A factory-built Ducati racing motorcycle from one of the most consequential days in the company’s history is going to public auction for the first time.
The 1972 Ducati 750 Imola Racer, listed as Lot S121, is scheduled to cross the block Saturday, Aug. 15, at the Monterey 2026 sale. It carries frame number DM750S751110 and will be sold on a bill of sale.
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The bike is one of only eight such machines Ducati built and one of seven the factory hauled to the inaugural Imola 200 in the spring of 1972. The team arrived in a glass-sided Fiat transporter with the silver, metalflake works racers arranged for the crowd to see, a rolling advertisement for a company betting heavily on its new 750cc desmodromic L-twin.
The bet paid off. Riders Paul Smart and Bruno Spaggiari broke away from the field and finished first and second, more than 20 seconds clear of the rider behind them. The result launched a racing reputation Ducati still trades on more than half a century later.
Records compiled by Ducati historian and author Ian Falloon identify this machine as one of two prepared for Smart at Imola, likely serving as his backup, though a teammate may also have been assigned to it. Falloon inspected and authenticated the motorcycle, and two of his reports are included in the sale.
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Falloon considers it the most original surviving example apart from Smart’s winning bike, which Ducati gave the rider after the race and which now sits in the Museo Ducati in Bologna, Italy. The two motorcycles shared museum floor space there for three years. This one also spent time on display at the Nürburgring Rennsport Museum in the 1990s.
The racer has never been crashed, altered or modified. It keeps its original fairing, fuel tank, seat and tail section, and it is one of just three left with its original engine cases. Restoration work was carried out by a professional Ducati specialist in Germany, who documented the process with photographs, parts lists and written notes. Period images and technical records accompany the bike.
Power comes from the 748cc L-twin paired with a five-speed manual gearbox. The finish is silver, as it was at Imola.
No previous example from that seven-bike group has been offered publicly.
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Images Via: Mecum
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