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THE
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event. His 2-2 beat out Bowers' 1-5 and McDade's
5-1 for the overall victory.
On night two, Bowers rebounded with a sweep.
The Babbitt's Monster Energy/AMSOIL Kawasaki
rider won both motos for the overall victory, putting
him into the points lead after the first round.
Ames went 2-7, while Mosites Motorsports Kawasaki's McDade followed up his weekend with a
3-2.
In the Lites division, McDade captured the win
Friday night and Ticketwow Honda's Michael Lang
Saturday night.
EUROFILE: TWO TO FOUR
F
rom two wheels to four. Five
months after completing the
sale of Ducati to VAG/Volkswagen Audi Group for a sum now
revealed to be Euro 747 million,
the Italian sportbike company's
former majority owner has now
bought a chunk of British luxury
sportscar manufacturer Aston Martin.
Italian private equity fund Investindustrial
(www.investindustrial.com),
which with Euro 3.2
billion invested in
companies located
in 13 countries with
a total of 42,000
employees claims
to be the largest
such
investment
group in southern
Europe, has purchased a 37.5 percent shareholding in Aston Martin from the firm's
Kuwaiti owners, Investment Dar.
As well as spending £150 million
to buy this stake, Investindustrial
has committed to investing a total
of £500 million in new products in
five tranches of £100 million each
over the next five years – exactly
the same strategy it and its minor-
ity partners BS Investimenti, and
the Canadian Hospitals of Ontario Pension Plan fund, adopted at
Ducati via the creation of the Multistrada 1200, Diavel, Panigale,
etc.
Aston Martin's turnover fell 19
percent to £305 million in 2012
as it sold just 2520 cars, 20 percent fewer than the year before,
and well below pre-recessionary
levels of more than 7000 cars
built annually at its Gaydon, Warwickshire factory just 25 miles
from the Silverstone GP circuit.
The deal will accelerate product development and international expansion at Aston Martin,
which in 2013 celebrates its 100th
birthday. About 70 percent of its
1600-strong workforce's annual
production is currently exported,
but while the company has been
expanding in the key Chinese
market over the last 18 months,
the full benefit of that
has yet to be felt.
"Aston Martin is
an iconic global, but
quintessentially British brand," said Andrea Bonomi, 47, who
founded Investindustrial in 1990 and still
heads up its operations. "We are looking
forward to achieving a
similar transformation
and rejuvenation with it
that we achieved with
Ducati, by expanding its model
range and strengthening its dealership network throughout the
world."
Bonomi will take one of the
four seats on the nine-man Aston
Martin board that have been accorded to Investindustrial under
the terms of the purchase.
Alan Cathcart
