BARNI DUCATI 1199 PANIGALE R SUPERSTOCK
RACER TEST
NORMAL
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BY ALAN CATHCART
PHOTOGRAPHY BY KEL EDGE
A
rgentinian rider Leandro Mercado's
nail-biting last-race last-lap champi-
onship win on the Barni Ducati in the
2014 FIM Superstock 1000 Series (which
was run as a World Superbike support class)
is a significant milestone in more ways than
one.
For not only is this the first major champi-
onship title won by Ducati's revolutionary new
1199 Panigale model since its launch three
years ago when it tore up the existing matrix
for making a desmo V-twin, but it's also the
first FIM four-stroke road race title ever won
by a South American rider. It's also the first
of any kind for a South American rider since
Venezuelan Carlos Lavado won the second of
his two 250 GP World titles in 1986. As such,
it has significant commercial importance for
Ducati, with the Italian manufacturer focus-
ing ever more strongly on expanding its fast-
growing Latin American sales operation—you
could practically hear the shouts of exultation
in the Ducati boardroom when hapless Kawa-
saki ZX-10R rider Lorenzo Salvadori crashed
on the last lap of the last race of the season
while coasting to the title in the Magny-Cours
downpour, to hand the title to his Argentinian
rival. This title win will surely be worth many
orders for desmo V-twins down South Amer-
ica way, thanks to a Latino rider resuming
normal service again for Ducati in winning the
FIM Superstock title that it won three years
in succession from 2007 to 2008, and again
in 2011.
So if at first you don't succeed, try, try, and
try again, for the Barni Ducati team's 2014
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