The Circuito De Velocidad De Almeria in the South of Spain packs 15 corners into 2.5 miles of wonderfully undulating pavement unspoiled by the four-wheeled asphalt-rippling behemoths that tear up and scar our tracks here in the States. Despite Spaniard Fernando Alonso's pair of recent Formula 1 car championships, Spain has its priorities straight and does not place motorcycles below cars on the racing circuit pecking order. That's good for Almeria's track surface, but it leaves precious few reference points for track first-timers such as myself to cue off of for plotting precise lines through the circuit's many critical blind corners. I found a pair of near-90-mph, blind-crest righthanders stimulating, to say the least.
As problems go you can do worse than perfectly smooth, virtually unblemished pavement, but it makes getting up to speed quickly quite tricky. With only four 15-minute track sessions available and a handful of quick European journalists who can apparently lap Almeria with their eyes closed, the pressure to uphold American and Sport rider pride was on. What I needed was exactly what Ducati delivered: a capable, agile and forgiving partner.
The fleet of 15 pearlescent white Ducati 848s was exactly what the doctor ordered. Under the self-induced pressure of another international-journalist Grand Prix, most of my peers were similarly pushing their personal comfort envelopes, and had any one of the many key factors of engine, chassis, brake or tire performance been out of balance, the paddock would have been packed with wrinkled brows and muttered complaints. Instead we're all grinning like fools and chattering like gleeful chipmunks.
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