WHILE the MotoGP riders were getting ready for action in Spain, on the other side of the Atlantic history was being made in the United States.
A Ducati won an AMA dirt-track national championship race.
It was at the Yavapai Downs Mile in Prescott, Arizona, that Washington rider Joe Kopp raced to the chequered flag on his Lloyd Brothers Motorsports Ducati to victory, drafting past Sammy Halbert's Harley-Davidson XR750 to win by just 0.024 of a second after 20 laps. Kopp's win ended a streak of 134 consecutive race wins by Harley-Davidson in Grand National Twins racing.
The last non-Harley victory in a Grand National Twins race was on August 8, 1998 when Rich King won the Joliet Half Mile on a Honda. The last non-Harley win on a Mile was on September 5, 1993 when the late Ricky Graham won the Springfield Mile on a Honda RS750 V-twin.