Over the last few days I've been talking to people within and around the Caracchi team about the bikes, in particular the Imola winning bike. This post is partly to share this information and partly to share some of the photos I have been given of this stunning bike.
BTW, as always, I have tried to get authority to reproduce photos here, or at least to give them proper attribution. If you are the copyright owner of any photographs or information that is reproduced here and want it withdrawn, please email me at the above address.
Sometime at the end of 2004, Ducati Corse decided not to run the 749 in WSS as a Factory team. Whether this was due to being too thinly stretched over MotoGp, WSB and WSS or due to lack of results, I don't know, but Stefano Caracchi took over as the Ducati representative in WSS. As stated before, Caracchi is the son of the C in NCR - synonymous with Ducati Corse in the early years.
Caracchi took the bikes, lots of spares and Lanzi as the Factory contracted rider. Three bikes went to the new race team: I believe one Lanzi bike was sold directly to an individual, two Breil bikes went to Caracchi, a third, brand new (December 2004) bike was built at Corse and went to Carrachi. If there was another (two bikes for Lanzi, and I'm presuming two for Guareschi), maybe it went to the Selmat team for Jurgen Van den Goorbergh or Andrea Berta. Maybe it's still out there somewhere.
In 2006, Caracchi bought two 749Rs from Ducati and converted them with new parts to race spec. One was ridden by Stuart Easton when he went from BSB with JHP to replace Nannelli, who was racing in WSB to replace Chili.
The 2004 race bikes were taken directly from the production line and converted by Corse to race spec. The paper trail for both the Breil bike I have and the Dec '04 bike clearly show 'MOTO UTILLIZATA IN COMPETIZIONE' - used in competition. The Ducati factory confirms that the '06 bike I have was sold to Caracchi. If you're lucky enough to have a 749R, it's as close to a race bike as it's possible to get. Yours was created on the same production line as the Breil bike above.
Enough looking at that Breil bike: on with the show.
So, Scuderia Caracchi had Nannelli and Lanzi, the Factory contracted rider on 749Rs. Lanzi moved from Super Sports to Super Bikes, leaving Caracchi with just one rider for '04 - Nannelli.
Nannelli finished the season in eighth. Charpentier dominated, taking six of the twelve rounds. Fujiwara was third with two wins. The remaining four top spots were shared between four riders, with Nannelli taking the win at a wet Imola in October.
The Imola bike is interesting in that it won a race (the only R to win at this level?) and that it was in a custom paint scheme specifically for this race, based on Paul Smart's bike. I believe the designer for this silver scheme is the same guy who paints or at least designs Rossi's helmets.
Some of the following pictures are available on http://www.gianlucanannelli.it )have a look if you haven't seen it - Gianluca is known as Conan for reasons that will become obvious!) but I have never seen them at this resolution (click to enlarge) before - thanks to Mirko!
These final two are by the famous photographer Fabio Grandi who very kindly shared them with us.
This last photo shows Nannelli returning to the pits after winning the race. You can almost feel the adrenaline - smell and hear the bike. The lucky guys who were present are still talking about the party afterwards!
The following are scans of the Italian magazine, moto tecnica. It has one of the most complete descriptions of the 749R race bike that I have seen. Unfortunately, my Italian stops at 'birra, pizza, grazie'... Nessun fretta!
These are some of the best photos I've seen of these race bikes. The pictures of the electronics on page 75 clearly show the kit ECU behind the two (blue) lambda controllers and the data acquisition unit. If you have a moment, go back to the 996 Rapp bike: this has similar kit, but in one big box under the seat, rather than two n the fairing. To me, it clearly shows the application of WSB technology to the WSS bikes. When you compare a Corse 749 to a 996 or 998, there's not a lot of difference in technology.
On the last picture here, we can see the 57 Lanzi WSB 999F05.
BTW, as always, I have tried to get authority to reproduce photos here, or at least to give them proper attribution. If you are the copyright owner of any photographs or information that is reproduced here and want it withdrawn, please email me at the above address.
Sometime at the end of 2004, Ducati Corse decided not to run the 749 in WSS as a Factory team. Whether this was due to being too thinly stretched over MotoGp, WSB and WSS or due to lack of results, I don't know, but Stefano Caracchi took over as the Ducati representative in WSS. As stated before, Caracchi is the son of the C in NCR - synonymous with Ducati Corse in the early years.
Caracchi took the bikes, lots of spares and Lanzi as the Factory contracted rider. Three bikes went to the new race team: I believe one Lanzi bike was sold directly to an individual, two Breil bikes went to Caracchi, a third, brand new (December 2004) bike was built at Corse and went to Carrachi. If there was another (two bikes for Lanzi, and I'm presuming two for Guareschi), maybe it went to the Selmat team for Jurgen Van den Goorbergh or Andrea Berta. Maybe it's still out there somewhere.
In 2006, Caracchi bought two 749Rs from Ducati and converted them with new parts to race spec. One was ridden by Stuart Easton when he went from BSB with JHP to replace Nannelli, who was racing in WSB to replace Chili.
The 2004 race bikes were taken directly from the production line and converted by Corse to race spec. The paper trail for both the Breil bike I have and the Dec '04 bike clearly show 'MOTO UTILLIZATA IN COMPETIZIONE' - used in competition. The Ducati factory confirms that the '06 bike I have was sold to Caracchi. If you're lucky enough to have a 749R, it's as close to a race bike as it's possible to get. Yours was created on the same production line as the Breil bike above.
Enough looking at that Breil bike: on with the show.
So, Scuderia Caracchi had Nannelli and Lanzi, the Factory contracted rider on 749Rs. Lanzi moved from Super Sports to Super Bikes, leaving Caracchi with just one rider for '04 - Nannelli.
Nannelli finished the season in eighth. Charpentier dominated, taking six of the twelve rounds. Fujiwara was third with two wins. The remaining four top spots were shared between four riders, with Nannelli taking the win at a wet Imola in October.
The Imola bike is interesting in that it won a race (the only R to win at this level?) and that it was in a custom paint scheme specifically for this race, based on Paul Smart's bike. I believe the designer for this silver scheme is the same guy who paints or at least designs Rossi's helmets.
Some of the following pictures are available on http://www.gianlucanannelli.it )have a look if you haven't seen it - Gianluca is known as Conan for reasons that will become obvious!) but I have never seen them at this resolution (click to enlarge) before - thanks to Mirko!
These final two are by the famous photographer Fabio Grandi who very kindly shared them with us.
The following are scans of the Italian magazine, moto tecnica. It has one of the most complete descriptions of the 749R race bike that I have seen. Unfortunately, my Italian stops at 'birra, pizza, grazie'... Nessun fretta!
These are some of the best photos I've seen of these race bikes. The pictures of the electronics on page 75 clearly show the kit ECU behind the two (blue) lambda controllers and the data acquisition unit. If you have a moment, go back to the 996 Rapp bike: this has similar kit, but in one big box under the seat, rather than two n the fairing. To me, it clearly shows the application of WSB technology to the WSS bikes. When you compare a Corse 749 to a 996 or 998, there's not a lot of difference in technology.
On the last picture here, we can see the 57 Lanzi WSB 999F05.
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