Ducati 850 NCR

The ex-Pete Johnson, Dale Quarterley 1987 & 1988 AMA Pro Twins GP2 Ducati

It was in 1985 the American road racer Pete Johnson bought a Ducati 750TT F1 from Steve Wynn's Sports Motorcycles in Manchester, UK. (Steve Wynn was the UK's go-to Ducati specialist who engineered Mike Hailwood's return – as in win - to the Isle of Man TT on the big bevel Ducati). Already this bike was 'special' because it came with a 'factory' NCR 750 air-cooled, 2-valve desmodromic motor built around un-stamped NCR crankcases but NCR stamped cylinder heads. Within came an NCR close ratio gearbox and clutch.

This two-valve motor was installed in a top quality custom bronze welded Harris Performance (brothers Lester and Steve's Hertford, north of London, shop) Reynolds steel tube frame including aluminum foot pegs, levers, etc. and a Verlicchi aluminum swing arm. The forks were Marzocchi M1R, the rear shock from Dutch specialists White Power (its name changing to WP somewhat later). The latest Brembo brakes were front and back, 280mm discs and 4-pot racing calipers, and 260mm disc and 4-pot fully floating rear caliper, respectively. Veglia supplied a 'race' tachometer. On paper it was just right; on the track it proved itself to be right 'on the docket'. Late in 1985 it was taken to the Fast by Ferracci's shop in (Roslyn, Pennsylvania) where it was bored out to 850cc to take Eraldo Ferracci-designed 92mm Arias pistons. The heads were ported, the valves enlarged to 44mm inlet and 39mm exhaust, and added was a long stroke (64mm) NCR crankshaft (reputedly one of only ten) and titanium rods. 41.5mm flat-slide Mikunis replaced the Dell'Ortos. Seventeen inch Mavic wheels replaced the 'stock' 18-inch.

Pete Johnson won the 1987 AMA Pro-Twins GP2 championship, on this bike – this being the first of many podium results for Ferracci upon his return to motorcycle road racing. Ferracci bought the bike from Johnson the following year and used it as a test mule alongside the new water cooled, four-valve 851 as it was being sorted as race bike. Ferracci's rider was one Dale Quarterley, a road racing 'hard man', who won the AMA Pro Twins GP2 series that year on this bike, too.

By 1989 Jeff Nash (prominent Ducati dealer in Dallas, Texas) had bought the bike and raced it successfully in his native New Zealand. Two years later it was bought by another Jeff, Jeff Knewstubb, who had connections with John Britten and his crew, and campaigned it for the next four years, still in New Zealand, with the best result being at the F1 round of the Bears 'Sound of Thunder' in 1994 ridden by Loren Poole. The bike then sat idle until 2012 when it was purchased by Jeff's father and a sympathetic restoration started. The whole bike was carefully dismantled and rebuilt – as much patina as could be saved was saved – and it was brought back to its 'as raced' by Scuderia Nostalgica's Pete Johnson livery. Auto Restorations of Christchurch – a shop with a huge portfolio of award winning cars - did the painting, Mike Brosnan undertook the final check through and first start up - Brosnan had built the John Britten dynamometer – and perhaps it was no surprise that this Ducati ran 115bhp at the rear wheel!