Track Spec

We check out a very special Ducati 1199R

Walking through the Cadwell Park paddock on a cold spring morning, I couldn’t help but notice the fluorescent orange 1199 Panigale R gleaming in the sun. These bikes are quite a rare sight in the trackday paddock, and this one certainly stood out from the rest. As you’ll get to find out, there is a lot more to this bike than first meets the eye. Darren Mayne, from Grimsby, is the owner of this beautiful bike and, as it turns out, he’s probably the biggest trackday addict I’ve ever met. I thought I had a busy riding schedule, but Darren has 25 track days planned this year, covering most of the tracks across the UK. Although he’s been riding bikes since the age of 15, trackdays have only been a recent affair, starting about five years ago. He’s already bagged around 100 days... and there’s no sign of him stopping any time soon.

As you can see, this isn’t your average 1199 Panigale R and its history is way more interesting than I could have hoped – it is better travelled than I am. This beast was built by the Barni Racing World Superbike team and raced by Niccolò Canepa in the European Superstock 1000 series in 2013, finishing the championship in second place.

So how did a 59-year-old from Grimsby end up with it? Darren found the bike online, but it was in France.

Thanks to the trusty old Google translate, he communicated with the owner (who didn’t speak a word of English) and organised collection just after Christmas.

As I’m sure you can imagine, with it being an ex-race bike, pretty much all bases have been covered when it comes to the spec – albeit a superstock spec. It’s hard to know exactly what remains true to the 2013 race-winning machine, but putting that aside, it’s pretty decent.

The motor has been hand-built with titanium rods and pistons, and it also has a lightened crank, meaning it spins up super-quick and produces a whopping 202bhp and 115 ft-lb torque – sounds like a right weapon!

Of course, the big Duke is fitted with Italian suspension; a Matris Suspension cartridge kit in the forks, and a Matris rear shock which works alongside the fully adjustable swingarm pivot. Darren tells me he’d been having some instability with the rocket ship around Cadwell Park, and a small change to the swingarm pivot had dramatically improved the handling. Lightech rear sets are the choice of footpegs, and these work together with the HM Quickshifter. As far as cockpits go, this one is pretty trick. It’s got all of the play station controls bolted onto the racing clip-ons and, as you’d expect, it has a quick-action throttle and remote adjuster front brake. This is all tied together nicely with a CNC top yoke. The bike uses a standard dash and loom which would have been in keeping with the now-deceased European STK1000 championship regulations. Darren’s choice of tyres are Metzeler Racetec TD slicks, fitted to lightweight Magnesium OZ wheels, and when it comes to stopping, he can rely on his Brembo discs and HPK 4 billet calipers to get the job done.

The standard dash bracket and subframe has been replaced by Motoholder parts. These not only reduced the weight of the bike but, in the event of a crash, are much cheaper to replace then the standard Ducati parts. Since we mention crashing, Darren tells me in around 100 track days he hasn’t hit the floor (yet). That’s not bad going for a fast group rider... I just hope I haven’t jinxed him!