Ducati Wins It's 1st U.S. Superbike Race in 4 Years at Road America...

...and winning it for Ducati was none other then Mr. Larry Pegram, who had last

won a U.S. Superbike round back in '99 at Willow Springs Raceway in the sunny

state of California.

Larry, who also won his last--and his first--Superbike race on a Ducati, did so

while riding a Fast By Ferraci-prepped Duc at the time. According to reports today

from the beautiful Road America circuit, Larry mananged to best not only a VERY solid

field of competitors in Aaron Yates, Ben Bostrom and Neil Hodgson--just to name a few--

but also BESTED the King of U.S./AMA Superbikes, yes, ladies and gentleman, Mr. Mat

Mladin, the 6-Time Superbike Champ. And per those reports, did so in a heads up race that

went to the wire with Larry pulling out the win over Mad Mat by just over .3 seconds!

Now, to win a Superbike race in itself is quite the accomplishment, but to do so in a heads

up assault against one Mat Mladin, well, is pretty darn rare! (For more proof of that you will have to read my previous posts and brush up on your history via some of the other websites

that have more time and can do a much better job of documenting that then I can. But to say

this was a major accomplishment by itself is understating the feat dramatically!)

Congrats to Larry Pegram on his Foremost Insurance/Leo Vince Exhausts Duc for putting it

on the top of the box again, and for giving Ducati that elusive win they haven't seen on U.S.

soil in quite some time! And bravo to you, as well, Mr. Pegram for being able to best the best

that U.S. soil has seen and probably will never see again in one Mr. Mladin! I'm sure your respect level in the paddock, let alone with fans such as myself, has gone up exponentially.

While we celebrate Mr. Pegram's feat--who by the way has raced a variety of road race AND

dirt track races since the early '90s--you can check out the following links from the wonderful

folks at http://www.roadracingworld.com/ and http://www.superbikeplanet.com/ who have supplied us with the results links, and also to the great people at http://www.speedtv.com/ for the nice read on

the race itself:

http://roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=36851

http://superbikeplanet.com/2009/Jun/e/n090607g.htm

http://moto-racing.speedtv.com/article/ama-sbk-pegram/

The shots you view as you are relishing the great win by Larry and Ducati are of Mr.

Pegram at the sprawling Road America track last year during the June AMA round. These

were taken back in the turn 10 area of RA while practice was being run for the then-FX class.

Larry had run that class during the '07 and '08 campaigns on his own team with Foremost and

Leo Vince as his main sponsors while riding a Ducati 848 against the onslaught of the mainly

600, 4 cylinder, inline-based Japanese bikes. This practice session, as you look closely, was

being run as the track was drying after a fairly heavy rain mid-morning on Saturday of the

event. Hence the grooved tires, as they ran race slicks during the dry events and race rain tires

during the wet events. This was NOT a DOT tire class. This was a MINI-Superbike class, ala the name 'FX'--for Formula Extreme, as it were, as the class was named at one time. Larry ran

against the best of the best and was always in the hunt and if my fading memory recalls ended

up ranked 4th overall in class at the end of the '08 campaign. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Again, a major tip o' the hat to Larry and Ducati. And of course, to Mad Mat, as he does retain

the points lead after winning SuperPole and race 1 of the w/e yesterday. Even though he isn't

worried about points. But that is another post for another time.....

God Bless all and have a great week!