Beschreibung:

This machine was built around one of the last 750cc TT Formula 1 race-engines to leave the Ducati factory. The engine was supplied to Tony Rutter, who had it housed in a Harris aluminium beam frame equipped with WP suspension and AP Racing brakes. Rutter went on to campaign the completed machine at the 1988 and 1989 Isle of Man TT races and also achieved a 6th place at Monza in 1991 and a 4th at Assen, on both occasions competing against works machinery. Tony Rutter’s association with Ducati had begun back in 1981 when he rode a Sports Motor Cycles-entered, Pantah-based prototype in the Isle of Man TT Formula 2 race, winning first time out and going on to take that year’s F2 World Championship. Riding a works-entered Pantah for 1982, he won all three rounds of the F2 Championship to take the title for a second time. Tony Rutter would go on to win the F2 World Championship in 1983 and ’84 and looked set for a fifth consecutive title when he was seriously injured in a crash at Montjuich Park, Spain in 1985. He returned to racing in 1987 but never reached his former heights. Riding this Harris Ducati in the 1988 Formula 1 TT he posted a ‘DNF’, which was followed by 36th in the 1989 event. By this time the twin-cylinder Ducati was hopelessly outclassed (the 1988 and ’89 races were won by Honda RC30s) and little better could reasonably have been expected of it. During 1992, Tony’s son Michael raced the Harris Ducati in the UK’s ‘Battle of the Twins’ series, finishing 2nd in the championship following wins at Mallory Park, Cadwell Park and Pembrey. In 1996 Tony Rutter sold the Harris Ducati to John Spencer (the current vendor) who continued its success on the Continent with rides at Assen, the Salzburgring and Oschersleben, finishing 2nd in the ‘Sound of Thunder’ series and winning the ‘All England Club Championship’ in 1997. The Harris Ducati has been in storage for the past 12 years and we are advised that it only needs sympathetic re-commissioning to make it race ready once again. Its tank signed by Tony Rutter, the machine comes with Tony’s letter of authentication and Sports Motor Cycles proprietor Steve Wynne’s emailed confirmation of its origins. In addition, two sets of wheels, a complete set of sprockets and a fairing mould are included in the sale. A rare opportunity to acquire a Ducati racing motorcycle with in-period competition history, ridden by a celebrated former World Champion.