Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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CN III ARCHIVES BY LARRY LAWRENCE I t would not be exaggerating to say that Eraldo Fer- racci had a huge influence that led to a new era of V-Twin-dominated superbike racing of the mid-1990s to early 2000s. Ferracci Ducatis became so dominant in both AMA and World Superbike, that at least a couple of the Japanese makers felt compelled to reply by de- signing their own V-Twin-powered su- perbikes. The V-Twin-powered Honda RC51 and the Suzuki TL1000R were direct responses by Japanese makers to Ducati superbikes that Ferracci first made competitive. Pete Johnson's success in the Pro Twins GP2 class gave Ferracci his first success in AMA Pro road racing, but the big breakthrough came in 1988 when Dale Quarterley won the Pro Twins (aka Battle of the Twins) Championship on a Fast by Fer- racci (FBF) Ducati 851. Ducati sent Ferracci one of the first 851s and ulti- mately wanted him to race it in superbike. "We got the motorcycle at my shop and it was stock," Ferracci recalls. "We found it only had 90 horsepower. I thought, 'Holy shit, we've got a lot of work to do.' The deal was I could not screw with the fuel injection. The factory wanted to make sure we used it. I think we got the horsepower up to 105-106, but I told the factory, to win, I needed to be able to get all the parts and electronics or forget about it. It was a little bit of a struggle, but finally they agreed and told me just to keep them up to date with what I was doing." Ferracci upped the ante in 1989 when Quarterley began racing the FBF Ducati in the AMA Superbike class. The Ducati was still considered an underdog against the Japanese-built superbikes, but Quarter- ley scored a pair of podium finishes on the bike that season, including a solid runner-up finish to Yoshimura Suzuki's Jamie James at Loudon. Ferracci was still perfecting the Ducati 851 as a su- perbike and reliability was sometimes an issue, but he and his crew gradually found weak points and fixed them and the bike became ever more competitive. Jamie James raced the FBF Ducati in 1990 (wearing the number-one plate he'd won by scoring the AMA Superbike title the season before with Yoshimura Suzuki). James continued to score podiums for the team, but victory remained elusive. Ferracci Ducati went on the world stage in world superbike and James led races and finished on the podium three times. "Jamie could have won a couple of those world su- perbike races," Ferracci claims. "But Ducati wanted us to help them win the championship, so he let Raymond Roche by a couple of times." Ferracci Ducati's period of dominance began in 1991. That year Ducati launched its legendary 888 and hired Doug Polen to race for the squad. An indication of how well Polen and the Ducati 888 meshed came in pre-season AMA testing at Daytona, where Polen shattered the track record. Ferracci knew he could beat the Japanese makers in the AMA Superbike Championship, but even Ducati bosses in Italy were skeptical. "They told me I was dreaming," Ferracci smiles. P104 ERALDO FERRACCI: LAST OF AN ERA - PART 2 Ferracci, Troy Corser and Ducati celebrate another championship.