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HEP and Roczen Factory Ducati 25??
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Curious to see if that happens.. he's gelling with the Zuki! I know he rode the triumph on the low low..wonder if he liked it.
He only signed a one year deal with Suzuki and is great mates with Caroli
Seems possible. Likely? No clue.
I think on the moto60 Matthes show they said Ducati has approached a few teams asking if they could take them over. HEP seems like they’ve done a really good job with relatively limited resources and a relatively old bike. The people on that team are making good things happen. If they had a better bike and a lot more money I could see it being a sweet deal for both HEP and Ducati. I wonder though if Ducati would take over and kind of try to yank around the staff at HEP the wrong way. Idk lots of potential upside but also downside. Who knows.
Also it seems like there are rumors of HEP and club shopping around thinking about switching bikes like every year or so.
I also heard a rumour (don't quote me on this) That Ducati have done a deal with Honda to use there chassis with a Ducati motor?
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It seems unlikely to me too, that would be a wild collab with how pitted against each other the two companies, and parent companies, are... But it would explain all the Honda looking frame / plastics pics.
Again I don't think it will be the case, it just doesn't make sense looking in from the outside, but right now the people who actually know are very limited.
I would be shocked if that would be the case. I just can't see that being the case. It would make absolutely zero sense in any way and it would be completely against everything Ducati stands for.
Triumph clearly bought/leased tooling from ktm. It’s not such a crazy idea. Honda will be moving to a new chassis next year. Selling the old one is a new revenue stream.
Ducati is completely different. When it comes to racing engineering they do everything themselves to the very highest spec possible.
It would be a total deviation from their core philosophy if they release their bike based on a generation old Honda, a company that they are competing against.
I just can't see Ducati doing something like that. If they prove me wrong, i'll be incredibly surprised.
You guys are all crazy if you’re seriously considering the possibility of a Honda/Ducati chassis collab. Honda’s handling ranks them in the bottom half of every 450 shootout for the past several years. At the pinnacle of 2 wheel racing (MotoGP), Ducati has absolutely dominated and reduced the once all-powerful Repsol Honda team to a cring worthy running joke so pathetic that Marc Marquez reportedly bought his way out of his massive Honda contract to ride a year old Ducati for free. For a couple years now, Ducati has dominated every form of racing they participate in. I’m quite confident that Ducati is plenty capable of developing their own dirt bike chassis.
The Dookie-ati rumor hes talking about comes from this video
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C2Q9xC_Lquj/?igsh=NTYzOWQzNmJjMA==
Maybe Roczen retires and gets the same job title as caroli but state side for them
HEP signed with Suzuki for 2 years this past off season.
Really hope Ken stays hep suzuki one more year . He is riding to well ATM. Let he go ducati as a retirement,
If the video is accurate in stating that the bike has Nissin brakes, then something hinky is definitely going on. There's no way the new Ducati motocross bike should be running anything but Brembo brakes. It would be like Michael Jordan wearing Adidas.
It's either clever subterfuge, or we're all about to find out we got brand new socks for Christmas. In other words - a major disappointment.
Yes, but HEP is actually two teams. PMG and HEP. So it could technically (not likely) end up HEP Twisted Tea Suzuki and PMG Progressive Ducati.
To be honest, if they aren't already done with such deal, 2025 will be a wash for whomever ends up with the Brand. If you could sign the final deal now, MAYBE, you could be ready to competitively race SX in 2026...
Im sure they can get out of that deal if Ducati wants them.
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Does HEP have the resources to develop a completely new bike? The best thing about the Suzuki is everything has been figured out by a bunch of teams, there’s no R&D surprises.
Exactly. I don't think they're clamoring to be the next Beta.
personally I love that beta has made this pivot to bull blown MX/SX. I'm not sure what the next Beta infers. We haven't even seen a test review yet and the bikes look amazing.
There’s a rumour that Ducati won’t be racing in the US until 2026 anyway, but I think the HEP/Roczen thing makes a ton of sense. They will want to find an existing team to run their racing program in the US and HEP really are the next in line to become a full factory team. They’ve proven themselves to be a race winning effort and capable of having elite riders which Ducati will also want. It works on many levels
If I had to guess, he’s inferring that they’ve DNFed more races than they’ve completed at this point and have failed to qualify for a main event. I would imagine that any team looking to establish themselves as a contender in the sport would not be satisfied with that debut performance.
I’m sure they will improve, but you never get a second chance to make a first impression.
Can’t wait to see Ken throw his Karen tantrums against people on instagram, telling them to blow him as a Ducati team manager.
No, Ken should not be a team manager.
Beta is a good example of how hard it is to develop a bike for pro SX/MX. Pretty plastic and great colors don’t finish/win races. Every time one of the big5 come out with a new design bike it takes an about a half season to get it right, and that’s with established teams working it. I love watching the process play out, it’d be really cool if there was more transparency in the progression though.
Triumph, Beta, Ducati all showing up in moto is awesome!
Totally agree, I wish they had a youtube series fans could follow.
As far as I know, Ducati does not have an US based factory racing entity. They do have a north American headquarters in San Jose, but they would need a shop for the team, trucks, crew, test track, ect. Assuming they want a factory effort, then taking over an existing team would be an option, however long term it would be more cost effective to do it in house.
It could be that they are only looking to be a supplier, and not a full factory team effort.
Think Roczen is going to win a few this season so think the bike would have to be good for him to jump but $ talks.
As an old guy, reading this thread suggesting that a motor/chassis combo from different manufacturers. As this was very popular back in the early MX days here, I was just curious from the legal/rules perspective is that legal? Recall, frame makers in the past typically took the best engines and made frames for specific genres of racing (Flat Track predominantly, Road Racing and MX)
No, not legal since the production rule in 1986.
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