Desmo on Dirt: Ducati is going motocross racing in 2024
The world’s leader in superbikes — and MotoGP — is about get into motocross, signing on Antonio Cairoli as chief test rider
The rumours have been rampant, the speculation rife: Ducati was working on a dirt bike. Actually, not just a single dirt bike, but an entire series of off-roaders that would challenge the likes of KTM and Husqvarna. As it turns out, it’s all true. “I am proud to announce Ducati’s entry into motocross,” Claudio Domenicali, Ducati’s chief executive officer recently declared. “We want to bring our talent in designing lightweight motorcycles, with excellent components and high performance and – above all – which can excite more and more motorcyclists.”
A few things to note, here. Even though Ducati is best known for its lithe Panigale superbikes and its utter domination of all things road-racing, it does have a history — albeit minuscule — of building knobby-tired dirt bikes, the most notable of which was the mid-’70s 450 R/T, which, no surprise, used the same bevel-driven camshaft technology as its famed road-going cousin, the 750 SS.
Fast-forward 50 or so years, and though those bevel-driven cams have long fallen out of favour, Ducati’s famed desmodromic valve actuation system — which uses two rocker arms and no valve springs — is still very much a going concern (the tech is largely credited for Dukes being the fastest bikes in both World Superbike and MotoGP racing).
Though we know little of what these new motocrossers will look like, or of the exact displacement they will boast, we do know they’ll sport desmo heads. Essentially, that allows for the incredible torque common to all four-stroke singles, with a top-end rush that lesser engines — those still using valve springs — can only envy.
Short of technical details, the big news is that Ducati has signed nine-time world motocross champion Antonio Cairoli as its chief test rider. Considered one of the legends of the sport — right up there with Belgian Roger De Coster — Cairoli is expected to develop the company’s new machines while, according to MCN, eight-time domestic champion Alessandro Lupino will race a (presumably bright red) Ducati next season in the Italian domestic series.
Stay tuned to Driving.ca for updates to this exciting development. If Ducati does to dirt biking what it’s done to road-racing, we could be witnessing the dawn of a new era.