THE DUCATI DESERTX RALLY GOES RACING

Damn, they really mean it! That was our first thought at the Ducati unveil, last night, in Riverside. To put things in context, Ducati launched last winter the Desert X Rally in Morrocco. We tried it and were impressed by the quality of the suspension, especially the front. But we never envisioned anybody going full race mode with this bike and thought that all these top-of-the-line components were more of a marketing trick than anything. But one should never underestimate the Italians when it comes to racing. They made their point crystal clear last night, in front of a few selected media including Upshift: Phil Read, the Marketing Director of Ducati, unveiled a racing version of the Desert X Rally, that will compete this Sunday in the Norra Mexican 1000 rally. Phil Read explains how the project came to life: “ We’re in America, right? So if we need to do something, it has to be big, and it has to be consistent with the American off-road culture. So there’s not much of a choice, it has to be related to desert racing! We had a chat about the Desert X capabilities with Alexander Smith, and I later explained the project to Claudio Domenicali, the CEO of Ducati. It took a few months but ultimately, we decided to do it. We are going in full race mode, we will have fun doing it, and we will demonstrate the quality of our bike the hard way”. To make things even more interesting, Ducati will be racing with minimum preparation on their Desert X Rally: “All the components you see on this bikes can be purchased via our partners. The rally tower, the carbon fiber tank, the navigation tools, everything is available on Aurora’s website. As for the engine and the suspensions, we run stock components.” You read it right, Ducati goes to war with a stock engine and stock suspensions, whereas most brands would use at least A-specs factory suspensions, retuned engines, and modified frames… That says a lot about Ducati’s confidence in its bike, and it’s a smart marketing move.