2012 World Ducati Week culminates with record breaking attendance

Celebrated at the Misano circuit in Italy, the seventh edition of the World Ducati Week (WDW) held recently attracted Ducatisti from all around the world with a record breaking number of over 65,000 visitors showing up at the iconic race-track to join the annual Ducati festivity. Christened as The Planet of the Champions, the WDW2012 was held over four days starting on 21st June, 2012 and culminating on 24th June, 2012. Over the period, Ducati owners from all across the globe turned up for the WDW in large numbers out of which almost 30 percent participants came from foreign land.

In its seventh year, the event witnessed highest visitor count the WDW has ever had and the gala affair was a grand success with all the participants indulging in the joy of motorcycling. One of the biggest highlights of the WDW2012 was the Drag Race by Tudor event, wherein all the top Ducati racers straddled a Diavel for the drag races in a friendly yet stiff competition. It was the pair of Troy Bayliss and Valentino Rossi that made it to the top with the world superbike legend Bayliss defeating Rossi across the Misano straight in the drag race by mere 0.023 seconds astride the Ducati Diavel. Third place went to Nicky Hayden while Carlos Checa finished in fourth place. Other Ducati racers present at the do included Jakub Smrz, Sylvain Guintoli, Niccolò Canepa and Lorenzo Zanetti.

The evening was kick-started with a spectacular performance by the Ducati All Stars line-up consisting of world class music artists like Steve Jones of Sex Pistols, Duff McKagan from the iconic rock band Guns N’ Roses, Franky Perez of Pusher Jones, Steve Stevens from Billy Idol band, Billy Morrison from the band The Cult and Isaac Carpenter of Loaded. The live gig was concluded with the thousands of Ducati fans being treated with a massive fireworks display over the Riccione beach-front venue. The four day long carnival also offered the fans to mix and share their passion with some more events such as Thursday night’s beach party in Cattolica and Friday night’s “Speed Show” at Misano Adriatico.

Apart from all the fun, the WDW2012 also offered some serious saddle time to the enthusiasts giving the riders the opportunity to be a part of the prestigious Ducati Riding Experience track school with the Troy Bayliss Academy and Master Racing Courses at the Misano circuit and that too astride Ducati’s new flagship, the spunky 1199 Panigale. Audi and Lamborghini added a little extra adrenaline with the former providing WDW-goers the opportunity to passenger the highly desirable R8 LMS and R8 V10 in the capable hands of Audi’s professional drivers.