TWO DUCATIS ON PODIUM AT PIKES PEAK

Two Ducatis on Podium at Pikes Peak. The Ducati Multistrada 1200 S takes first and third positions in its maiden off-road competition

Riders on Ducatis took first- and third-place finishes in 1205cc class of the 88th annual Pikes Peak International Hill Climb on June 27 in the mountains above Colorado Springs, Colorado.

June 30, 2010 – 02:00 PM – CycleNews.com

In its very first international competition, the Multistrada 1200 S took top honors in the 1200cc class in the hands of Pikes Peak veteran Greg Tracy. The Multistrada took a massive lead off the starting line, and rode into clouds to take the top podium position at 14,110 feet.

That was an exciting week, I’ve got to say,” Tracy said at the post race award ceremony.. “I want to thank Ducati for the opportunity they’ve given me – I was even pitted in front of Rhys Millen’s Unlimited Class ride – that was pretty cool! The Spider Grips Falkner-Livingston Multistrada was an amazing ride. Everyone did an awesome job and that motorcycle is crazy fast – it hit 137 mph at one point! The bike worked great on the dirt and the asphalt. When I was growing up, and all these factory teams would win races, I was sure they had these $100,000 engines and that was why they went so fast. I was wrong. This is my first year on a factory motorcycle and I’ll tell you that bike was box-stock. It had some carbon, and few tweaks, and that was it.

Greg’s teammate Alexander Smith, son of motorsports legend Malcolm Smith, also put in a formidable performance, putting another Duc on the podium. Alexander fought his way up the mountain, and, while battling for second had an crash in the last corner, which slowed him down but he was still able to remount and finish third.

I have to repeat everything Greg said about the bike- it was really perfect,” Smith said. “The race was good, and if you see the start-line footage you can tell how awesome the bike was working. It was a pretty uneventful race up until the last corner where I kind of laid it down. I got off real quick and remounted, which was still good enough for third and got two Ducati’s on the podium.