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I had the opportunity to ride the racetrack at Daytona International Speedway in 1986 the day after the Daytona Speed week ended. We were prepping to release the new Honda VFR750 Interceptor to the public and what better way to do so than by breaking the world endurance speed records that Cycle World Magazine had set the prior year with the Suzuki GSXR 750. After searching for a track to do this on we had Honda rent Daytona for us to test on and see if it would be suitable for setting world records. We decided to ride the full Tri Oval which is the same track that NASCAR uses. Back in those days there was no chicane on the back straight and we did not use the infield course. The Honda VFR750 was capable of 160 miles per hour so we definitely had a speed advantage over the Suzuki GSXR750. The real deciding factor on whether we could break the records was tire wear and how many tire changes we would have to perform in 24 hours.

Having never raced on banking like Daytona’s I was very tentative on how it would be. I talked to my friend and AMA Superbike racer Mike Spencer who worked in the Product Research department at Honda with me and also rode with us in testing. He told me don’t use your brakes, just hold the throttle wide open, and drive into the corner! Of course that freaked me out since as a road racer I was used to setting up for a corner using my braking marker, braking, and positioning my body on the bike to go through the corner at the maximum speed I could.

So the bike was prepped, and I rode out onto the famous Daytona Speedway for my first session. I headed out of the pits and by the time I started into the south turn I was well over 100 mph. By the time I was on the back straight I was at top speed. At this point, the track was straight out ahead of me, but way out I started to see what looked like a black line leading off to the left. Keep in mind I’m going over 155 mph now and things are happening fast. As I got closer to that black line, which was actually the track, it now looked like a black wall that led off to what looked like a 90º left turn.

Daytona is famous for its steep banking and, as Mike had told me, you don’t ride banking like a normal corner. So here I am going into what looked like a black wall and every bit of common sense, fear, and everything I knew told me to back off the throttle. I thought to myself, “nope, not me, I’m a road racer,” and I rode right into the banking at top speed. The compression on the bike caused by the banking bottomed out the suspension and smashed my upper body to the tank. My helmet was fully sideways hard against the upper triple clamp. I couldn’t see anything so I pushed as hard as I could on the handlebars to sit up. And to my surprise I was in a perfect line in the corner on the banking! Wow! Every lap after that was easier but that first lap was a doozy!

The angle of the banking wasn’t the only issue we faced. There were uneven patches on the banking and some sections were quite a bit lower than others. So we would be flying along and all of a sudden, the handlebars would start to fall away from us. Then in an instant we were slammed against the tank extremely hard. In fact, we were hitting the tank so hard it was bruising our sternums that our pit crew had to duct tape thick padding onto the top of the tank to help protect us from the beating.

Then there were the tire issues. Our team leader, “Dangerous Dirk” Vandenberg, had a tire issue at top speed and almost lost it. The surface of the Daytona Speedway was so rough it was chewing up our tires in excess! It turned out that there was no way we could attempt to set records at Daytona but that’s what testing was for. So we were off to try other tracks. Eventually we ran the attempt at the UniRoyal Tire Test Facility in Laredo, Texas and broke the records set by the GSXR750. The Texas track was a four lane, banked, 5 mile perfect circle. In fact, it just happened to be the same track that Cycle World had set the Suzuki records on the year before.

Cyndy asked me yesterday if it had occurred to me to ride the first lap at 90 instead of 155 and work my way up to maximum speed. Of course it didn’t! Yet another example of how fearless, aka, clueless I was when I was young, but the memories are absolutely priceless!

Ducati Celebrates Its 2024 Racing Efforts

What will 2025 look like?

Four Ducatis on top of the world. If there was a photo to frame and make the 2024 season immortal, this would be the postcard chosen by Ducati Corse General Manager Gigi Dall’Igna. At the Campioni in Festa, Ducati celebrated its stellar MotoGP season: 19 victories out of 20 GPs, 16 pole positions, 53 podium finishes, 14 podiums with a 1-2-3 sweep, and 66 consecutive races with a red bike in the top three. On December 3, Ducati honored the new world champion, Jorge Martín, and officially welcomed Marc Márquezinto the Ducati factory family.

For a few hours, the past, present, and future coexisted in a festive atmosphere—a crowd of Ducatisti and Borgo Panigale employees gathered to share in the success and shed a few emotional tears.

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