time....
After its retirement, the Duc was returned to Wilbanks in Memphis and stashed until good friend and former pro, Rusty McFarland of Clarksville, rescued it in 2004, complete with many spares. McFarland says the bike soon will be restored to its former glory. Wizard of Odds Wilbanks, meanwhile, is still hard at it, working on a dirt-tracker project for the Memphis Shades team, while Ron Wood’s latest is a BMW F800-powered flat-tracker.
MarkCernicky
