Lap after lap he pulled away from the competition, setting times with metronome-like consistency, and at just 23 years old, Fabio Quartararo made winning a MotoGP race look easy last weekend. It’s a young man’s game that’s for sure and the exclusive domain of a rare few, so how do you get your track fix when you’re more than double Fabio’s age? Historic racing provides the perfect opportunity for many and if you’re in the US of A, that means competing in AHRMA sanctioned events. This here carbon-clad Ducati started life as a 2007 Paul Smart 1000 LE, that was mildly modified for racing until things got really out of hand in the best possible way and it’s now a picture-perfect pony that is literally always on the podium.
A lifelong biker, the owner of this machine spent the early years of his life building a very successful family business, that only went from strength to strength. So, at the age of 56, it was time to enjoy a weekend hobby and he combined his love of motorcycles with a trip to Champ School to learn to race on the track. Keeping a close eye on the local AHRMA (American Historic Racing Motorcycle Association) events, he realised that buying a 2007 1000 LE would allow him to run in three separate classes; now that’s a good day out!
To get the bike ready for the track it was handed over to Chris Boy of Moto Corse Performance out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, who would get it ready and use his immense experience to ensure it met all the rules and was as safe as possible. With the stock engine still in the chassis, it was off to the track where the bike performed flawlessly, thrilled the owner, and managed to bring home a number of podium finishes. But, as it always does, the bug had bitten and hard, so inspired by the legends at NCR, it was time to turn this relatively stock machine into a full-blown race weapon with all of the best parts.
The Sports Classic derived engine was never going to cut it, so it was swapped out and in went a fully built Ducati Evo motor. It was put together by world renowned L-Twin mechanic Phil Seiberlich, formerly with the Fast By Ferraci race team. The capacity has been pumped out to 1140cc with the help of a set of Pistal Racing pistons and 1198 bearings. To get the air in and out of the engine, the heads are SBM Engineering units and the intakes have been switched for Moto Corse’s own large volume units with big pod filters.
The exhaust is a huge part of both gaining extra power and shedding weight and a full titanium system is built by Ron Mangus, a highly experienced fabricator. To keep things cool nothing less than an NCR oil-cooler kit was selected and a host of Moto Corse’s own parts thrown at the engine. The clutch is upgraded and then an interesting choice was made for the ECU, an Australian Microtech was wired in, the ECU of choice in the Rotary engine world. To get the fuelling spot on, it was onto the dyno for Larry Zullo to work his magic and the gain is around 40hp over the stock setup.
With the power now taken care of, it was time to bring the handling up to scratch, and inspiration from NCR turned into a large order from their catalogue. At the front end, it’s as good as it gets, with the forks a pair of Ohlins units that are built to NCR spec, including custom valving. These slot through NCR triple clamps which are off-set to get the geometry spot on and all of the fasteners are titanium. The rear shock is a fully adjustable Ohlins unit that controls the original Paul Smart spec swingarm.
When it comes to braking there really is only one choice and NCR lower legs allow for the fitment of Brembo radial calipers and twin discs front, and an underslung single at the rear. The controls are from all the best brands you’d expect, adjustable billet rearsets from CFMotorsports, a mix of Brembo and Accossato master cylinders and levers, and an SP race shifter to slam through the gears. The wheels complete the rolling chassis and start the pornographic good looks, ultra-lightweight BST carbon fibre items for seriously low unsprung weight.
The rest of the bodywork is carbon fibre too, the tank and tail section are beautifully made to mirror the look of the original Paul Smart Limited-Edition machine. The front half-fairing takes plenty of inspiration from the original PM of the ’70s, with the engine left exposed to allow the cooling air to flow over its fins. The bike is then finished out with an AIM digital dash to display all the vitals and a set of Pirelli Diablo race slicks.
So how well was the bike built, “I am trusting my life to this machine, why would I leave anything up to chance?” the owner exclaims. And so dominant is its performance that it’s finished on the podium in every AHRMA race start its had, now that’s a hell of a way to get that winning Fabio feeling.