1969 Ducati: The Duchess of Speed

The father who gets his son interested in cars is a storyline that we love to hear but have heard more times than we can count. It’s less often that we come across a young woman who races motorcycles. After hanging off the side of her father’s 1968 BMW sidecar shortly after getting her license, Marja Elisat began racing motorcycles. And though she enjoys life as a student, she is often busy on the weekends at the race track or to be found at home working on the family’s collection of vintage bikes, like the1969 single-cylinder 350cc Ducati racing machine featured in today’s video. Her father Stephan used to race it when he was younger, and now with a freshly-rebuilt 350cc sheathed behind the flowing fairing, it has become something of an evolving motorsport heirloom. It’s been modified over its life, now featuring an Italian-made racing frame and a special drum brake setup to complement the revitalized heart. The engine feeds a unique dry clutch, and is fed by a 40mm Dell’Orto carburetor, and with the